Organization of convicts' labor based on the "Honor System" at the road construction in Washington State (1913-1916)

At the beginning of the XX century, the state of Washington was rapidly developing, one of the strongest reasons for that being the increasing rate of domestic migration and immigration of people from other countries, which led to the rapid development of towns and villages. In turn, industry and agriculture were developing and the state budget was increasing. Good roads were needed for the stable development of the young state economy. The first legislative initiative that was supposed to solve the problem of poor-quality roads was the creation of a special financial state fund "for the construction, improvement and maintenance of public roads and bridges" in 1905. Creation of such a fund, along with social and economic changes in the state, improved employment opportunities of prisoners and use them for construction works. In 1907 and 1913, the state legislature adopted corresponding laws which allowed organizing the prisoners' labor outside the prison facility on the construction of public roads. In Washington these laws were implemented in two forms - "Guard system" and "Honor system". "Honor system" is a correctional method introduced to the penal practice of several US states at the beginning of the XX century; it involves the use of prisoners' labor outside the prison facilities without guarding in the absence of explicit restrictions of freedom of prisoners' movement. The main constraint on breaks and misconduct was the prisoners' "word of honor" - documented agreement between the prisoners, the prison director and a representative of the state administration. Selection for special road construction camps ("Honor camps") was made among the state prison inmates who filed a petition for consideration of the case by the Committee on Parole. The selected prisoners were given "Conditional pardon" by the governor of the state. Before leaving the institution, each prisoner was obliged to sign a special document entitled - "Pledge for faithful performance of Trust". In this document prisoners gave the "word of honor" to perform their work and have a good behavior in the camp, not to violate discipline and not try to escape. The "Pledge" and "Conditional pardon" - were the main components of "Honor system" and represented a mutually beneficial agreement between the administration of the prison, administration of the state and prisoners. "Honor Camps" in Washington State consisted of temporary huts and tents, without stockade fence and barbed wire. The prisoners at the camp lived without guard around the clock. One of the features of "honor camps" was their mobile nomadic character. After the completion of the work in one place, the camp moved to another county tens or even hundreds of miles away. The number of prisoners involved in such camps in different years ranged from 49 to 120 people. However, the total population of the camps was larger due to the fact that along with the prisoners' labor the labor of free citizens was used. "Honor system" was a kind of penal "know-how", which at that time was unique in the world. It combined the idea of the northeastern American "regional political technology" expressed in the rejection of the use of forced labor in market relations, idea of social and economic progress, financial benefits and corrective treatment of prisoners.

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