, 1860-10-02
PRISON DlgCIPLINE.


Horror Of the shower-Bath Fun
talment.
An article which il understood to be from
The pen OF Mr. Matsell, for many years. Cief Of
Police Of New York. is published in recent is
sue OF the Po1iee Gazttte. in which arc deacribed
Some Of the pnnishments inflicted upon co1-
yicta at Sing Sing. 1t Mr. AatselPs statements
be correct, and if similar modes Of puniahmeat
are in use in our Staten prisons generally, than
4 9rea. work Of reform awaits the efforts Of
some humane person, Who will undertake to
put stop to bssbarities which revive the hor-
ross of the Spanish 1nquisition and which ex-
coed those Of the prisoners OF Naples. We
quote few passages on the csuelties Of the
water-shower punishment;
TIE 7ERRoRs OF TIE WATER SHOWER.
"We were present while the shower-hath
Was inflicted on four OF the prisoners. The first
stripped and fastened in the boz, Was & pale.
consumptIEe-lookipg creature. After being
fixed on the stool, the water WAS allowed to drop
on bis naked person for few minutes, which
chilled him all orer, and the knees ehook aad
t1embled, the teeth ctattered together, aud the
eye.balls protruded from their sockets with
painful, despairing glare. Down came the
water ia volumes upon the head, over the face
and the body. filling the boz till it reached the
nostrils, and in ram was the head shaken from
side 10 side, to get air without water, for no
sooner was the mouth opened than the throat
filled, and when the victim WIS evidently suf-
locating, the bath was stopped: Three or four
minutes we're given him to spit up the water
iulbibed and recover, when down came the
water again, and the same scene was re- enacted
for quarter Of an hour, which to him must
have been an eternity, in which be bore the snf-
ftriugs OF hundred strapEuletions. The others
were similarly punished, and whec lifted out
of the bath were party inseusible. unable to
stand, and as soon a. full recollection returned,
flood oftears relieved them.
"Aad what were they punished foz? Aye,
t5ut is the question; aud it WAS hard work 10
find 1t out eyerybody's tongue Was tied the
answer was in: o!ence, further thau that no one
would speak. Hut the MIN under the shower
bash let the Eec et out; thev were sick-they
were poor-wbich is an onense a!l the world
over; they applied to the pbys!cinu ior relief
for u pain in the chest-;uey we're denied a
ticket Of sickne: 3, they could not complete Il cir
work, and dying men were shower.bathed
because they could not accomplish impossible.
ties"
The prisoner mentioned in The following por-
ton Of this narrative is the man who headed
the insutrection few weeks ago. The writer
says:
"Then came
TON KELLY.
Bis was no ordinary case. Half dozen keep
ers surrounded his cell when he'came out If it,
aud followed him to the shower. bath. Half q
dozen men, armed to the teeth, conducted him
to the scene OF bis sufferiugs, where we're wait
ing half dczen more to cocquer him, should
he make the slightest demonstration Of resist
npca.
"Kelly came iuto the room pale and livid.
The lips were compressed, the eyes sunten and
half closed, and the cheek bones projected mole
prominently than in ordinary cases, from the
compression Of his java.
"'Take of your clothes, s'z?' said tho
keepsr.,-.. keeper.
and he stripped himself naked and entered the
bath. A convict, who stood by, fixed his feet
in The stocks, his hands in the armlets, and his
head under the bath. As soon as he WAS placed
under it, while no one was looking, he shook
hia head aa much ns to say, 3lve got to suffer-
and warm body for few minutes before the
bath fell upon his head. At length it fell. Tom
bore it well, not SILVER Of the legs. not mus
cular movement of the hands or nngerF, not q
single cry Of distress, although he was actually
being drowned fer about fiEe minntes.
"tYou bear it we'll, Tom,' said one Of the
keepers, after the first five minutes had elapsed
aud time had been given hin, to recupernte-
q. It's awful: was TOMS reply; but I can't
ask for mercy
"Down came the water again, aud for five
minutes longer the gurgfing sounds Of stran-
guiated man were audible, and when he Was
exhausted, the cord was let up aud the wafer
stopped. 4 few minut. Of release Was grant,
cd, and down came the water again, and the
scepe Was more terrible than the worst execu.
tion we had ever witnessed. Al length, con-
gestion of the brain was threatened,
and hiss from the physician brought the
third scene to close. Several minutes were
allowed the unfortunate man to recover, but the
punishment WAS too terrible to witness to the
end, and we left. He had been fifteen minutes
| under the sho wer, but had twenty. .fiye more Of
| the same suffsriSg to endure when We left and
for the next forty days the same sort Of pun. h.
ment will be meted out TO him, unless he dies
under the hands Of the keeper.
"lt was an awful spectacle to witness this
man under the bath. Livery muscle contracted,
would become convnlsed, and every MI rve
strained, when there would follow relax Ation-
| Then the water would cease to pour, md then
| would appear the sutferings OF the cutPrit; The
| retching, the vomiting, and Hanging
| i. nothing to The torture Of the shower bath.
! The man surf :csed to the bath Tor half m bour
| suffers ten tines the amount Of pain caused By
stranxuIatiou, for the smp1e reason that just
| ns consciousness is ABOUT leaving, and when he
full realization of his suferings."
Sing Sing il a burning disgrace to the great
State Of New York. Let us hope that they a1e
practised ro where elsa; and that the people oi
that State will demand their immediate cesxa
| fhera