Judge Sinclair Wants Flogging Forbidden at Convict Camps, Aug. 4, 1925

Judge Sinclair Anxious to Stop Flogging. . . Refers to the Conditions at Rocky Mount Camp as Being the Rule

“My chief concern is to abolish flogging,” says Judge N.A. Sinclair of Fayetteville in a letter to the newly organized Prison Reform Association.

“I am in the fight for prison reform, and do not care to complicate my campaign with other questions, but my services are fully at your command to the extent of my strength and ability in the effort to modernize and humanize prison conditions in North Carolina.

“My chief concern is to abolish flogging. I am satisfied that the conditions that existed at Rocky Mount are the rule and not the exception in county convict camps. But in addition to flogging, prison conditions are intolerable as to sanitation, want of cleanliness, sleeping conditions, overwork, etc. Then we have a statute that every prisoner within 18 hours after commitment shall be examined by a physician. This ought to be changed to six hours. I have found this law a dead letter practically everywhere.

“There is an enormous amount of work to be done—educating the public—and your association must be depended on to do it. In the meantime I shall be glad to be an humble worker in the cause and place myself unreservedly at your command.”

From page 6 of The Carolina Jeffersonian, Durham, N.C., Aug. 4, 1925

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073001/1925-08-04/ed-1/seq-6/