The Maintenance of Correctional Facilities (2)
Aiden asked again.
“Is the output of the prisoners’ labor really that pathetic? Is it so bad that the prison can’t be maintained without running a business selling private meals?”
They weren’t being served lavish meals every day, so how could they not even afford a single loaf of rye bread per ration?
He had taken a quick look inside the prison, and the condition of the prisoners didn’t seem as bad as he had expected. While there didn’t seem to be many pure-blooded Northerners, it was still incomprehensible, considering that most of them were young men in their prime.
“I want to see the relevant documents right now.”
Aiden, who had been about to ask the guard more questions, decided to change his approach.
‘Documents don’t lie.’
Just as people can lie, documents can also be forged, but they always leave evidence behind. A perfectly forged document? ‘Who in the North would be capable of such a thing?’ If they had that level of ability, they would have already been summoned to the capital to become the lackeys of the truly powerful, not rotting in this barren Northern land. And they certainly wouldn’t waste such talent just to siphon off a little labor from prisoners in a jail.
“Here are the documents you requested, sir.”
The soldiers had gone along to help move the files, but since the volume wasn’t that large to begin with, they looked as if they had lost their purpose.
“Is this all?”
“Well, that is…”
“I suppose it’s a good thing I can finish reading them quickly.”
“Administrative Officer, instead of doing this here, why don’t we go to the office—”
“Why go through the trouble of moving when there are only a few pages?”
Aiden sat down at a crude wooden table and began to focus with terrifying intensity.
Jamie and Kalisa pulled up chairs as well.
Rustle, rustle.
The guard room was instantly engulfed in silence. It was filled only with the sound of turning pages.
The fortunate thing was that it took less than an hour to check all the documents in the two boxes. Well, for Aiden, at least.
“This wasn’t a labor issue to begin with, was it?”
As Aiden put down the documents and sat back with a crooked smirk, clicking his tongue, his two subordinates were startled and scrambled through the papers to keep up with his progress.
It wasn’t that Jamie and Kalisa lacked ability. It was just that their boss was so outstanding that comparisons were inevitable.
“I mean, who uses a proxy to serve a prison sentence? Ha, give me a break.”
Aiden pulled out a bundle of documents and handed them to the two flustered people.
“Labor proxy… Ah, I found it. It’s right here.”
It seemed Kalisa had found it first.
“‘It is permissible for a prisoner sentenced to hard labor to hire a person to perform the labor in their stead.’ That this law still exists…”
“‘Still exists’? Does that mean this law doesn’t exist in the capital?”
“It’s a clause that the previous Emperor abolished because it had too many drawbacks.”
“Huh?”
Jamie blinked at Kalisa’s words.
“Really?”
“I have no reason to lie.”
“Fair enough.”
“I felt that the laws and administration of the North were quite different from the center, but I didn’t know that clauses abolished due to their negative impact were still alive and well.”
Kalisa shook her head while looking at Aiden.
‘Because it’s a world where the laws of the center and the laws of the regions are different.’
So, if one were to compare it, it was like the laws in the United States. The scope and boundaries varied slightly from state to state.
“Since labor proxies are possible like this, the number of ordinary people, not prisoners, in the labor camps must have gradually increased, and the guards would have found it difficult to enforce discipline even if their productivity dropped.”
“Yes. No matter how much they were paid to act as proxies, they were still innocent ordinary people, so the guards couldn’t have been cruel.”
“The fact that movement between regions isn’t free, and everyone is one degree of separation away from knowing each other, must have played a part as well.”
A poor neighborhood where there wasn’t much to do to make money. In such a village, the fact that one could earn a daily wage by occasionally doing hard labor instead of someone else—
‘The guards must have told their close neighbors first.’
At first, it must have been well-intentioned. A sense of neighborly affection, compassion, friendship—whatever you want to call it—to help them not starve by doing odd jobs. But once neighbors started increasing in the labor camps, the guards must have repeatedly faced situations where it was ambiguous to raise a whip or shout.
‘In a small town, where is it common to find someone who can scold and lash out at neighbors they’ll see again after work?’
That was how the productivity of the labor camps must have gradually declined, and as rumors spread that the labor wasn’t that difficult, the number of people wanting to act as proxies increased, and in the end,
“The pay for labor proxies is also excessively cheap.”
It was a natural result, as there were many people who wanted to do the labor instead.
“Since those who came to do the labor for a pittance wouldn’t work hard, the production volume dropped again.”
“It’s a vicious cycle.”
Jamie and Kalisa added their own comments.
“I’m the type of person who doesn’t think it’s good to change administration overnight like flipping a hand,” Aiden said.
“Even if a plan looks good on paper, if you implement it blindly and problems arise, it’s the residents who end up suffering. And it’s tax money we’re spending, too.”
“You are correct.”
Jamie nodded reflexively in agreement.
“But you know, I think this case might be different.”
Aiden pulled another stack of papers from the pile and threw it onto the table.
“These are labor proxy applications.”
“…It’s true that the number of proxies has increased over the past few years.”
“That’s true overall, but this year is a bit different, isn’t it?”
Kalisa’s eyes widened as she circled the number of applications from the last two months.
“It seems that the period when you, Administrative Officer, implemented various projects coincides with the period when labor proxies decreased.”
There was no need to look further for an interpretation.
“The residents are feeling for themselves that they are starting to make a living, so they no longer want to sell their labor for a cheap price, but rather want to expand their own land and do other work!”
Jamie also slammed his fist on the table, his eyes shining.
“Exactly. So, it seems like now is the perfect time to tear down and fix this damn correctional facility. What do you think?”
For the first time today, a smile touched Aiden’s face.
Ding, ding, ding, ding!
“Everyone out! Get out!”
“Hands on your heads and face the wall!”
“Can’t you move faster? Do you want a taste of the whip?”
The very next day after Aiden personally inspected the underground prison, the prisoners were thrown into chaos by the unusual morning routine.
The guards, swinging clubs that were chilling just to look at, lined up every prisoner sentenced to hard labor in the hallway and began shackling their ankles.
“Uh, Guard. I think there’s been some mistake.”
“Mistake, my foot.”
“I use a labor proxy. Ah! Did he run away? If so, please just let me send a letter. I’ll contact my house right away to find a new proxy…”
“Starting today, there has been an order from the Administrative Officer. Everyone listen carefully. Labor proxies are abolished as of today!”
“What? No, what is this…! How can you suddenly make such a law!”
“Do you think the laws of the North need your permission?”
“W-well, that’s not it, but…”
“From now on, you can only buy private meals or personal items with a portion of the money you earn from your labor!”
At the sharp, cold voices of the guards, the prisoners who had been suddenly sent out to work shrank back.
The wealthy prisoners, who had been living as if they were on vacation in the underground prison—eating meals far more lavish than the guards, and using cheap Northern labor to do their work—could not adapt to the sudden situation.
“What kind of nonsense is this! We can only use the money we earn from labor? Where in the world is there such a law!”
“Do you know how much money I’ve spent so far, huh? If it’s going to be like this, transfer me! Transfer me!”
A few prisoners who couldn’t read the room began to spout nonsense.
“Transfer? Trans-fer?”
Aiden, who had been watching the scene from afar, raised one corner of his mouth.
“What is that now? Transfer?”
Do prisoners in this neighborhood just request transfers, and it actually works? In a world where the lords ruling each region are different?
“Uh, Administrative Officer. Those prisoners requesting transfers aren’t actually the ones who committed crimes in our North and were caught.”
“Chief Guard. Then does that mean those guys should have been imprisoned elsewhere originally?”
“Yes. They paid money to be transferred to the North, so…”
“They pay money to be transferred, too?”
Hearing the story, his bewilderment doubled.
“…So, you’re saying you received subsidies for accepting prisoners who should have been in other neighborhoods?”
“…Yes.”
It was a story about how they were so desperate for money to maintain the prison that they took in all the violent criminals from other neighborhoods.
Just for a few coins.
‘No wonder the prisoners didn’t look like pure-blooded Northerners when I came for inspection yesterday.’
Pure-blooded Northerners have a different skeletal structure, no matter how thin they get from not eating.
“Uh, Administrative Officer. Shall I prepare for their transfer? There are a few territories that welcome wealthy prisoners… If we can just negotiate the transfer fees, they will accept them without question.”
Aiden found the Chief Guard’s demeanor thoroughly displeasing. His shoulders were hunched despite having done nothing wrong, and his eyes were constantly checking his superior’s reaction.
‘These damn predecessors.’
For the first time in a while, curses for his predecessors, whose faces he didn’t even know, were about to spill out.
“Straighten your shoulders.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you so demoralized when you’ve done nothing wrong… There are guys over there who are so confident just because they have money, even after committing crimes.”
Aiden’s black eyes turned toward the few prisoners who were still blathering about transfers.
“Those guys, I’ve felt it since yesterday, but they show no signs of remorse. I don’t like it.”
Did they come here for a vacation? They came to be punished.
“I think I need to teach them why a punishment is a punishment. They don’t seem to have any idea what the hard labor they’ve been sentenced to actually is.”
“Then, the transfer…?”
At the Chief Guard’s words, Aiden let out a scoff.
“Come to think of it.”
Aiden’s voice became cheerful in an instant.
“They are all labor power, too, so why would I need to hand them over to other territories?”
Even if he couldn’t get a few coins in transfer fees right now, wouldn’t it be a profit in the end if he utilized free labor well?
“But if you do that, it will leave a stain on your honor, Administrative Officer!”
Jamie immediately raised an objection.
“Other territories will mock you. They’ll say you didn’t accept the transfer requests that you should have responded to because you were greedy for the prisoners’ labor.”
He wondered what kind of crazy talk that was, but by the standards of this era, this was considered conventional wisdom.
‘If they’re prisoners who can request a transfer, it means they come from families with some money, and since they all know each other, they’re probably just doing each other favors.’
However,
“I told you.”
“Yes?”
“What does honor mean to a civil servant?”
An honorable 9th-grade civil servant. That title wasn’t worth a thing.
“Prisoners, isn’t it time for labor? Move quickly.”
Thud.
Just as he gave the order and was about to head back up to his office, the Chief Guard suddenly knelt down.
Thud, thud.
The other guards did the same.
The kneeling guards each made a fist and brought it to their chests, then—
“We pledge our loyalty to the Administrative Officer!”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
They slowly beat their chests.