The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-03-27
ILLINOIS PRNITENTIARY.

The committee appointed by the lower
house of the Illinois legislature to invesil.
gate the management Of the penitentiary al
Joliet presented their report few days AGO
and most of it has been published While
the investigations of the committee disclosed
some glaring irregularities and gross frauds
in the management of labor and other con.
tracts, with no inconsideIable amount of
small piltering, the report is chiefly notable
for its disclosures of brutality and cruelty
practiced upon prisoners, and for the way in
which it canonizes to eternal infamy" a
brute named Hall, deputy warden, who
seems for much too long time to have had
charge of the prisoners This Hall was
disgraceiully mixed up with the Shower
oath" case, which ought to have led to an
explosion of the prison management year
ago. One OF the favoriie modes of this mon
ster to subdue refractory prisoner was by
using the sack" The sack" saws one
of the witnesses-
Is about q steet long, ? feet wide, and @
inches thick. 1t weighs 52i5 pounds-was
filled with iron bars and worn on the backs
of the convicts for punishment. Some men
were compelled tn walk around the SOLITARY"
with il on their backs, under guard, for ten
or fifteen hours Others were made to stand
handcutied 10 the wall with it on
their backs. Some were punish
ished rs follows; One handcuif on the wrist
and joined through the ring bolt and fastened
10 the other. Some of them in that condition
wore the sack.
Q-What was the effect on the -convcts OF
this kind of treatments
A-Physical decentralization. 1t effected
permanent injury Some went ta the Insane
Asylum from this treatment William Dunn
wore the sack with ball and chain, and re
manned In the hospital a month He had
been wearing the sack for week For
months he was not able to raise his hand 10
take a drink of water.
\ convict named Blsn wore the sack a few
days, until he was used up and taken 10 the
hospital. By the order of Capt. Hall. buck
ed and gagged this man for eight hours. HeI
had never been punished before, having been
there for years, The man was insane before
the punishment. This was the day before he
was taken Ia the hospital. The way he was
bucked and gagged he couldn't touch the
floor When the man made any noise, nv
In the case OF W iiliam Gross he WAS nun
shed by the order of Capt. Hall for playing
)n'' or playing the fool''-the que ton was.
Was he a tool or not lie cas a tool; didn't
know anything; couldnJ read or write. He
vas punished in August, iS13,-sf hours
hapdcuffed 10 the wall, administered ten
iours each DAY and laid the rest of the time
m the Gag Istone hcor?l without blanket.
lie was not able 10 walk when took him out
II the solitary. /,
4 colored man, who was lunatic, nsed To
eceive almost nightly visits from Hall aud !,
his underlings, who would enter his cell and I.
punch him with their canes and kick him in
he ribs until they were tired, the poor victim
III the time crying murder end begging for
mercy.
l;dces rot appear from any part of the re-
,ort that this brute Hall has been dismissed.
Ind for ought we know TO the contrary he may
Till be In n position TO extract infinite en-.
oymcnt from the screams aud writings Of