PRISON LABOR. In most of the states prisoners convicted of crime are sentenced to hard labor, and in the constitution of the United States and of several of the states, the right to require the services of prisoners is secured by the exception of cases of pun ishment for crime from the provisions which abolish involuntary servitude.
In some states convict labor is farmed out to contractors, who thereby acquire a right in the prison and its inmates where the for mer is leased. The state, in order to resume its possession, must compensate the lessee as in other cases of taking private property ; People v. Brooks, 16 Cal. 11. The right of the lessee, however, is subject to the pardon ing power; State v. McCauley, 15 Cal. 429; and the legislative power to modify and control the punishment : id.; Hancock v. Ew ing, 55 Mo. 101. A contract by the warden of a penitentiary for the hire of convicts is substantially a• contract by the state, and a bill for the specific performance of it will not lie; Corner v. Bankhead, 70 Ala. 493 ; Jones v. Lynds, 7 Paige (N. Y.) 301.
In some states the sale or lease of convict labor is forbidden by constitution or statute, is unlawful, unless authorized by the court before which the prisoner has been tried, and this authority cannot be given at a term other than that at which the prisoner was convicted; State v. Pearson, 100 N. C. 414, 6 S. E. 387.
As the result of labor agitation there have been attempts by legislation to forbid or reg ulate strictly the sale of convict-made goods. The Ohio act of May 19, 1894, forbidding any person to sell without license convict-made goods, was held unconstitutional; Arnold v.
Yanders, 56 Ohio St. 417, 47 N. E. 50, 60 Am. St. Rep. 753.
An act prohibiting the use of machinery for manufacturing goods in any penal institu tions of the state was held to forbid the use of machinery within the walls of prisons,' even though operated by free workmen ; Kempf v. Francies, 238 Pa. 320, 86 Atl. 190.
See PRISONER ; HARD LABOR.
In England, by 60 & 61 Viet. c. 63, the importation of foreign prison-made goods is absolutely prohibited.
A convict may recover for injuries inflict ed on him by a railroad company by negli gence, where he has been hired out to the company and is under the orders of a state officer ; San Antonio & A. P. R. Co. v. Gon zales, 31 Tex. Civ. App. 321, 72 S. W. 213. Where a convict was hired to a corporation, a servant of which wrongfully caused him to be whipped, the corporation is liable for the assault; Sloss-Sheffield S. & I. Co. v. Dickinson, 167 Ala. 211, 52 South. 594. Les sees of convicts are not liable to a convict for injuries due to the wrongful act of a guard or the negligence of a sub-lessee; Ma son v. Hamby, 6 Ga. App. 131, 64 S. E. 569.
An act authorizing the keeper of a prison to make contracts for the labor of the pris oners does not give him power to make a contract binding upon the state beyond his term of office ; Trask v. State, 32 N. J. L. 478.
Articles made by prison labor are denied entry by act of 1913.
See Prison Labor, published, 1913, by Amer. Acad. of Pol. & Soc. Science.