, 1880-03-25
The Kentucky State Penitentiary

10 IS IOClCGu on IlG ~" tCIN lS''t Va
.bo second bottom Of the Kentucky
river, with bluffs towering above it on
the north and cast Should the river
now in food, rise five feet higher, it
would lay its grounds under water
Here in Il bracaalass corner it bakcs in
the sun in Summer swcats and steams
in wet weather, sleeps in an atmosphere
Of miasma in the Fall and through the
Winter is pcryaded by the chilling
deadly moisture that suggests the un-
,Ierground sepulchre. The water is only
= few feet below the surface, whence it
exhales continually, creeping up on the
walls, and maintaining an unhealthy
iampness in the earthen floor. 1t is
said to he without sufficient underdrain
age to carry off the filth, and that from
its low level and swampy situation no
efficient sewerage can be effected, Ger
tainly its surface drainage is not equal
TO that of o we'll regulated pig stye,
which it must somewhat resemble after
\ fall of snow or rain. True, broken
rock keep ont Of the mud the thousand
or more convicts within its walls, but it
forms rough, irregular surface, which
cannot be swept or cleaned, and, there
fore, gathers and retains the refuse of
the prison, while the rain forms mud
puddles here and there in the hollows.
Only at great expense could prison
yard be formed that might be kept free
from flth-a yard dry, smooth, level,
we'll drained, that showers would cleanse
and not make steam with the stencil OF
decaying vegetable and animal matter.
Whose business is it to effect this !
Not, surely that Of the lessee under the
present arrangement The facilities for
manufacturing are of the crudest char
acter and the buildings wholly insult
able. For example, II room, say 5O
100 feet, with ten foot ceiling, is de,
voted to hacking hemp, and one would
conclude, on the first glance, to the de-
struction of convicts. In Winter there
is no arrangement for carrying of the
dust, and in Summer it may 60 out of
the window if it pleases. How long a
man might be expected to live in an at
mosphere of hemp dust that cuts off the
vision at four feet distance, is question
for medical experts to determine, but
that hundreds of men can endure it
from morning to night, for a consider
able period, is successfully demonstrated
in the Kentucky penitentiary. The
holiday attire Of the convicts, as they
disporsed themselves in the yard on
Sunday, was almost universally dirty and
slovenly, In justice to the superintcnd-
opt, however, it is proper to say that,
with the radical defects in the prison, it
must be very difficult to keep them clean
and tidy, even if there were any dis
oipline maintained looking to this end,
which, if It exists, failed to observe,
1t is within the prison that man Of
warm sympathies stands aghast at the
mean provision the great commonwealth
of Kentucky has made for her conyicts.
Tho people Of the State do not
know what manner of place it is
they have received as an heirloom and
memorial Of disgrace. On strip Of
ground six yards wide and one hundred
in length stands tho inner cage, with its
six tier of cells on each side, and one
above the other. These are four feet
wide by seven and half long and six
and half feet high to the center Of an
arched roof dark musty holes in a SOLID
limestone wall. The whole cage is sur
rounded by an incosed alley way in
rough building whose walls are four feet
thick, and that allows Of ninefoot pas
sage around the cage. Out of this
moist and musty passage way comes the
unhealthy air into the dismal holes
over six hundred of them, resembling
diminutive sepulchres or commodiouS
stone cohns, into which no man ought
to be put until he is dead 1t comes in
through the small grated door with vir.
tually no provision for it to escape after
its oxygen has been exhausted by the
unfortunate inmate. In the corner Of
the cell, next the earth floor, is observa-
BILE q little hole, by which it is assumed
to be ventilated. But the convict sleeps
on a strap iron shelf, letting down by
hinges from one side Of the cell, far
above this little hole, which takes the
foul air up the little Aue only when the
diminutive sepulchre has become filled
with it, Such poisonous gasses as it
does carry up, and so transported, large
portion OF them at least, for the use and
benefit OF the sleeper above. lie re-
49,. LLn.., ;n4n Ia lit4ln cnnnlnhrn