Prison Guards Need to be Allowed to Flog, Shoot Inmates, Argues Editor, June 25, 1925

Some newspaper was lambasting the management of one of the prison camps because a guard shot two escaping prisoners. It does look hard for a prisoner to lose his life in an attempt to escape. Yet if those making the attempt are allowed to go unscathed because the guards cannot run them down and master them with their naked hands, it is evident that there would soon be no convicts to guard. If guards are not expected to shoot, they should not be allowed to have guns. The problem of managing convicts, we judge, is a more difficult one when it is viewed close up than it may appear from a distance. Judge Sinclair, for instance, announces that flogging in convict camps must cease. But what is the boss to do when a big burly fellow refuses absolutely to work?

From the editorial page of The Chatham Record, Pittsboro, N.C., Thursday, June 25, 1925

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