CONVICT LABOR FOLl KOAD WORK. 3 
LEASE SYSTEM. 
Under this system the State disposes of its convicts to private 
lessees, who agree to become responsible for guarding, clothing, feed- 
ing, transporting, and giving medical attention to the convicts under 
rules specified by the State. The lessees provide steady employment 
for the convicts and pay to the State an agreed amount, the State 
providing for adequate inspection to insure enforcement of its rules. 
This system, formerly widely practiced, has been abandoned in all 
States except Florida, and exists there in only a modified form. It 
is therefore unnecessary to set forth its intrinsic defects. 
CONTRACT SYSTEM. 
Under this system the State sells the labor of the convicts, but does 
not relinquish its care or control. As generally practiced, the State 
maintains an institution and guards, feeds, clothes, and houses the 
convicts, and provides medical attention, while the contractor sup- 
plies the raw material, superintends the work, and pays a stipulated 
amount per capita for the labor. This system is now practiced in 
whole or in part by the following 18 States: Alabama, Connecticut, 
Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, 1 
New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, 
Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 
The contract system is an advance over the lease system, as the 
contractor assumes the responsibility for profit and loss, the State 
is assured a definite income, and the interests of the prisoners are 
safeguarded by the prison officials. There is, however, a tendency to 
conflict of interests and responsibility between the representatives of 
the contractor and of the State. In addition, a most powerful objec- 
tion to the contract system is advanced by organized labor and by 
manufacturers, to the effect that its product comes into direct com- 
petition with the product of free labor. 
PIECE-PRICE SYSTEM. 
This system differs from the contract system only in the manner 
of payment for and supervision of the work. The contractor, 
instead of paying for the labor of the convicts, pays an agreed amount 
for each piece or article manufactured. Usually under this system 
the State supervises the work, but this is sometimes done by the 
contractor. Under the former plan the prison officials must possess 
ability to manage the industrial as well as the penal features of the 
work. At present this system is practiced in whole or in part in 
Alabama, Connecticut, New Jersey, 2 and Rhode Island. 
1 The contract system is now being discarded in Nebraska in favor of the State-employment plan, and 
experiments are being made with road and farm work. 
2 The piece-price system was abolished in New Jersey by act of the legislature in 1911, but no fund was 
provided for any other system, hence it is still in force on a day-to-day basis. 
