 Workers were not provided with adequate timbers for bracing and cave-ins were frequent.Even when materials were provided, they often neglected to use them since they feared, if they took time to protect themselves, they would not complete their daily task and consequently be whipped by bosses who would sometimes embed their lashes with sand to increase the severity of the punishment.English routinely violated the law by buying and selling the leases on convict laborers and thereby transferring them as if they were slaves.