Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-01-06
B4RBARISM IN KENTUCKY.

The message of Gov. Blackburn to the
will attract considerable attention not only
in that State, but throughout the Union.
Large space is devoted to the subject of
prison reform, the text being the condition
OF the penitentiary at Frankfort. The gov
ernor states that the instincts of humanity
have led him to exercise the pardoning
power to its utmost limit, and through the
authority given him by the constitution, he
has released as many Of the lesser criminals
as he dared from place which he oharac-
terizes as but slightly better than the black
hole of Calcutta.
The penitentiary was located in 1913 on
low, marshy ground near the city of Frank
fort. No drainage of the filth of the prison
could then or has since been obtained, and
the consequence has been that the prisoners
there confined have been subject to con-
slant affection of malarial disorders. The
mortality has been appalllngly large, and dur
ing tho past year the deaths have amounted
to nearly q hundred out of a total population
in the Prison of nearly thousand. Added
to the unhealthy location the prison has been
largely overcrowded, so that four hundred
human beings have been obliged to live two
in cell seven feet long by three and half
wide, with about one hundred and seventy
cubic feet Of air between them. The best
medical authority declares that at least six
hundred cubic feet of air is necessary for the
consumption of each human being in order
to insure perfect health. The horrors of ex-
istence in these filthy cells can therefore
be imagined when it is known
that these prisoners have been obliged to
subsist on one-tenth this amount-to breathe
over and over again each others fetid breath,
besides the malaria that arises from the
swamp in which the prison is located.
The governor also calls attention to the
faults of the lease system in vogue at the
prison. The criminals are given only the
scantiest supply of Indifferent food-searce-
ly enough to keep body and soul together
and the moment their capacity for work is
the burdens of confinement, scant food foul
air and hard work-they are cast aside and
allowed to die like SO many dogs. The idea
prevalent seems to have been to make i'm
tory, and the governor very aptly remarks
that the legend over the gates to Dante's in
ferno might be very appropriately inscribed
over the doors of the Kentucky penitentiary:
"Who enters here leaves hope behind
Gov. Blackburn enters a strong plea on
behalf of the unfortunates whose crimes
have made them outcasts from SOCIETY," He
cites statistics to prove that kind and con-
sderate treatment elsewhere has resulted in
reforming even the most depraved. In order
to secure such treatment he demands that
the lease system be abandoned and resort be
had to the warden system; that physician
be employed by the State and held respon
sible by the State officers for the proper dis
charge of his duties; that the present loca
ton of the prison be abandoned, and two or
three new prisons be erected at different
points SO tEat uOU more IMAM Three TO four
hundred convicts be gathered in any one
place-in short that this reign of barbarism
cease and the criminal classes receive such
treatment as the enlightenment of the age
shall dictate.
The picture drawn by Gov. Blackburn is
not fattering to the State. 1t shows that
Kentucky is half century or more behind
the age in the treatment of its criminals
that the grossest inhumanity prevails in
every part of the management of the prison.
If the legislature now in session heeds the
wise counsel of the governor this blotch upon
the fame of the State may be speedily re-
moved, but if his recommendations are al
lowed to pass unheeded, the people of the
rest of tho world will be pardonable If they
question the enlightenment of the people of
that commonwealth. The legislature owe it
to themselves and to the people they repre-
sent that the abuses referred to by the GOV
ernor be remedied without delay. Even
though the convicts have alienated them
selves from society, they are entitled to hu-
name treatment in their days of enforced
confinement By the State.