Connecticut western news., 1879-08-06
PADDLING IN THE PRISONS.

1ADDAkNU IN 1EkE r hkSVNSs CRUEL PUNISHMENT AS DESCRIBED BY ONE
 WHO OUGHT TO KNOw-SToRIEs WHICH
 MAY BE GREATLY EXAGGERATED OR
 WHOLLY FALSE CONNECTS SAID TO HAVE
 BEEN MADE HAVING MANIAcs.
 An ex-convict of Clinton Prison has been giving reporters for the New York press accounts of the punishment by "paddling." "The paddle used at Clinton," he said, is in some respects different from those they have at Sing Sing, where passed the first year of my imprisonment. The latter is all wood, and the broad flat part with which prisoner is struck is perforated with holes, which break and tear the skin. At Clinton the striking part of the in- strument is of leather, and though there are no holes in it, when it is skillfully used it causes terrible pain, and is really as formidable as the Sing Sing paddle. The entire paddle is about as long as an ordinary broom. The handle is thin, and the leather striking part is shaped something like the end of a canoe paddle. The block on which the prisoner has to bend when undergoing punishment is about three feet high. The feet are placed in stocks on the ground, and the body is drawn over the block, the hands being secured in rings on the other side. Thus fastened the man cannot writhe or move an inch, and he can express the horrible suffering the fogging causes him only by his shrieks. No other prisoner is ever allowed into the guard room to see man padded, and the doors and windows are always carefully closed to deaden the sound of his cries as far as possible but despite all the | precautions taken in nine cases out of ten the screams of the tortured man are heard all over the prison.
 "When man is being aogged the physician usually kneels on the ground by his side and feels his pulse. If the pulse weakens he orders the punish ment stopped at once. The usual num- Der of blows given is about fifteen or twenty for not many men can bear more without danger but in some ex- ceptional cases this is largely exceeded.
 Thirty strokes are not uncommon, and I once knew man who got twenty-five.
 Keepers who have seen padding say
 that the first two or three strokes inn
 part terrible livid tinge to the flesh.
 Then the skin cracks, as it sometimes
 does in very cold weather. Very soor
 the blood begins to ooze out and trickle
 down the prisoners legs to the floor
 but the punishment is not stopped, an6
 man is often horribly wounded before
 he is unbound. Then he is taken to his
 cell, and none of the other prisoners art
 allowed to see him until his wounds arc
 healed.
 "The man who yields the paddle a
 Clinton is Hugh Fitz Patrick. He ii
 about thirty-tive years of age, and O
 immense size and strength. He look like prize OK, and certainly he seem to enjoy his work. In the summer o 1877 some of the men, having beel given bad meat at dinner, carried part of it out in their hands, to throw
 away. AS they were going along tn
 gallery one of them threw piece dow into the hall, and John Clabby, boy who was walking behind him, followe his example, and flung down the piec . he was carrying. At that moment tn kitchen keeper stepped out of his room | oyo1 4hn of ct H saw Clabby throw it, and at once re ported him. I think Clabby was tn youngest and smallest boy who wa ever sent to State prison. He was onl fifteen years of age, and his weight wa
 about no pounds, but he was dragge
 into the guard room, lashed like full
 grown man over the block, and tha
 giant, Fitzpatrick, paddled the littl B fellow nearly to death. I don't kno,
 how many blows he got, but he was lai :. up for several days after the hoggine & When he was able to come out of hi s cell asked him about the paddline l and he told me that when he felt tn s first blow he thought it was not tn a paddle. It was so heavy, and gave hir V such shock, that he thought it was P rafter that had tumbled down upon hir : from the ceiling. He was greatl a frightened, and cried out that the builc ing was. falling but Fitzpatrick onl ! laughed, and piled his paddle mo, B vigorously than before.
 @ The warden of Clinton Prison ha D one theory, and that was that convi' y was only good to be fogged or knocke r down. Under his management th
 punishment of padding became shame l. fully common. Sometimes it was at 6 ministered to prisoner because he We 8 caught talking in work hours, bI }. usually the first offence of this kind WI e punished by putting the mans hea d into an iron cage, which he was con a pelled to wear at all times-even in be- c You may suppose that it was not DO |. siDle to obtain much sleep with the hea r confined in such an apparatus, and l, have often seen men wearing the ;. whose faces plainly showed that the e were utterly exhausted for want of res d If this treatment was found not to hao :. the desired effect, and the men we, y again caught talking, the paddle VI l. brought into play, and this punishmen E. I need hardly say, was generally su 1t cessful.
 " "I remember that in the winter 1876 two men working in the mines we,