The End of the Chain Gang
Whitman County commissioners vote to abolish the work gang, sparking a rift with the sheriff and frustrated local farmers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
No more will the petty criminals who are arrested and sentenced to terms in the county jail for small offenses be compelled to labor on the county roads. The Whitman county chaingang, which had begun to prove a terror to evil doers and professional hoboes, is a thing of history. Commissioners Klengard and Willard have voted to dispense with the chaingang on the grounds that the people of the county, away from Colfax, do not want it and that it does not pay. Sheriff Canutt, who has been in a wrangle with the board since he assumed office in January, has accepted the ruling of the board and will no longer try to work the prisoners. For more than a month the chaingang has been at work on the county roads, and farmers who travel over these in coming to Colfax have commended the work in the highest terms. A number of these went before the board and urged that the chaingang be continued, but the two commissioners were obstinate and flatly refused to permit the prisoners to be worked, even cutting one deputy out of the sheriff's office.
“The Whitman county chaingang, which had begun to prove a terror to evil doers and professional hoboes, is a thing of history.”
This reflects the historic tension between rural infrastructure needs and the use of incarcerated labor. The debate over 'paying' for public works versus the ethics of penal labor continues to challenge civic leaders today.
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