The Chain Gang System
The county chain gang as it commonly exists in North
Carolina today is a blot on our civilization, says R.E. Boyd of Gastonia in his
report to the North Carolina club at the University, at the meeting called to
hear the recommendations of the public welfare committee on reconstruction work
in jails, penitentiaries, and chain gangs.
The county chain gang is a primitive plan for punishing
misdemeanants by county authorities, Mr. Boyd continued. It is unavoidably
crude, often cruel, and invariably degrading. It effectually hinders the reform
of prisoners and their restitution to society as useful citizens. It should be
abolished.
Prison Farm
Recommended
Specific recommendations by the welfare committee, of which
T.J. Brawley of Gastonia is chairman, included the abolition of county
chain-gang system, of the convict lease system, of turnkey fees, and food
allowances to sheriffs on the present basis. In their place the state prison
farm was recommended for misdemeanants and felony convicts alike, together with
compensation to the families of the prisoners. Emphasis was placed on the
indeterminate sentence, probation and parole. The establishment of vocational
schools was urged for all prisoners in care of the state. It is the job of the
state to punish and reform, said Mr. Boyd. It is possible to the state, but
impossible to local authorities.
The committee also recommended that some state body, such as
the state board of public health or a public welfare should inspect the county
jails at frequent intervals and report conditions to the judges of the circuit
courts, the judge to have power to enforce improvements and to send prisoners
to another county jail when the jail in the home county is indecently unfit.
New Policies
Special emphasis was laid by the committee on the success of
the prison farm plan for misdemeanants in Indiana. The penitentiary and farm
for felony convicts in North Carolina is doing well, said Mr. Boyd, but its
usefulness could be increased by the institution of a few new polices. Among these
were mentioned greater attention to the diversification of crops and the care
of livestock, compensation to the prisoners’ families, and the teaching of farm
trades, such as blacksmithing, farm mechanics, plumbing, orcharding and
trucking, buttermaking and poultry farming.
--Lenoir Chambers
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