Another feature of the West Virginia law is the establishment of a State road bureau to supervise any plans proposed by a county for using prison labor in road building. The plan approved, the county shall apply to the board of control for the number of prisoners required and shall state the length of time they shall be needed. The board shall, as far as possible, give equal service to each of the counties and shall determine which prisoners may be assigned to such work. The warden is to provide suitable and movable quarters, which shall be built, where possible, by convict labor. The convicts shall remain under direct control of the warden, their work, however, being under the supervision of the road bureau.
In Iowa the board of control of the State institutions with the advice of the warden of any penal institution, may permit able bodied male prisoners to work on the roads. The law specifically states such labor shall not be leased to contractors. A prisoner opposed to such work, or whose character and disposition make it probable that he would attempt escape or be unruly, is not to be worked on the highways. Although the prisoners are under the jurisdiction of the warden while building or repairing roads, their work is supervised by the State Highway Commissioner. Prisoners employed on the highways of Iowa receive such part of their earnings above the cost of their keep as the board deems equitable, the earnings either being funded or given to their dependent families. Before Iowa passed her present prison labor laws, George W. Cosson, attorney general of the State, made a thorough investigation of the prisons of his own and other States, and strongly denounced the contract system, under which the prisoners were employed up to that time. Mr. Cosson drew up the road bill and is of the opinion it will do much to drive the contract system out of the State.
The Cost of a “Chair.”—The State of Tennessee’s new electric chair at the State prison is now in readiness.
A total of 2,300 volts are to be used in operating the death chair. The equipment is said to be the most up-to-date in the United States. It cost the State of Tennessee $1,750.
Land Reclamation Plans in Massachusetts.—Under the provisions of the so-called wet lands reclamation act passed by the legislature of last year, the State boards of agriculture and health are contemplating the purchase of about 300 acres of swamp land in Walpole, to begin work which is eventually expected to reclaim between 100,000 and 200,000 acres of land within 30 miles of Boston, and including the towns of North Billerica, Lincoln, Concord, Bedford and Carlisle.
Most of the land will be available for agricultural purposes; other portions will furnish manufacturing sites.
Chairman Randall of the prison commission is considering the advisability of using prison labor on the work, and an effort will shortly be made to obtain from the legislature provision whereby a portion of the wages earned by the prison laborers can be given to their families.