STATE PRISON DILEMMA.
Some “prison reformers” so-called, seem to be laboring under the impression that it is possible to keep convicts profitably employed without subjecting free labor of some sort to competition. A moment’s reflection, however, shows that this impression is erroneous. The best that can be done is to distribute industries in the prisons so as to reduce competition to the minimum, and that it is the policy which the State is now pursuing. A sash and door factory has just been established at Sing Sing, the output of which is to be used in public buildings. This leaves the market for sashes and doors practically to the free labor employed in that industry, and yet the fact remains, that but for this prison factory the State would have to patronize the other ones. The Amended Constitution and recent legislation in conformity with it have rendered the task of keeping convicts at work a problem. Of course they might be employed piling and unpiling stones in the prison grounds for no other purpose than to prevent them from being idle. But experience has proved that fruitless work of this sort is bad for convicts, tending to demoralize them. Unless they are given something to do worth doing they grow morbid and ripe for further mischief. Road-making as an experiment may be worth trying. The Superintendent of prisons says he finds it exceedingly difficult to keep convicts employed without antagonizing the Constitution, until the Legislature makes the present law mandatory.