New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-17
Prison shower Baths.

To ire Ecifor or me IFDNnc;
Your reply to Humanity in this mornings
paper has excited the following reflections Any
one who has read the account OF the recent tor.
turing Of Niles in the Sing Sing Prison, will no!
question, we think, the truth Of the statements
Of discharged convicts, lately published in the
Report OF the Prison Association.
None " III doubt the necessity OF d" order, sway.
obedience in penal establishments -" the culPrt
class must obey the officers, keepers, &C.. But
al this may be effectualy secured without resort
ing to the Inqulsisorial engines of cruelsy, long
since cetested and exploded by the civilized
world. The Shower Bath, rs now practised in
our prisors is not less revolving to humanity than
the Thumb Screw. discharged convict lately
remarked that by this mode OF treatment they
may drive out one devil, but they drive in thirty
in his place.
Some Of the officers may be &C thorough
scoundrels, rutfsns, brutes as the prisoners. and
vet the keepers must command and the Gu prlts
obey. But is it reasonable to expect order aud
decorum among prisoners. when such men preside
over them Ii is OF infinite Importance that the
keepers should be moral men; If the prisoners
see the officers intoxicated and are saluted by
them with harsh, profsne language. even on trivial
occasions, the worst passions Of their nature are
excited the officers are despised, and insubord
nation and disorder are the natural consequences
The Pententiary system will never be carried
out as oris ally designed until moral men-men
who will command the respect OF che prsoners-
shall be set over them; then there will be no
necessity of the Shower Bath, as now admins
tered, nor of heavy iron yokes with prongs nor
other barbarous punishments ANERGCeS.
Nsc- letk APyii 7, 1851.
Remarks.
AlIthat Americas says Ofthe importance
of having moral, temperate, kind, just, be.
nevoent men for prison officers, is very
true, yet quite wide of the question in hand.
So is his talk of barbarous puniShmeats."
The case under consideration was not prop
ery one of punishment at all. The officers
at Sing Sing had detected the convict Niles
in a secret cores pondence with other con-
victs-an oflense which strikes not only at
the vitals of all prison discipline, but at the
personal safety Of the officers, who might
all be mastered in some sudden uprising, if
the prisoners could securely conspire with
each other by means of secret correspond
ence. The officers had overwhelming proof
ofNiess guitn their hands, yet be solemn
ly denied it and persisted in that denial
which was not only false but contumacious.
They deemed it their duty to obtain from
him a retraction of this lie, which was not
merely past but present rebellion and
defiance. To this end, they subjected him
to the Shower Bath, at first fruitlessIy, but
finally with effect. He confessed his Of
tense, and thereupon the disci pline was for
borne. Possibly, better officers might have
prevented the ofienSe; possibly, such might
not have required a confession possibly
they might have obtained one more prompt
iy without showering-all these are ques-
tions not now relevant. We only contend
that determined disobedience on the part of
a convict under sentence must somehow be
overcome, and that the use of constraint or
physic inAictiOn to this end is not punisk-
ment at all. 1Ed.