Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-09
NUMBER 81.
THE OHIO PENITENmaRy

THE OHIO PENITENTIARY
More Details of the Brutal Treatments Of the
Conricts.
An ex-convict in the Ohio penitentiary re-
counts the following horrible tales to the
Cincinnati Enquirer:
"One instance of the way they went to
work to subdue the men comes to nv mind
just now. Soon after Grove came in h.
called the men together in the Chapel and
sald: we are going to live strictly up to
the rules OF the penitentiary, and every man
VINO violates them shall be punished. You
have no arguments; our arguments are vours.
We are here to run this institution. and we're
going to do it. You are the slaves of the
State, and you must obey He informed
the men that they must hereafter take of
their caps to the officers when they met
them. This was new thing to the men.
and, coming on top of the lnsolent lecture
they had just heard, was little more than
they could stand, and some demonstrations of
dlsaprobation were made by few of the men.
The result was that the Warden issued an
order that as punishment for this the tobac-
co of every man in the prison should be
stopped for two weeks, and thus the whole
l,6OO men were punished for the offense of
a few. Then. after the men got into the
cells, there was some further demonstration
by some of the men, and for this the beds
were taken out of every cell in the prison. and
the prisoners were all obliged to sleep on the
damp stone floor of their cells without bed
or covering, or upon their bare iron bed
steads, for two nights. Besides this, as a
furthpr Won't he
OF their Fourth of July dinner, That is tho
way Grove began his course as Warden.''
SUBSTITUTING PUNISHMENT FOR PRAYERS.
Deputy Warden Dean, who is even more
tyrannlcai and cruel than Grove. seemed to
enjoy this change, and remarked that the
other MISUNDERSTANDING of Innes-had
tried praying, and that now they we're going
to see II punishment wouldn't have better
effect than prayers
"Did the punishments increase in nnm-
ber?''
"fes, very much. 1nnes used to have from
nifty to one hundred reports and punish
ments in a week, while Grove has from two
hundred to four hundred. Why, l have
known as high as sixty-three men ducked in
single day, and all IN the same ,eater.
which was frequently very filthy, too. The
guards under the present administration
seem to take pride in reporting men, and
there is quite rivalry among them as to
who shall report the highest number in q
week. Some of them get up to as high as
elghty-hve or ninety in a week. They have q
very easy way of getting man punished They
will walk up to him and say: 1t doesn't
seem to me you're working fast enough; you
that he is getting along all right, he frequent
ly replies by stating how much of the re-
qulred number he has done. oh, you are
insolent, are you? I'll report you and have
you punished for insolencen is the reply he
usually gets; and down goes his name, aud
he goes to the dungeon or ducking-tub.
Another way is to walk up to man and say:
You were talking. The man, if he was not
talking, says: No 1 wasn't sOh, l lie
then, do Il? Is the answer he usually gets.
No, you do not ie,' he says. well, then,'
comes the retort, you were whisperingr and
so man is either forced to submit to the
charge of whispering or is reported for in
science
TAKEN FROM THE DUNGEON DEAD.
"Do you think these punishment very
severeY' asked.
"Severe, yes; often fatal
!'Do you know of any such cases?"
''Yes, recollect case of 'insolence' that
occurred while was there in which tho
punishment proved fatal. The victim was
strong, healthy man, but had the misfortune
to incur the displeasure of his gaurd. He
was reported for insolence and sent to the
dungeon. He was a proud-spirited fellow,
and probably was not as submissive as some
He rebelled and was kept in day after day,
starved, ducked and put on the bull rings, un-
til on the twentieth day he was take, out
dead from his long stay in the darkness and
foul air and the starvation and other punish
ment inflicted upon him during that time"
"And was there ever anything done about
it?''
Ozone! What could be done? There ID
no inquest, no legal process, which examines
| into the deaths which occur within the
prison. except in very rare cases. No, there
was nothing done, except to throw the poor
fellows body to the medical students for
carving
SICK MAN DucKKD TO DEATH.
"Do you know of any other cases of this
kind?''
"Yes. There was man in the hospital
while was there by the name of Joseph
Smith. He was from Columbus, don't re-
member what he was there for. He had been
sick in the hospital two weeks, and was, as
you may well imagine, in very critical
condition. One day the guard or assistant
physician, forget which, went to him and
said, You were whispering The poor fel
low denied the charge. Then lie, do II
replied the officer, in his favorite method of
getting the men into trouble. No. replied
Smith, don't say that you lie, but wasn't
whispering Then the officer few into
pretended rage, and, saying that Smith had
been insolent, and had been talking aside,
actually tool. him from the siek-bed do,en to
the ducking-tub and had him duclted in tbs
ice water. Poor Smith, who was scarcely
able to walk when he was taken from tho
bed, was completely Frustrated by the duck
ing, as must have been any man who was
taken from sick bed and immersed in ice
water. He was brought back and put into
bed, but never rallied, and died in four hours
after, no doubt from the effect of the duck
ing"
i ECONOMY IND RETRENCHMEHT.
The Promised Policy of the New Cabinet of
the Quebec Government.