New-York tribune., 1872-06-10
THE CONNECTICUT STATE PRISON.

Chairman of the Committee is Chas Dudley
Warner, who has made himself the friend OF
us all hitherto by his delicate fancy and fine
humcr; but the sound common-sense human
ity and completeness of this report prove him
the friend in a more effective fashion OF the
convict. We are the more gratifed to be able to
submit this particular case to the consldera-
ton of our readers, as we have so often adj
verted in general terms to the false theory
upon which our entire prison system has
hitherto been based, and the gross abuse Of
| even that theory as carried in the majority of
| instances into practice. Until very lately, the
convict, no matter what his degree of ill
| doing or the circumstances which led him
into it, was regarded, not as an erring men,
Der of society whom it was its duty aud GER
tainly its policy to restore to virtue and
efficiency, but as an enemy to be visited with
| vengeance.
The only object in jails and State prisons
was first to administer this vengeance, and
then to force enough work out of the pris-
oners to pay not only for their support, but
for the unnecessary cost of the buildings. In
many of the Southern and Western States the
State prisons, as well as the couvicts, are
rented to lessees, who have absolute power to
work them TO what extent they please, for
their own emolument. In the best regulated
of any of our penitentiaries all discipline is
left too much in the power of the wardens;
when these men chance to be humane, no COM
plant can be made of their management;
when they chance to be otherwise, the treat
ment of the cOnvicts is frequently cruel
and brutal, resulting, as has been the case
in our own State, In death. Christianity
and expedency surely ought to dictate some
higher law than chance for the protection OF
even such of our citizens as are called the
dangerous classes. Apart from their uses as
modes of punishment and workshops, all the
jals and penitentaries were for years, and the
majority still are, actual schools Of Vice, where
the boy goes in comparatively innocent and
comes out hardened criminal. The COnnec-
ticut Committee are perhaps unnecessarily
timid in their hope ." that it will be admitted
that prisons should not be made seminaries
of crime and that the influence of prison
" life should be to elevate man and to cul-
tivate any latent spark of goodness there
"may be in him, and not to degrade"
The State Prison at Wethersfeld may be
taken as an average specimen of its class. IL
was built in 1897. NJ de Tocqueville and NJ.
de Beaumont in 1880, in their report to the
French Government, gave it the first place
among American prisons, being an example
of cleanliness and order, and paying not only
all its expenses. but in seventeen years accu-
mulating a surplus of $4,000. Satisfied with
this approval, the Connecticut people have
preserved it in stdtu quo for nearly fifty years.
| nrf of tha h1Iiln
ing, the outhouses, barns, etc, in ruinous
condition. and even the officers of the prison
sleeping in dark, ill-ventilated rooms. AS for
the dens occupied by the unfortunate prison.
ers, they are three feet and half in width
by seven in length, and are ventilated
by narrow orifce, four inches by two.
" One intelligent prisoner atiirms that spider
webs stretched across this opening never
| vibrate.n The doors are in most instances
solid, except for grating two feet by eigh-
teen inches in the upper part, through which
so little light enters that the prisoners must
stand, and with extended arms hold up the
book if they would see to read The Warden
is reported to be- fortunately, a humane man,
and in whatever lies under his control the
prisoners have fair share of justice; the food,
for example, being sufficient and clean. But
the State leaves very little under his control.
Rigid economy is the motive power IN all
the management The bed-sacks and pillow
| cases are never removed or washed until
completely worn out. Sheets and body linen,
until within few months were washed only
once in six weeks, now once in two; the
blankets once a year. Requests for baths were
discouraged when made; many of the pris-
| onersi bodies had been unacquainted with
water for year. Surely the State of Con-
| necticut would find even the income of S93 200 In
| seventeen years dearly earned by savings such
as these, The life of prisoner is as follows
He TURNS out by dawn, his night t-bucket in
hand. marches in line of his fellows in
dogged silence, all eyes fixed on the ground,
TO wash; carries his breakfast back to his cell,
of which the stencil is intolerable after the
breath of fresh air; marches again to the shop,
where he works all day, still IN absolute
silence. with his eyes always cast down. until
evening, when he is locked into his cell III
darkness until morning.
We have copied the disgusting minuti9 of
this record purposely; it surely cannot offend
us TO read the history of life which we in
fct on our fellow men for ten, twenty years,
sometimes until death. We have no wish that
the ill-doer should be pampered, or our jails
| or prisons made desirable habtatiOns. But in
the name of Christ we do ask that Society
shall not, when man errs, proceed to teach
him habits of personal filth, or breed in him
abnormal states of feeling, and selfish
"ness that is monstrous, and which must turn
"against humanity. Weak minds" says Dr.
Mayer, who accompanied the Commission
| a. J,,n oI