PRISON LABOUR.
A weighty argument in favour of the industrial employment of convicts arises from economic considerations. The obligation of every citizen to support himself is not cancelled by any crime. So far as convicted prisoners can by their personal service contribute towards their own support and toward the expense they have caused the state, it is clearly tbe right of the taxpayers and the duty of the state to exact and utilise that service. This argument is so palpable as to admit of no doubt or question ; and it extends to every class of convicts. The inmates not only of State prisons and penitentiaries, but of every gaol and house of correction, who have been actually sentenced, for an offence against the law, should, so far as practicable, _ be made to pay the charge they have imposed on the public treasury. In all places of confinement for sentenced offenders there should be a system of enforced labour; and bow to make the minor prisons self supporting is one of the difficult and important problems of political economy.
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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2521, 20 April 1881, Page 2
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178PRISON LABOUR. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2521, 20 April 1881, Page 2
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