Administrative correspondence, 1909-1947.

ArchivalResource

Alabama. Dept. of Corrections and Institutions. Administrative correspondence, 1909-1947.

Administrative correspondence, 1909-1947.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122388664

Administrative correspondence documents the administration of a department or division, and tends to deal with matters that have an impact on the program areas that the department or division is mandated to carry out. This series consists of the administrative correspondence of the directors of the Ala. Dept. of Corrections and Institutions and the directors of its predecessor agencies with wardens of state prisons and road camps, with prison physicians and other personnel, and with inmates and their families between 1909 and 1947. Included is correspondence of directors James Gee Oakley, Hartwell Douglass, P. J. Rogers, C. B. Rogers, Roy L. Nolen, Hamp Draper, William F. Feagin, Col. William E. Persons, E. P. Russell, and Frank A. Boswell, Jr. Also included are correspondence and reports of the following prison physicians or physician inspectors: Glenn A. Andrews; James Maxwell Austin; F. F. Blair; H. G. Camp; Nathaniel G. Clark; James T. Fowler; R. P. Hudson; William Henry Oates; and Russell A. Smith. The series is organized in three subseries: correspondence by inmate's surname, 1920-1947; correspondence by road camp, 1925-1947; and correspondence by prison, 1909-1947. Administrative correspondence by inmate's surname consists in small part of correspondence between prison administrators and inmates or their families and friends concerning requests for furloughs, early releases or complaints of prison conditions. The majority of the subseries consists of correspondence between prison and camp wardens with the director to report certain events, such as disciplinary infractions by inmates and to request authorization to administer corporal punishment; the escape and recapture of inmates; the mental and physical condition of inmates with regard to their ability to perform labor or withstand punishment; and the deaths of inmates. Also included are telegrams, escape notices, fingerprint cards, photographs, newspaper clippings, copies of court transcripts of convictions, requisitions to Governors for the return of fugitives from Alabama prisons and camps, as well as some sketches by inmates portraying conditions endured by prisoners. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the inmate's surname, thereunder loosely chronologically. Following the termination of the convict lease system in 1927, Ala. prison officials removed county convicts from coal mines, lumber companies, and private farms and assigned them to various road camps where they worked to construct roads and highways throughout the state. Between about 1927 and 1938 most road camps were designated by a letter of the alphabet, for example, Camp A, Camp B. During this time camps were frequently moved from one location to another across the state as road construction demanded. By the late 1930s, many camps began to be known by the name of the nearest town or city, i.e., Camp Alex City, Camp Bessemer, and generally remained within a specific county. The most stationary camp was the State Cattle Ranch near Greensboro, Ala., which raised beef for the prisons and road camps. Administrative correspondence by road camp consists of correspondence with camp wardens and superintendents concerning daily, weekly and monthly reports; work performed by inmates; the escape, recapture, and transfer of inmates; demotions in the classification of inmates due to disciplinary infractions; corporal punishment; accident reports and compensatory claims filed by inmates or their families; physicians' inspections of inmates and camp conditions; requisitions and supplies for camps; payrolls for guards and camp personnel; foodstuff reports and menus; leases of camp property; inventories of equipment and livestock; guard situation reports; lists of firearms assigned to guards; and receipts for money and clothing issued to inmates upon completion of their sentences. This subseries is arranged by name of road camp, thereunder chronologically. The end of the convict lease system saw the removal of all state inmates from coal mines, farms and lumber companies to several existing or newly erected state prisons. Atmore Prison, originally Moffat State Farm in Escambia County, served as the primary source of agricultural produce consumed by state and county inmates. Extensive textile mills at Speigner and Kilby Prisons utilized the labor of the majority of state inmates in manufacturing inmate clothing and cotton products for the commercial market. During the early 1940s, Kilby Prison came to serve as the diagnostic center where new inmates were processed and examined before permanent assignment to other prisons. The original state penitentiary at Wetumpka, often referred to as "The Walls," was used to house minimum security inmates as well as female prisoners until Julia Tutwiler Prison was established in 1941-42 for women. On or near the site of the Wetumpka Prison was the Tuberculosis or "T. B." Hospital, where state and county inmates suffering from that disease were treated. Administrative correspondence by prison consists of much of the same types of correspondence and reports as may be found for the road camps, including daily, weekly, and monthly reports; inventories; requistions; reports of inmates' recreational activities; correspondence with wardens and physicians; physicians' inspections; reports of dental and surgical procedures performed; reports of the escape, recapture or transfer of inmates; reports of misconduct by inmates and disciplinary measures taken; accident reports and compensation claims; guard situation reports; investigations into inmate uprisings; and notification of the deaths of inmates. Also included are daily mine condition reports, accident reports, and convict payrolls from Aldrich, Banner, Belle Ellen and Flat Top Prison Mines; operations reports and correspondence with the managers of Alabama Cotton Mills at Speigner Prison, after 1939 known as Draper Prison, and Kilby Cotton Mills; farm, dairy and poultry reports from Atmore and Kilby; hospital reports, and lists of patients and reports of eggs produced and consumed at the T. B. Hospital. Also present are financial statements for hotels on the grounds of Atmore and Kilby Prisons. Of particular interest are reports of an investigation of an inmate "mutiny" at Kilby Prison in 1927 March and an investigation of the beating of inmates by the warden at Wetumpka Prison in 1929 July. This subseries is arranged by prison, thereunder chronologically.

84 cubic ft. (84 records center cartons).

Alabama Department of Archives and History