Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Move Men from Chain Gangs to Prison Farms, March 10, 1920

From the University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., March 10, 1920

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


No comments:

Post a Comment