XV Convict Householders - Transfer to Settler Status - Choice of Sites for New Settlements Housekeeping - Half-Owners - Transfer to Peasant Status - Resettlement of Peasants-formerly-convicts on the Mainland - Life in the Settlements - Proximity of the Prison - A nalysis of the Population by Birthplace ami Stctte - Village Authorities
when punishment, in addition to its primary aims of vengeance, intimidation or correction, is combined with other aims, such as colonization, it should properly be adapted to the needs of the colony and yield to compro- mises. The prison is antagonistic to the colony; their imerests are completely opposed to one another. Life in prison wards enslaves and eventually degcnerates the con- vict. The instincts of a settied householdcr, of good manage- ment, of family life are stifled in him by habits acquired through a gregarious existence. He loses his health, grows old, becomes morally weak. The longer the time he spends in prison, the less likely will he become an energetic and useful member of the colony. Instead he will become a burden to it.
For this reason our colonizing system chiefly requires a reduction in the length of prison terms and of penal servi- tude. Our Code on Convicts makes significam compromises in this respect. For convicts who are regarded as on their way to reformation, ten months coum as a year, and con- victs in the second and third categories—i.e., those con- victed for four to twelve years—find that when they are assigned to the mines each year of work is credited as a year and a half.1
Convicts regarded as on their way to reformation are permitted by law to live outside the prison. They can build homes, get married, possess money. But the facts far surpass the Code. To ease the transition from convict status to one of greater independence, the Governor-General of the Amur region in i 888 permitted the freeing of industrious and well-behaved convicts before the end of their term. In announcing this order (No. 302), General Kononovich promised to free them from work two and even three years before completing the full term of penal servitude. Actually, without any legal clauses or orders but solely as a result of necessity (because it is good for the colony), all convict women without exception, many of them on probation and even those who have been sentenced to indefinite terms, and all those convicts who have families or are good draftsmen, surveyors, drivers of dog sleighs, etc., live out- side the prison, in their own homes and in free men's quarters. Many are permitted to live outside the prison out of "common humanity," or because it is assumed that if X. lives in a hut rather than in prison no harm will result, or if it happens that Z., who has been sentenced to an unlimited term, is permitted to live in a free man's quarters because he arrived with his wife and children, then it would be absolutely unjust to refuse the same per- mission to N., who was sentenced to a short term.
As of January i, 1890, there was a total of 5,905 con- victs of both sexes in all three Sakhalin districts. Of these, 2,124 (36 percent) were sentenced to terms up to 8 years. There were 1,567 ( 26.5 percent) sentenced from 8 to i 2 years, 747 (12.7 percent) from 12 to 15 years, 731 (12.3 percent), from 15 to 20 years. There were 386 ( 6.5 per- cent) sentenced to indefinite terms, and there were 175 ( 3 percent) who were regarded as incorrigibles and sen- tenced from 20 to 50 years. Those with short terms, with sentences of up to 12 years, comprise 62.5 percent, i.e., over half of the entire number. I do not know the average age of those recently sentenced, but judging from the pres- ent composition of the penal population, it should be not less than 35. If the average length of an 8-to-io-year term is added to this, and if we consider that a man ages much more rapidly in penal servitude chan in ordinary circumstances, it is obvious chat if the actual term is served and if the Code is observed with strict adherence co con- finement in prison and work under the supervision of convoys, etc., not only the long-term convicts but over half of the short-term convicts will become a part of the colony after their colonizing abilities have been completely spent.
In my time there were 424 convict homesteaders of both sexes who had plots of land. I recorded 908 convicts of both sexes who lived in the colony, and among them were wives, cohabitants of both sexes, laborers, lodgers, ctc. There was a total of 1,332 who lived outside the prison in thcir own huts and frec men's quarters, which is 2 3 perccnt of the cotal number of conviccs.2
There is almost no difference in homesteading between thc convicts and the homesteading settlers in thc colony. Convicts who are laborers on homesteads work cxactly like our pcasant workcrs. Rclcasing a prisoner co work for a good pcasant homcstcadcr, also a convict, is a unique penal mcasurc dcvcloped from Russian cxpcricncc, and it is un- doubtcdly morc humane chan thc condition of Australian farmhands. Convict lodgers spcnd thc night in thcir own quarters and must appear for labor assignmcnts and work just likc thcir comradcs living insidc thc prison. Craftsmcn such as cobblers and cabinct makcrs oftcn scrve thcir sen- tence in their own quartcrs.;l
No particular disharmony is obscrved from the fact that a fourth of all thc convicts live outside thc prison, and I would enthusiastically admit chat it is not easy co regulate our penal system precisely bccause the remaining three- fourths live insidc the prison walls. \Y/e can naturally only speak of the advantages of huts over common wards as a probability, since absolutely no observations have so far bcen made on the subject. No one has yet proved chat crimes and escapes occur less frequently among convicts living in huts than among chosc living in prison and chat the work of the former is morc productive chan chat of the latter. In all probability the prison statistics which even- tually deal with chis problem will decide in favor of the huts. One thing is certain. The colony will gain if every convict arriving on Sakhalin, regardless of his term, could immediately begin building a hut for himself and his fam- ily, and in this way his colonizing activities will begin very early while he is still comparatively young and healthy. Nor would justice suffer, for the criminal on the very first day of joining the colony would suffer his greatest trials before being transferred to settler status and not afterward.
When the convict s term is completed he is free from work and is transferred to settler status. There are no delays connected with this. If the new settler has money and administrative patronage, he remains in Alexandrovsk or settles in the settlement which is most desirable to him, and he either buys or builds a house unless he acquired one while in penal servitude. Even farming and labor are not obligatory for such a person. If he is a member of the ignorant masses which constitute the majority, he usually settles on a plot of land in the settlement where the ad- ministration orders him to go. If the settlement is crowded, and there is no suitable land available for a plot, he is placed on a homestead which is already established as a co-owner or half-owner, or he is made to settle on a new location.4
The selection of sites for new settlements, which de- mands experience and some specialized knowledge, is en- trusted to the local administration—in other words, ro the district supervisors, prison wardens and settlement super- visors. There are no specific laws or instructions controlling the selection of sites, and the whole matter finally depends on the caliber of the staff members, whether they have been in service for a long time and whether they are acquainted with convict population and the terrain. For example, Buta- kov knew the North, Bely and Yartsev were knowledgeable about the South. Then it was a question of whether they had come recently, whether they were philologists, law students and infantry lieutenants, or merely uneducated persons who had never served anywhere before. The majority were young townsfolk who knew nothing about life. I have already written about the official who refused to believe the settlers and the natives when they told him the site he had chosen would be under water in the spring and during heavy rains. During my stay an official with an es- cort rode some i 5 to 20 versts to inspect a new site and returned the same day, having supposedly made a thorough inspection in the course of two or three hours. He approved the site and said he had had a most enjoyable trip.