NOTES AND ABSTRACTS.
Agricultural Occupation for Convicts in Austria and Germany. {Blatter fur Gefangnisskunde, 32. Band, 3. u. 4. Heft, 1898. Article by Anton Marcovich, chief director of the prison in Marburg a. D. (Austria).) — Labor is one of the most essential factors of education in the correctional process. The convict should work in order that he may not forget the art he has learned in freedom, that he may form better habits of continuous industry, and that he may not by idleness during the period of punishment become a spiritual and physical cripple.
There are many difficulties in the way of the ordinary prison industries. In some cases convicts are employed with work which has no educational value to them, and which produces very little toward their support. Tailoring, shoemaking, cabinet work, locksmithing, are about the only industries which can be carried on with profit, and these, owing to the danger of competition with outside shops, are confined to the nar- row field of production for public institutions. Other occupations, such as envelope and paper-bag making, picking wool and horse hair, spinning, and weaving are neither remunerative nor instructive, but merely serve to keep men busy.
More than 50 per cent, of the prisoners are of the class of peasants and agricul- tural laborers. To give them training in small crafts tends to add them to the misera- ble city proletariat, and to enfeeble them in body and mind. These facts long since led to experiments with agricultural labor for convicts.
In all states there is much public work waiting to be done in the control of streams, the making and repair of roads and streets, and drainage systems. It is evident that there would be great economic advantage in employing convict labor on such useful tasks, if serious difficulties do not prevent.
The first inrjuirv as to the effect of labor in the open country relates to health. On this point the testimony of the medical officer of Marburg prison is explicit and favorable.
The second inquiry relates to the economic results. The author is confident that labor on public works, too costly to be carried on by ordinary taxation, has a tendency to remove convict labor out of the sphere of competition with ordinary industry.
The most serious question arises in connection with discipline. American stu- dents and practical people will at once think of the lease system which was so severely criticised in the National Conference of Charities in 1883, and elsewhere. The author of this article declares that the men not only worked with vigor and efficiency, but that few escaped — in eight years there were only five cases at Marburg. In one instance the detachment earned honor by assisting in rescuing lives and property in a confla- gration. During the years 1890-97 there were 1,983 convicts thus employed from Marburg, the number increasing from 62 to 454 per year; and from Wildbach 878 persons.
1 he conditions under which convict labor can safely and profitably be employed are such as the following :
The work should be one requiring considerable time and force, and of large pub- lic utility. Contracts should be made with local governments providing for subsidy in local improvements on condition that convict labor should be used. The cost of support diminishes with numbers, and the product of labor increases ; therefore at least thirty convicts should be worked in a group. The prisoners must be carefully selected; only those who have served for some time in solitary confinement, who have shown reliable qualities, and who are of rural origin and adapted to farm labor being chosen. The director of the prison must, in person or by a competent deputy, provide in advance for suitable quarters and food.
The discipline must be firm and rigorous, as in a military camp. But with humane and steady management, bayonets and bullets are rarely required.
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