The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-11-30
Correspondence or the Richmond Dispatch.
An Inside View of the Virginia
Penffcntsary.


propose to give an account of the present
condition and general management of the
Virginia penitentiary, that the public may
Judge whether the disparagement, derision,
and implied incompetency and mismanage-
When Mr.. Wardwell took charge of the
prison it was in disgustingly filthy condi-
tion-the cells, beds sacks filled with
straw, blankets, clothes, and persons of the
prisoners, were not only filthy in the ex
treme (many of them having no change O.
clothes and wearing the same for months)
but the filth naturally generated q loath
some parasite. ...-.-an. !
Now all is changed. The walls of every
cell have been scraped and wbitewashed
=. the entire building has been renovated BY
paint and wbhitegash from top to bottom
inside and out the yard has been graded
and paved: the drainage and sewage are
perfect; the whole aspect of the building
is changed and all this has been done by
the convicts, costing nothing except the
materials.
Thorough cleanliness applies to the pri-
son rs well as to every person and
thing in it, and every man is required to
appear with clean shirt on at least once
week.
Moral instruction forms part Of the
system of management, which has not been
the case heretofore. Every morning at an
early hour all the convicts assemble in the
yard and form a circle in double file, from
the centre of which prayer or chapter in
the Bible is read, hymn sung, in which
all join, and the ceremony concluded by
reading the Lords Prayer; all repeating
responsibility.
A room has been appropriated as
chapel, in which religious services are per-
formed every Sunday, and in which all the
convicts are required to participate. In
the afternoon OF every Sunday two hours
are devoted to teaching the prisoners (di-
vided into classes, with teacher to each
CLASSY spelling, reading, writing, and arith-
metic. The result of this moral training
so far is that eightyfour convicts profess
TO have been converted. Is there anything
in this to provoke the taunts and sneers OF
some Of the press whenever allusion has
been made to it?
Complaint has been made Of the extra
vagance of the present management. On
the 30th of September the whole number of
prisoners chargeable to the penitentiary
was 535-1l6 whites and 4l9 blacks; of
the whole number 1874 are employed with
out, only PIG regularly employed within,
and 1872 without any, or improbable, en-
ployment. When the estimated value per
day Of each mans labor is only thirty
seven cents, and when there is but little
demand for anything that is made, is it sur
prising that the institution should be nom
paying.
Much has been said about the expense of
the hospital diet Of the prison, and espe-
cially milk. The regular prison diet pre-
scribed by law consists of corn bread, fat
bacon, rich soup, salt fish, molasses, COM
pound called coffee that costs eight cents
per pound, vegetables and fresh meat three
times q week. The daily average cost per
man of this diet is fourteen and half cents.
Hospital diet consists Of wheat bread or
crackers, rice, tea, milk, with a small
quantity of fresh meat, and cost daily per
man sixteen and third cents.
When the apostle Paul said that il any
man would not work neither should he
eat, if he meant that every man should
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow to
eat with impunity, he never uttered
greater truth.
Without entering into the physiology Of
digestion, l will just state the fact that
bodily labor, or active bodily exercise, is as
essential to perfect digestion and to perfect
health as sleep or pure air.
OF the PIG persons regularly employed
in the prison, the labor Of only ninety-niue
will enable them to continue with impu-
nity) the regular prison diet for an indef-
mite length of time, while there are 100
besides the l34 without employment whose
labor is so passive that to keep them well
and at work frequent change Of diet is alb
solutely necessary.
The surgeon of the prison, acting upon
the supposition that it is as much his duty
to use all the means within his reach to
prevent disease as well as to treat it when
1t exists, has not hesitated to prescribe light
diet as means Of prevention as well as
cure of disease, without regard to the extra
cost Of two cents and fraction per man.
While the prisoners are treated with great
kindness and humanity, rigid discipline
is maintained, every breach Of the rules
being promptly punished-the severest
punishment being ball and chain and soli-
tude on bread and water. 1 d
The whole labor of the prison consists of six
kinds blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, car
pen,ering, shoemaking, weaving; ooopering
il too simple, too little diversified, and too
unBkilled, 10 be very profitable. 1t cannot
be otherwise when probably not one In fifty
Of the persons entering the prison has any
trade or available mechanical skill, and
when the term Of Imprisonment in the
greater number of cases is too short TO ac-
9uire skill and make it profitable to.the
state.