The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-02-05
THE STATE PRNITENTIARY.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.

THE STATE PENIFENTlAkY.
ORIGIN-PLAN-PRO
THE BEGINNING-THE PLAINTIFF FEMALE
pRIsoN-THE wALL-THE coNvICTs-
DAILY LABoR-THE RESULT IN
DOLLARS;
&C., &C., &c.
How curious is the progress OF thought |
Little more than a year ago, his E1cellency
Governor Orr, in message to an extra ses-
sion of the General Assembly, wrote as fol-
lows:
''There is no proper punishment, under the
laws of this Stale, for high misdemeanors and
petty felonies. None of the jails Of the State
are constructed for work-houses, and convicts
sentenced to Imprisonment spend their time In
idleness. The expense to the State is very
great, and, in our impoverished condition, the
people cannot we'll bear the heavy taxation
necessary to support these conyiots in idle
ness. There are many conviots who find them-
selves comfortably housed and well fed, and
who, exempt from all labor, do not regard i'm
prisonment as punishment. They are Vi
cious, depraved non-producers; and the effort
10 punish them is really punishment to the
honest taxpayer, whose labor, in part at least,
is given to support them in incidence The
number of conyicts will hereafter be greatly
increased, and, if the present system Of pun
ishments be continued, the appropriations to
jailors, for dieting prisoners, will be greater
than the expenditures for either Of the depart
ments of the State government. To remedy
all these evils, respectfully recommend that
you provide for the establishment Of peni-
tentiary, at Columbia, and appropriate not less
than $4,000 to erect wall around the peni-
tiary buildings, and to make cells for convicts.
Much of the labor, in erecting the necessary
buildings, can be performed by the convicts
themselves. If favorable site should be se-
lected, convenient to sufficient water power to
drive all the machinery that may be requisite
to carry on manufactures In wood, leather,
iron, yarns and cloth, the penitentiary may be
made nearly if not quite seR-supporting. Pun
ishments may then be imposed according to
the enormity of the offence; juries will have
no aversion to convicting the guilty, and con-
victs, while undergoing purgation for their
crimes, will be compelled to earn their cloth
ing and subsistence.
THE BEGINNING. Xxi,
On the 21st Of September, 1866, seventeen
days after the receipt Of the above message,
the Legislature appropriated $4,000 for the
purpose named.
On the 18th of October, Messrs. VIM. GreGg'
W. R. Robertson and Archibald c~.neron' Com-
missioners appointed by the Governor to su-
pervise the work, met in Columbia and selected
ten acres of land, at cost of $4,000, Immediately
on the Columbia canal, and within half mile
of the depots OF the South Carolina and C0lum-
bin and Greenvile Railroads. This is probably
the best location in the State. Easy Of access,
being only three-fourths of mie-as bird
1ies-from the heart of the city, with immense
beds Of the best granite in the world adjacent,
and water-power at hand abundant for every
purpose, nature herself thus made no small
contribution to the success Of the undertaking.
Major Thomas B. Lee was now employed as
the architect and engineer, AMI, in accordance
with the instructions Of the commissioners, WIS.,
tied the various penitentiaries Of Tennessee,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, to
obtain information concerning the most ap-
proved style and arrangement for penalinst
tuition.
On his return, another meeting Of the COM
missioners was held in Columbia, and it was
then determined to- make such commence
ment as would allow en- extension of the plans,
from time to time, until five hundred male and
female conviets could be accommodated.
Before the 21st of November Major Lee had
commenced work, broken ground, excavated
the foundations, and prepared to carry out his
plans. storehouse, blacksmiths' shop, car
penters' shop. .stonecutters' shed, and five der
ricks were constructed, and fence, twelve
feet high, thrown around the premises. An in
clined railway, at an angle Of about thirty
| eight or forty degrees, was constructed from
the penitentiary lot to the margin Of the canal,
and 30 provided with machinery that the cars,
loaded with stone at the quarries two miles
away, and brought thither in boats, could
by the touch of lever be discharged
directly under the derricks designed to
lift tho immense masses to their final bed.
The cost Of stone thus obtained and transport
ed is only about fifteen cents per ton. Wagon
transportation would have increased the ex-
pense to s1.5O per ton. The labor of quarry
ing and dressing this material is performed
almost wholly by tho convicts.
PLAN OF THE PEN1TENTIARY.
The plans of the architect contemplate q
building five hundred feet long, ifty-eight and
half feet wide, and forty-fvo and half feet
high, with central building projecting from
the main building sixty feet square, tho whole
to be built Of granite and iron.
There are to be 548 cells, the kitchen, laun-
dry, storeroom chapel, hospital, guard rooms,
reception room, Office, dispensary, and living
rooms, being under the same roof.
The prison is divided by blank wall into
two grand divisions for male and female con-
victs. The prison for the latter is compare
lively small, but its proportions ars based upon
the statistics Of other prisons. This space,
l..u x.,,,, 1,o raodi1v enlarged without in