Part 1 (2/2)
5. _The warden._ He was found to be a man of generous impulses, an earnest Christian worker, with a heart full of kindness, professing to act for the prisoners' highest good. He would furnish them with enough of suitable food, good clothing and bedding, all needed care in sickness, with the requisite means for mental, moral and religious improvement, fully believing in the practicability of labor to reform the wayward and elevate the fallen, that reform is the primary purpose of the inst.i.tution. As one great means to this, he seemed to feel it needful that the inmates be kept under strict, wholesome discipline, and required at all times, when able, to perform their tasks fully and faithfully.
He was accustomed to hold correspondence with other prison officers of like faith with himself on prison management, and profited by any feasible hints thus gained. His motto was, ”Keep the prisoners on good fare, provide them all needed means for reform and make all the money practicable from the prison as subordinate to these.”
6. _Educational means found in operation._ By the combined effort of the warden and my predecessor, what we may term a secular school had been established in the chapel, to be held evenings, in sessions of one hour each, as often as a guard could be spared from other prison duties. This was voluntary on the part of these gentlemen, and was intended to be open for all the male prisoners of good behavior to attend, and take such of the common branches as each should need.
The legislature had so far recognized the move as to vote the chaplain an increase of salary in consideration of his labors as teacher in the school. But here it stopped, and that short of its full duty. It ought to have gone further, and made the thing a fixed fact, obligatory upon all prison officers, as really as our common school system outside is upon town officers. Why not? The State has taken the convicts under her care as wards, moved them from their vicious surroundings, and put them where, with a little additional painstaking on her part, many of these may be led to the daily habit of devoting their otherwise idle or squandered moments to storing up valuable ideas for future use, a long step towards their true reform.
As leading in the same direction, these gentlemen had adopted the custom of having occasional lectures in the chapel for the men by outside speakers, also readings by a lady elocutionist, and meetings for instruction and drill in singing.
7. _Influence left by the former chaplain._ This influence was of a highly salutary character among the prisoners. A number would feelingly refer to his efforts for their best being, and from which they had been constantly striving to profit. Some professed to have experienced a change of heart under his ministration, and were still living in the exercise of daily Bible reading and prayer, being obedient prisoners, duly attentive to all the prison rules, and in good repute among the officers of the inst.i.tution. They continued thus till leaving prison, and had not fallen from their integrity when last heard from. Eternity alone can unfold the amount of good secured to those once degraded men by these efforts.
8. _Prison order._ While intent on reform measures, we were not for a moment to lose sight of the strictest order. The warden would have the rounds for this carefully observed, that no risk should be run with regard to the safe keeping of the prisoners and their due observance of the rules. Hence, the chaplain was not allowed to hold his school in the chapel for instructing the men, or have any gathering of prisoners there without a guard. Then, previous to their admittance, we were required to be certain that the south door to the chapel was securely fastened, and the key, for safe keeping, pa.s.sed through an opening to the guard-room.
And when the exercises were ended, and the men secured in their cells, on a given signal, the keeper of the key would open for our release.
This order was not to be deviated from under any circ.u.mstances. From this fact, had the prisoners, at any time, risen in rebellion, overpowered the guard and chaplain, they would have found no means in the room for escaping. Or had any professed goodness, or pretended to a great desire for education with the hope of being taken to the chapel under circ.u.mstances favorable to their getting away, they would have found it of no avail. Good or bad, professedly reformed or not, all were treated alike in this respect. And, so far as I had the opportunity of observation, the same strictness was observed in all other departments of the prison.
True, one escaped, but from no lack of internal watchfulness or order.
His time had almost expired, he having been a faithful, obedient, well-disposed prisoner. The warden set him at work doing ch.o.r.es about the stable and outer yard, not supposing that he would leave for so short a period, and thereby forfeit his commutation and render himself liable to be returned at any time through life. But after serving here a few days he absconded.
9. _Chaplain's routine of duty._ In this were embraced, not only the Sabbath morning service and the Sabbath school care, but also visiting the cells for giving words of advice, visiting the hospital for imparting religious consolation, managing the secular school, changing the library books for the inmates, Sat.u.r.days, learning, from the prisoners, enough of their past history to enable him to judge of the instruction adapted to each, and, in fine, to speak such words here and there as would conduce to the requisite order. This gave a wide range, an important field. I seemed to have returned to my school keeping days; and found my long habit of reading human nature in students of no little use, aiding me to understand the best manner of approaching each so as to gain his confidence. Also my custom in school discipline, which had at times been complained of as being too strict, now served an excellent purpose, prompting me, at every step, to move in decided contrariety to all irregularity and disorder.
10. _General description of the prison and prison management._ The old part of the prison was erected in 1812, favored by Mason, Woodbury and other distinguished men of that day, the avowed purpose being to have an inst.i.tution where the criminals of the State could be gathered and put under reformatory influences. Thus it appears that the idea of reform was a fundamental one in the founding of the establishment. Some years since the north wing, for the male prisoners, was erected, which is three-storied and contains 120 cells, each about three and one-half feet wide, seven feet long and seven high, the bedsteads being of iron and made to turn up. The south wing, or old part, contains a tenement for the deputy and cells for the female prisoners.
The warden occupies the main building, or middle part. Here, too, are the cook room for the male prisoners, the chapel, the office, guard room, hospital, dormitories for the guards and overseers, and the reception room, in which the library is kept.
The prison yard is surrounded on three sides by a granite wall, perhaps sixteen feet high, the prison itself const.i.tuting the wall on the fourth side. In the yard are two buildings of brick, each two stories high, one much larger than the other: the smaller, on its lower floor, affording a wash-room, tailor's shop, &c., the second story and attic rooms used for storage or any needed mechanical purpose, sometimes as shoe shops; the larger building is devoted to bedstead manufacturing, the machinery driven by steam.
From this engine these two buildings are warmed by means of steam pipes, the boiling in the wash-room being done by the same. The hall is furnished with a steam boiler, which not only warms that, but also the guard and reception rooms, and the chapel, and the steam is used in the men's cook room, all other warming and heating in the prison being done by wood fires. To economize fuel as much as possible, a steam pipe has been extended from the engine room to the prison to conduct the waste steam of the shop boilers for use in those apartments.
The female prisoners eat at a table in the warden's kitchen and from the same food as goes to his own table. The men have a prescribed diet, called rations, the allowance of each being dealt out in a tin basin,--meat, potatoes, gravy, &c., all together, the potatoes unpared.
Coffee is given in a tin dipper. The meals being ready, the men are marched through an entry by a long table standing contiguous to the kitchen and loaded with their rations, each taking what belongs to him, carrying it to his cell and partaking in solitude. Their mode of eating is quite a curiosity. They generally use their beds for tables, and each has a knife, fork and spoon in his cell of which he takes the exclusive care. He fishes out his potatoes and pares them; but where shall he put the parings, dripping as they are? He has no extra dish. Then how shall he wash his knife, fork and spoon? He can use his tongue, for he has nothing else, and he may or may not have a towel on which to wipe them, but his jacket sleeve or pants' leg is wonderfully convenient.
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