IV. Advantages and Abuses of Southern Penal Systems

The Arena (Apr. 1901) Vol. XXV: pp. 419-428

There can be no doubt that Southern penal laws are un-equally administered. In some instances this encourages crime, as where there is collusion between lawyers and magistrates. A negress asks a lawyer how much it will cost her to whip Laura Brown, against whom she has a grievance. He goes to the justice and arranges that the fine shall be $10. She is cautioned not to carry any weapons, or do any "cutting"; and if her grievance is equal to the sum named, she administers the whipping and is fined according to contract.

The office of justice is shunned by the better class of men, and few honest persons accept it. The salary is small, and the rule is: no conviction, no fee for either justice or jurors. This is a direct bribe for conviction. There is often small chance for appeal, as most negroes cannot secure the $100 bond required. Justices and constables are often in collusion. A constable will give a negro called a "striker" money to go out and play craps. He is informed when and where the striker will gather his crowd, and then swoops down upon them. The striker gets a dividend after the constable and justice have their share. When a man cannot pay his fine, he goes to the county farm or on the road gang, where he works out his fine at the rate of about thirty cents a day. In any case the county gains through his conviction, while in the North it is often the loser. In the rural districts there is not so much fraud. If a striker appears, or the justice comes down and fines a number of a planter's negroes during the busy season, they are reasonably certain to get horsewhipped for their untimely interest in justice. The planter has little respect for the justice. Negro justices are less fair than the whites, and they are often unwisely chosen. There are but few of them remaining.

The following incidents illustrate their methods. A negro was tried, and the jury brought in a verdict of "not guilty." The justice said: "That doesn't suit me. I discharge the jury, set aside the verdict, and will retry the case." Some of the penalties were so severe for trifling offenses that the white officers have taken the convicted negroes outside and simply turned them loose. In the higher courts the criminal meets with more consideration, but even here there is haste in his trial and indifference in appointing his counsel. Penalties for the same offense are most inconsistent. It may be one year or ten. In some of the States there is no distinction between petit and grand larceny, and there may be seen a negro serving three years for stopping by a field to feed his mule some corn. His labor is worth at least $180 a year, so it is no hardship to the State to keep him. On the other hand, judges sometimes good humoredly dismiss cases in which a light penalty would serve as a good lesson.

Negroes are more numerous and of less value than white men, and are dealt with more summarily. A Southern officer put into humorous English what is really, though often unconsciously, the practise. He said: "If two white men quarrel and one murders the other, we imprison the culprit, and in due season pardon him; if a white man kills a negro, we let him off; if a negro murders a white man, we like as not lynch him; if a negro kills a negro we imprison him." As a matter of fact, in crimes concerning negroes alone the penalty is more often imprisonment than hanging. When white men are arrested for gambling they are fined or released, but if they are caught gambling with negroes they receive the full penalty of the law—"just for the indignity of the thing." In the administration of the law, both consciously and unconsciously there comes in this prejudice. This can be seen in the application of lynch law. Immediately succeeding the war, the negro was lynched for rape alone. Within the last six years nearly nine hundred persons have been lynched in the South. Among the causes are such crimes as rioting, incendiarism, robbery, larceny, stock-poisoning, and barn-stealing. Five women are included in this list. In Georgia a strenuous attempt was made to lynch a negro editor who had printed some scathing comments upon election frauds. Those who think the law fairly administered will have some difficulty in paralleling these facts among the whites. There is no excuse for the plea that the law will not take its course; for judges, jurors, and lawyers are almost exclusively white men and will mete out the proper proportion of that variable quantity called justice. This unequal administration of the law applies also between negro and white women. The criminal is first a negro and then a woman—in the whites' estimation. Their sympathy may be aroused, as when the woman is a mother, but rarely their chivalry. Some States have conditions superior to this; others are inferior.

The penal division consists of three correlated systems—State, county, and municipal, which work in closer harmony than in the North. The State system includes penitentiaries, convict farms, and camps; the county consists of jails, county farms, and road-gang camps, and the municipal embraces the city prisons and street gangs. Before comparing the individual States, let us see what features are common to them all. In the State systems they are as follows:

1. The emphasis is laid upon hard labor and punishment. All institutions and criminals must be self-supporting. Hard labor means actual work from sunrise to sunset, with only time out for meals. During July and August, in most States, two hours are allowed for the noon meal in outdoor work, but it is less than an hour for indoor work. Labor on the farms, carefully estimated and including the days out due to inclement weather, is slightly in excess of the hours for unskilled labor in the North. In mills and other industries the time is longer. Institutions are not only self-supporting, but are a source of revenue to the State. This revenue is not used to pay the cost of conviction and for the improvement of the convict's condition, but goes into the general State fund. This is an unwise use of it. Even in States where the revenues are large, so extreme is this desire for profit that I have known pardons to be delayed until after the busy season on the farm was over.
2. Total absence of reformatory measures. A superintendent is valued, not for his enlightened administration, but for the dollars he turns in. In all institutions are found children ranging from eight to fourteen years of age. They eat, sleep, and work with the older criminals. The age of criminal intent seems to be less definite with reference to negroes, for in my investigations I saw no white children. The following facts show how detrimental such a condition is to the prevention of crime: In Mississippi there are 110 out of 913 criminals who are under 18 years of age; in Georgia, there were, in 1896, 234 under 18, in Virginia 76, and in North Carolina 60. From the latest reports obtainable I find in 5 States 530 convicts who are of an age when they would be in reformatories in the North. When the free social intercourse among convicts is remembered, it is seen how great is the opportunity of these juveniles for finishing their education in crime, gambling, bad habits, and immorality.
3. The States all have some form and degree of the convict-farm system. Some combine industries, but the more usual way is to lease the labor of the convicts. These constitute the convict camps. By the farm system is meant that the State owns or leases the land and works its own convicts.
4. Each State permits social intercourse among convicts. In some States there are certain restrictions, as silence at meals; but this is the exception rather than the rule. The absence of this in the North is the most marked characteristic of the system.
5. With the exception of North and South Carolina and Virginia (for the women), there is the congregate cell system. Usually there are from one to three large rooms, which accommodate the convicts at night. This is conducive to social intercourse.
6. Except in Virginia and North Carolina, there are no matrons, nor any female officers to protect the women convicts from immorality while in the camps and at work in the fields.
7. The discipline is whipping and solitary confinement. In South Carolina a thumb strap is occasionally used. Where the convicts are disciplined by the State officers, the number of lashes rarely exceeds twenty-five. In lessee camps there are no such restrictions. These punishments are applied indiscriminately to both sexes. With the exception of Louisiana, criminals are guarded by armed attendants, and are tracked with dogs when they escape. Notwithstanding these measures the escapes are numerous. Under the lessee system they have reached 150 in one year. They now average 50 per year.
8. All the Southern States have passed through the lessee stage, and Mississippi alone has no form of hired labor of its convicts.
9. Most penal institutions are now controlled by regularly appointed boards. A few retain the commission system. Formerly railway commissions controlled the convicts, because their labor was upon railways. Florida's convicts are still under the charge of the commissioner of agriculture, as their labor is of that nature.
10. There are no systems of identification, and with a few exceptions the institution reports consist only of the names of the convicts, together with the deaths, escapes, pardons, and nature of the crime.
11. Almost all the States have good time laws, and Virginia has a parole system. These laws usually allow two months' time each on the first two years, three months upon the next two, and four months each in the succeeding years. This generally applies only to first offenders, and it is allowed only during good conduct. An attempt to escape causes forfeiture of all the good time earned. In North Carolina they have a commutation plan. The convict receives five days off every month for good behavior and has placed to his credit $1 for every ten days he secures. When he earns $5 in this way he is entitled to an additional five days of good time.
12. The food varies but little. It consists of pork, corn bread, rice, and molasses. Sometimes beef and coffee are allowed, and vegetables when obtainable. Where prisoners earn money for overtime work they are permitted to buy additional food and other luxuries.

The characteristic features of the county and municipal systems are as follows:

1. Bad sanitary and social conditions in the jails and city prisons. Innocent and guilty, young and old, are thrown together. There are no matrons.
2. The labor system, which, for the county, consists of a farm and chain-gangs who repair and construct roads. County farms are inferior to State farms. The sentences are short and there is little interest in the convicts. They have more unwholesome food, secure their own clothes, and work in more inclement weather. There is not the interest that the State has in their good health. In Alabama county convicts are leased to the mines under State supervision, and in Georgia one county leases to another. The municipal system of labor is street gangs, while the women work in public buildings. In a few instances they work on the streets and in quarries.

The following comparison of States includes: evolution of the present system, buildings, labor, discipline, food, clothes, rest and recreation, and reformatory influences. The position of women in these institutions is shown under each head:

1. Systems

Mississippi has adopted the State farm system more completely than any other State. Before the civil war, the prison population was about 125, all whites. At that time manufactures were conducted within the prison. After the war the negroes began coming in, and in the reconstruction period of the State the convicts were turned over to a lessee. He had full control of them, and was given a bonus of $20,000 to relieve the State of their care. Most of them worked upon farms. Later they were leased for a revenue. They were often sublet to planters and railway companies. They were not under the slightest control of the State and could be overworked, lost, or killed. In 1888 the evils were so great that an investigation was held, and in 1890 the abolition of the system was decreed, to take effect in 1894. The State now owns three farms, but also works its convicts upon other farms, which it has leased. This is undesirable, and they will be consolidated upon one farm of about 12,000 acres. Upon this farm plan, the revenue to the State varies from $30,000 to $100,000 a year. The method of control is through a State board and the warden is the chief executive officer.

Louisiana presents a marked contrast. The lessee system is in full operation, although it has been abolished by the constitutional convention. The new law goes into effect in 1901, when the present lease expires. The revenue under this lease is $50,000 a year, regardless of the number of convicts. Louisiana began her State system in 1834 by erecting a penitentiary. Manufactures were conducted here. After the war the lessee system began, first within the walls, and finally leasing the men outside. They were leased to numerous parties and in many enterprises. The practise is now to lease them to one contractor. Louisiana is the only Southern State, excepting Florida, that has a complete lessee system. The penitentiary is still retained, and here the sick are cared for and the white women remain. The new plan contemplates working the strongest convicts upon levees, an inferior class upon farms, and the infirm will be kept at the walls, as now. There is a board of control, and a State warden who inspects the camps; but the food, clothing, management, etc., are under the lessee's control.

Alabama combines both the farm and lease systems. Of all Southern States, Alabama has passed through the most difficulties. Prior to 1866, the convicts were kept within the walls, and worked at manufactures. After the war they were leased, but as there were no State inspectors the abuses were many. In 1872 a farm was bought and stocked and an attempt made to work it. This was a failure, and in 1875 the lease system was revived. It is only with the present excellent management that serious abuses have been abolished. Alabama has had numerous investigations into alleged cruelties. Barbarous punishments, as shower baths, crucifix, yoke and buck, and by water, have been practised up to within a short time ago. In this last penalty, a man is strapped on his back and water poured slowly upon the upper lip. It quite effectually stops breathing and is very dangerous. These conditions led to the appointment of a board of inspectors in 1885. They now have quite complete supervision and there are State representatives in every convict camp. In 1890 the State provided farms. There are now two such farms, and upon one is located a large cotton mill, in which the women and children are employed. The remainder of the convicts are leased in the mines and saw mills. The farm in Alabama is not designed to solve the problem, as in Mississippi, but was made necessary by the large number of broken-down men from the various camps who would be useless unless lighter outdoor work were found. The farm is the recruiting place for the men from the different camps.

Georgia is the last State to abolish the lease system. As early as 1817 she established a penitentiary where the whites were worked. Manufacturing on State account was the method. The lessee system was in force from 1868 to 1897. The full control and custody of the convicts were with the lessees. More comments have been made upon Georgia's barbarous system than upon that of any other Southern State, and from its history this would seem justified. In no States are there evidences of such brutality to women, for women were leased out in the same way as the men and at the same occupations. As in Alabama, there is now a State farm, where women, children, and infirm men are worked. Georgia still has a "contract" system, which involves some of the old abuses of the lessee system. The lessors are usually owners of mines, lumber camps, brickyards, etc. There is now a prison commission and a warden who visits the various camps.

Florida's system is similar to that of Louisiana, but in some respects is less favorable. The convicts are leased out in fourteen different camps and have only one inspector. The women are leased in twos and threes in various camps, instead of being confined together in one. Turpentine mills and phosphate mines are the industries. The control of the convicts is vested in the commissioner of agriculture.

South Carolina's system resembles the Northern systems more than those of the other States. She thus far has the only penitentiary building not used solely for a hospital. She has passed through all the evils of the lessee system and now combines farming and manufacturing. The farms are for the same purpose as those in Alabama and Georgia. Most of the convicts are employed in a large cotton mill. Their labor only is contracted for, the State retaining complete control of them. The management of the convicts is vested in a board and the warden is the chief executive officer.

North Carolina maintains a large penitentiary, conducts manufactures, operates three farms, and leases some convicts. It includes every phase of the Southern methods. The lease system has been gradually abolished, for the same reasons as in other States: it is more profitable to the State to work its own convicts, and they are more humanely treated. The women and less able men are kept within the walls, while the boys and other convicts are on the farms. North Carolina is the only State that still leases or hires convicts to railway companies. There have been few fierce conflicts in this State; it has been a gradual change from the lessee system. In outward form the penitentiary resembles Northern institutions, but its man­agement and discipline are upon a much different basis and are somewhat lax.

With reference to Virginia almost nothing need be said. Her system dates back to the days when mutilation was a common penalty. The white criminals were first confined in the county prisons. She has the oldest prison building, mod­eled after Thomas Jefferson's ideas. The lease system existed in this State also. Its present method consists of farming and manufactures, which are conducted upon the contract plan, the institution retaining control of the convicts. The main indus­try is the manufacture of shoes. Virginia combines some of the evils of the old system with the more advanced practises, and presents incongruities that show that tradition and prog­ress are still at war.

It will be seen that all the Southern States have had the lease system, and that all but Florida have abolished it. The State farm is popular, but the States seeking large revenues still cling to some form of the contract system. It will be seen also that the freeing of the slaves was the cause of the establishment of the lease system, and only the growing away from the slavery ideas is making the more humane changes possible.