The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-02-05


trance to the prison. On the right and left of
this entrance are flights of stairs leading to
the second floor; kitchen, an apartment for
steam boilers which will furnish steam for
heating the building, washing, and culinary
purposes; laundry, washroom and store
room for supplies.
On the second floor is large hall to be used
as chapel and general hall; an Office and re-
ception room for visitors, and two guard
rooms. The latter open into the halls around
the cell blocks, and are the only entrance
thereto.
On the third floor is the hospital, dispensary,
and physicians Office, and a suite Of apart
ments of FIVE rooms for the superintendent and
his associates.
THE FEMALE PRISON.
This department consists of three stories,
divided as follows:
First Floor-An archway, hall, fight of
steps, laundry and washroom, kitchen with
steam boiler and heating apparatus, store
room, and suite of four rooms for the matron
and her assistants.
Second Floor-Two tiers Of cells, thirty-si1
in block, with hall fourteen feet wide pass
ing around the sides and one end.
Third Ftoor-A tier OF twelve cells, with
hall fourteen feet wide on two sides, and a
room on one end twenty-eight feet wide and
fifty feet long. This room and the hall will be
used as work room for female conviots.
THE WALL.
The wall around tho penitentisry will be twon-
Ly feet high, built Of granite, four feet thick
at the base and two and one-third feet thick at
the top. It will have no other entrance than
that which has been specified. This wall is
now being rapidly built to take the place OF the
present wooden fence.
Within thus enclosure, are located the work.
shops, adjacent to the canal, power from which
will eventually be used in driving the machir-
cry; also sub-enclosure for female convicts.
CELLS.
The cells for the male convicts will number
FIVE hundred. There are now finished and
occupied one hundred and four. They are
FIVE feet wide, eight feet long and seven
feet high. The outer wall is granite, two
and one-half feet thick; the partition eight
cen inches thick, OF brick. The top OF
the cell is Of iron, covered one foot with
granite. An iron bedstead will be so arranged
in each cell that it can be hooked up when not
in use, thus saving space. Water pipes from
the oistern on the roof connect with each cell,
and the sewerage will extend to the river. The
cells and building will be heated by steam
pipes.
Cells for female convicts, forty-eight in num-
Der, are six and half feet wide, eight feet
long, and seven feet high, and are built in the
same manner as those for male convicts. No
females have yet been incarcerated.
The roof Of the whole building will be COM
posed OF iron trusses, covered with corruga-
ted sheet iron. 1t will be seen, therefore, that
the building is not more hre-proof than bur-
glar proof. -"
THE CoNvIcTs.
The first convict received was on April 1S,
1886. On the 18th August less than four months
after. tha~e we're upwards OF one hundred.
At the present time there are one hundred and
ninety, fully four-ffths of whom are negroes,
whose terms of imprisonment vary from
twelve months to confinement for life. The
chief crime for which these prisoners are pun
ished is that Of larceny. The next most COM
mon crime is that of assault and battery. The
third, arson, burglary and murder.
The rules adopted for the regulation Of the
motley crew Of convicts ale similar to those
which exist in other institutions Of the kind at
the North. The prisoners are required to
maintain silence; but when engaged in labor
they arc permitted to ask such necessary ques-
tions as relate thereto. The punishments re-
sulting from the infraction Of these rules are
the same as those permitted in the army and
navy of the United States, and yet are only ap-
piled in extreme cases when it is found that
there is an exhibition Of wilful disobedience,
insubordination, attempt to escape, or theft
from fellow convicts, which last, by the way, is
a common crime. The form of punishment
imposed is 'bucking and gagging, tying by
the thumbs, and what is called the "Blind
March," The latter is peculiar to this institu-
tion. A dozen or moro convicts who have in
fringed the rules, are arranged in single file,
blind folded, and, with their hands upon each
others shoulders, compelled to follow their
leader at rapid pace over such broken and
uneven surfaces as are calculated to put them
in constant fears of terrors yet to come. The
result is that whom one man tumbles down, the
rest follow like pile of bricks, while the crush
ing OF corns, the barking Of shins, and the
abrasion of the historic heel, is we'll calculated
to cause abdominal curses, not loud but deep.
The spectacle is amusing to the observer, but
no fun to the culprits; and it has been found to
be nm innocent and effectual mode OF checking
much disobcdicnce.
The costume Of the prisoners consists OF
jacket and lrowssrs of heavy woollen material,
with lateral broad black stripes, and shirt OF
coarse cotton, on the back OF which are printed
the words "South Carolina Penitentary," and
tho number Of the convict.
On entering the institution, the clothing OF
the convict is taken from him, washed, num-
bered and laid away, 10 be returned to him at
the expiration OF his imprisonment He ID
then, himself, put through scrubbing process,
and donned in the prison garb; his hair is
cropped, his cell is assigned, and, according to
his ability or strength, he is appointed to his
proper department of labor. Some are sent to
the quarry, which is Two miles distant up the
canal. These are generally the most fractious;