Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of New York for the Year Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ...the plan by which citizen-mechanics may earn their living. " It is, in brief, that the contractor shall supply machinery, materials, and perhaps citizen expert instructors for a given number of prisoners, and term of time, securing and disposing of the manufactured goods on his own account, of course; the State to furnish operatives--prisoners--whose services are to be paid for to the State, not by the day, as now, but by the piece, or process, for work done to a given standard of perfection. " By this system the State is (as under the contract system) relieved from furnishing manufacturing capital. The whole business of the prison governors is with the prisoners. The control of prison and prisoners is unified. " The evil influences of the contract employers is abated, because there is no longer any motive for exorbitant tasks or chicanery on their part. " The State is most sure to receive the real value of the prisoners' labor, whether more or less, and the State is responsible for the amount the prison shall earn. " The plan best enables the prison government to place prisoners in condition as to labor and living closely analogous to the natural social state. In this regard the prisoner may be made to live and enjoy whatever he earns, but no more. " Such a situation is greatly needed for proper training and testing of prisoners with a view to their safe release into society. "Since, as before stated, the piece-price plan is almost universally in use by private manufacturers, the fair rate per piece can be easily ascertained, and may by law, if thought best, be fixed at the average paid to free laborers in the same locality for the same work of the same quality; thus, to the nearest possible point, equalizing the competition value of prison...