Men and women are sent to prison to work. The sentence is generally so many years in state prison at hard labor. It is right and proper that they should work and should be made to work faithfully. It is not supposed that they receive a sentence to enter a paradise for so many years. In the different prisons the work is quite different. There are prisons where the prisoners are required to spend almost their entire time of working hours from 600 to 800 feet under ground digging coal. At some places the veins of coal are so shallow that the prisoners are compelled to lie down and stretch themselves out or be in a half-way sitting posture while at their work. Such prisoners often contract colds, rheumatism, and other diseases which rapidly shorten their lives. In other prisons they are taken out in gangs to work on the public highways and crush stone. However, some prisons furnish the prisoners work within the prison walls. Much of this labor is let out to contractors who have a business of making clothing, harness, whips, brooms, etc. In such cases the contractors pay the state a small amount each day for the labor of the prisoners. Many complaints have been made, and many of them justly, because of the unfair requirements and treatment of the prisoners. This should be more carefully looked after by the prison inspectors of the state, and we are glad to know that in many places it is receiving attention.
The time for working ranges from ten to fourteen hours per day. In the United States prison at Leavenworth, Kans. they rise at six o’clock, and when the men are ready to go to their work, three hundred of them march two miles and one-half to their work, a hundred more go two miles in another direction to work on a farm, while others are otherwise occupied till six o’clock in the evening. As a general thing, if the prisoner is careful to obey the rules and work well, he is not likely to have much trouble with the officials. However, in some prisons very few escape extra punishments of some kind.
THE STOCKADES.
The stockade is an enclosure, or pen, made with posts or sticks stuck in the ground. It is generally a temporary affair. These are to be found in the South and Southwest mostly. Here is where the worst treatment is to be found among the prisoners. Some of the southern states are providing better for their prisoners, but others are far behind what they should be. A stockade is sometimes made on the top of a mountain or in some suitable place for working mines. In these southern states not only mining is carried on by the prisoners, but building of roads, railroads, and such like. For instance, where a railroad is being built, large cars are roughly and strongly built in which the prisoners are locked when not at their work. Women in some of these places are required to clear the land, roll logs, do drudgery, and in many instances are so shamefully used and treated that it is a disgrace to a civilized nation. But while such is the case there are noble men and women who are not connected with the prison, as well as many of the more noble prison officers who have been working faithfully for years to bring about a prison reform, and much has been done and is being done on that line. However, could the veil be drawn aside that all might fully realize the situation, the reformation would be more rapid and effective. The stockades do not have literary privileges as a general thing as do our older and well-established prisons. We have received communications from officers in these stockades who are very anxious to have good literature placed at their disposal, assuring us that the same would be highly appreciated and used to the advantage of the prisoners.