Apparently Ohio established a convict brick plant in 1914 or so. A light, chatty article from that date claims the brick makers worked 6 days a week, had their own baseball diamond and a band which performed concerts. 70 prisoners maintained the plant, and apparently there were no guards. Other convicts supervised the work.
I find it brick hard to believe things were that lovely. Certainly there is better ways to reform a prisoner than having one work a kiln six days a week, but then I wasn't there. Thankfully. A few folks who ran brick factories commercially were a bit peeved, but the convict bricks were determined to constitute such a small percentage of the market, they were allowed to compete.
Georgia had convicts make bricks as well, but I don't see any indication they had a baseball team…
The Ohio convict bricks are dated here in 1928. They were used to line tunnels and municipal projects.
Two Handmade Bricks made by Convicts Ohio Collection Jim Linderman
There is a Brick Collectors association. The ICBA website even has an interactive brick database! Check out the screen grab below. You can sort by state…this happens to be Ohio.
