Preliminary Note
By Hastings H. Hart, LL.D.
Alabama was the last of the Southern States to retain the convict lease system. The system has been very profitable, having produced for several years past more than $1,000,000 per year of net revenue.
The last legislature decreed the abandonment of the convict lease system in January, 1924, and in preparation for this change the State has undertaken the construction of the most elaborate prison in the south, with the possible exception of the United States Prison in Atlanta.
Under the laws of the State the prison managers have authority to expend the revenues from convict labor for land and improvements. Acting under this authority, Gov. Thomas E. Kilby; Hon. C. B. Rogers, President of the State Board of Control; and Dr. William F. Feagin, Warden General of the penitentiary system, have united in the effort to perfect a model southern prison.
The general plan of this prison was suggested by the Minnesota State Prison, with the important change, however, of adopting the outside cell system instead of the interior cage system. The adoption of the outside cell plan of construction increases the opportunity for escapes; therefore the prison wall surrounds the entire prison. None of the buildings except the office building is on the outer wall.
Following the example of the United States Government prison at Atlanta, the cells above the first tier are constructed to accommodate five prisoners each. The lower cells for one man each are of generous capacity, 7 feet wide, 10 feet long, and 8½ feet high, with an outside window for every cell, and elaborate ventilation system.
Alabama has about 3,000 prisoners. The new prison is designed to accommodate 800 men, with plans for enlargement to double that capacity. The remainder of the State convicts will probably be kept, as heretofore, in prison camps and employed on State farms. It is probable that the prison at Speigner, with the State cotton mill, will be continued, at least for the present.
FRONT ELEVATION
The employment of prisoners in the cotton-mill industry has been successfully tested at Speigner, and it is purposed to establish a new cotton mill at Kilby Prison which will employ the greater part of the prisoners. It is proposed to manufacture cotton cloth suitable for shirting and to establish a shirt factory where the cloth will be manufactured into shirts for the market. The manufacturing will be on State account, the shirts to be sold at a contract price agreed upon in advance under certain standards of quality.
A large farm is attached to the prison where a model dairy has already been constructed with a herd of 90 Guernsey cows and an extensive piggery.
It is expected that this new departure will bring Alabama from the rear of the procession in prison administration to the front rank.