Part 41 (1/2)
The witless negro crawls on the floor, unwashed and unke with his nails fantastic shapes on the stone, and babbling stupidly, ”Going, Jesus going to Jerusale to his father's ho home” As I pass he looks up, perplexed wonder on his face; his brows hts, and he draith pathetic sing-song, ”Going houards raise their hands to their nostrils as they approach the cell: the poor imbecile evacuates on the table, the chair, and the floor Twice a month he is taken to the bathroom, his clothes are stripped, and the hose is turned on the crazy negro
The cell of ”Little Sa man from Altoona I knew hient worker; but now and then he would fall into a fit of melancholy He would then sitfood and work These spells generally lasted two or three days, Sa to leave the cell Old Jimmy McPane, the dead Deputy, on such occasions commanded the prisoner to the shop, while Sammy sat and stared in a daze McPane would order the ”stubborn kid” to the dungeon, and every tied, silent and motionless, to the cellar The new Deputy has followed the established practice, and last evening, at ” their instruments, ”Little Sammy” was found on the floor of the cell, his throat hacked from ear to ear
At the Coroner's inquest the Warden testified that the boy was considered mentally defective; that he was therefore excused fro to aze meets the printed rules on the wall:
”The prison authorities desire to treat every prisoner in their charge with humanity and kindnessThe ai the law, to restrain the evil and to protect the innocent from further harm; to so apply the law upon the criminal as to produce a cure fro out the better principles of his nature”
CHAPTER XXII
THE GRIST OF THE PRISON-MILL
I
The coe fas of the institution, and brings me in close contact with the authorities
The personnel of the guards is of very inferior character I find their average intelligence considerably lower than that of the inmates
Especially does the element recruited from the police and the detective service lack sye They are ed frorant brutality and corruption Their attitude toward the prisoners is summed up in coercion and suppression They look upon the men as will-less objects of iron-handed discipline, exact unquestioning obedience and absolute submissiveness to peremptory whims, and harbor personal ani the officers scorn inferior duties, and crave advancement The authority and re to them, and every keeper considers himself the fittest for the vacancy But the coveted prize is awarded to the guard most feared by the inmates, and most subservient to the Warden,--a direct incitement to brutality, on the one hand, to sycophancy, on the other
A number of the officers are veterans of the Civil War; several a them had suffered incarceration in Libby Prison These often reat majority of the keepers, however, have been employed in the penitentiary froer period, like Officer Stewart, who has been a guard for forty years This element is unspeakably callous and cruel
The prisoners discuss auards, and speculate on the days allotted them The death of one of theed; still n
The appearance of a new officer sheds hope into the disuards--unless drafted from the police bureau--are ally hu complaisance to the ”candidate” It is a point of honor in their unwritten ethics to ”treat him white” They frown upon the fellow-convict who seeks to take advantage of the ”green screw,” by norance of the prison rules But the older officers secretly resent the infusion of new blood They strive to discourage the applicant by exaggerating the dangers of the position, and depreciating its financial desirability for an a uards, and the lack of opportunity for advancement Often they dissuade the new man, and he disappears fro, the old keepers expostulate with him, in pretended friendliness, upon his leniency, chide him for a ”soft-hearted tenderfoot,” and improve every opportunity to initiate him into the practices of brutality The syste in”: the newsquad,” the older officers setting the exanifies insubordination to his superiors and the shi+rking of routine duty, and results in ie But such instances are extremely rare Within the memory of the oldest officer, Mr Stewart, it happened only once, and the man was sickly
Slowly the poison is instilled into the new guard Within a short tirows less tolerant and chummy, more irritated and distant Presently he feels hie by the favorite trusties of his fellow-officers In some mysterioushi another half a banana,--the remnant of his lunch In a moment of commiseration and pity, the officer is e to the sick wife or child of a prisoner The latter confides the secret to souard, and soon the keeper faces the Warden ”on charges,” and is deprived of a month's pay Repeated misplace the good graces of the Warden, and the new officer grows eainst the species ”convict” The instinct of self-preservation, harassed and uard is soon drawn into the vortex of the ”systerinding and pulverizing, brutalizing the officers, dehule of the larger world, I yet witness itsand merciless within the walls A perfected model it is, this prison life, with its apparent uniformity and dull passivity But beneath the torpid surface s faintly under a dun s forth with the ruthlessness of despair Hidden by the veil of discipline rages the struggle of fiercely contending wills, and intricate ue and counter plot, violence and corruption, are rampant in cell-house and shop The prisoners spy upon each other, and in turn upon the officers The latter encourage the trusties in unearthing the secret doings of the inmates, and the stools enviously co inforle the trustful prisoner into a fake plot to escape, help and encourage him in the preparations, and at the critical moment denounce him to the authorities The luckless norance of the intrigue The _provocateur_ is rewarded with greater liberty and special privileges Frequently his treachery proves the stepping-stone to freedom, aided by the Warden's official recommendation of the ”model prisoner” to the State Board of Pardons
The stools and the trusties are an essential eleovernment of the prison With rare exception, every officer has one or more on his staff They assist him in his duties, perform most of his work, and uards Occasionally they are even called upon to help the ”clubbing squad” The ent stools enjoy the confidence of the Deputy and his assistants, and thence advance to the favor of the Warden The latter places uards ”I have about a hundred paid officers to keep watch over the prisoners,” the Warden informs new applicant, ”and two hundred volunteers to watch both” The ”volunteers”
are vested with unofficial authority, often exceeding that of the inferior officers They invariably secure the sinecures of the prison, involving little work and affording opportunity for espionage They are ”runners,” ”ers,” yard and office men
Other desirable positions, clerkshi+ps and the like, are awarded to influential prisoners, such as bankers, embezzlers, and boodlers These are known in the institution as holding ”political jobs” Together with the stools they are scorned by the initiated prisoners as ”the pets”