The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-02-09

the Reformatory and Female Prison met
Thursday at the office of the Institution and
continued the examination of witnesses.
There was quite number of visitors in at
tendance. Among those noticed were Mrs.
Sarah T. Bolton Mrs. Major Gordon, Mr..
and Mrs. Coffin, of Richmond; Mr.. and
Mrs. Frank Coffin, Mrs. Governor Hen
bricks Mrs Captain Dodds, MIR. Speaker
Ridpath of the House of Representatives;
Hon. G. w. ID. Gibson, Colonel Howard, OF
the Prison South, and Hon. j. Gregory.
The Committee-Edwins. Meredith, Mar
shall. Mcclure and Carr-were all present.
The evidence was on the side of the Insitu-
ton Mrs Smith the superintendent was
the only witness examined, she being on the
witness stand from 3 O'Clock until IN the
evening, save perhaps an Intermission oil one
hour for tea
The following are the main features of the
testimony. as given by Mrs. Smith, exam
ined by Mr.. Duncan, on behalf of the lnsti-
tuition:
MRS. SMITH.
lam the Superintendent of the Institu-
ton: have been since its organization; did
great deal toward having it erected; was
given the privilege of talking to the Assem-
bly i'm BODY on the importance OF building
the Institution, believing, as ! did, that 1t
was for the benefit of the unfortunate te-
males who had to- be confined in
the other prisons of the State.
The bill passed the Legislature
providing for the erection OF the Institution,
and during the time of the erection was IN
England with my husband, visiting several
prisons in that country; / am or the I'M
preston that ] was called by the voice of
the Most High to spend my life in the
reformation of fallen women, and have
spent the most of my life in saving hundreds
of them from ignominious deaths The
building was erected in 1878; | came here
in that year with seventeen prisoners
from the Southern Prison; | had long
thought ] could manage Prison without
whipping; the prisoners when brought here
from the Southern Prison saw that we had
no firearms or anything of that kind, and
they simply said we should be murdered;
they scorned at our religion, tore the Bible
up: they came here with tobacco in their
trunks and used it like men, in fact, worse,
for when woman gets low she gets lower
L than a man: the deprivation of daily
fpapers and the Police Gazette was the
most severe punishment that could
be inflicted upon them. They would often
Aay: For chew of tobacco and old JEFF, L
\Duld not give all the RefOrmatOrleS III the
Yorld" Small children were brouget in to
that had slept in stables and were stepped
all manner of crime for children so
young. | have punished some of the in
mates with the cold water process. The
first time il was done it was upon two girls
who had attempted to burn the building; /
never put any of them in bath tub until l
had first put warm water in it..
before turning Oh the cold water; they
were rubbed dry and furnished clean and
dry clothing after they had been thus pun
ished; after that they were shut up in their
cells and fed on bread and water for two
days when they asked forgiveness; my great
object has been To make good servants out
of the girls that came to the Institution; /
wanted TO fit them so they could enter good
= families and have good homes; many
of them have been favored with good
homes and are doing well. In 1873 | dis
covered that general practice of self-abuse
was going on among the girls. L could not
stop it by any other mode of punishment
than by using cold water. The punishment
was etfectual / never allowed them to
remain in the tubs more than three or four
minutes. Small girls were whipped with
slipper, elder ones were placed in solitary
confinement, often in the cells. We
did not use the cells much until
we had steam pipes placed
in them; the inmates would often use the
most abusive language that could be thought
of; some of them were the most filthy and
degraded girls that could possibly be found
in the State; some of them would eat out of
slOp buckets; they would steal, climb over
transOms, pick locks; Mrs Talbert, the lady
der her charge; she did not punish them, but
sent them To me and | punished them
most always punished them by whipping
them with slipper on the bare bodies
(The slippers so much talked of were here
exhibited. They were not dangerous
looking instruments of torture. They
were plain slippers without heels on them. }
In whipping them ] simply wanted to have
them know that they must be governed and
conform to the rules of the Institution.
There were several inmates that seemed de-
termined to disObey every rule and keep us
continually in trouble. Our motto has been,
eff YOU don't work. YOU shall not eat" Some
of them would not work, and the only way
to make them work is by punishment Qr
fear of punishment. There has been-sOme
OF the worst characters that Indiana could
produce. There is now a general insurrec-
ton going on in the Institution since
the commencement of this investigation.
/ am fully convinced that it is wrong TO
bring up little children in the same insttu-
ton with prisoners. Since this investga-
ton has commenced no one has ever heard
such swearing as is used by the refractory
inmates Our lives have been threatened
and at times it would seem dangerous to go
among them. positively deny ever having
bumped the heads of any of the inmates
against the wall. have slapped them in
the face sometimes / have held them bv
the hair to keep them from hurting some of
US officers. l never caused the deafness of
Lizzie Cash or any one else. She was always
a little deaf never stru * any of them in
the face.
The batil-tub would always have warm
water in il when any one was put i'm il.
Those that were the most frequently pun
ished were those that had contracted the
habit of Self-abuse. | never kept any of
them in the bath-tHb. more than five min
utes; never used any nozzle but the small
one 1.-THE one now shown the Committee)
did get the Mcintyre girl down
on the floor, and held her
there until she confessed the wrong done in
disObeying Mrs Grim; the food is much
better than has been represented to the
Committee by the prisoners who have testi-
fled; the girl, Ida Haines, frequently said to
us that we could not do her any good and
she would never mind us; she tries every
chance she can get 20 persuade my girls TO
leave here and enter life of shame; the
girl is now prostitute, and was before she
came here.
| turned the hose on Ada Harris the
cOlored girl, that has been before the Com
mittee. She cut me with the butcher knife
that she had in her hand when she at
tempted to kill Minnie Hurley; she was
unsafe TO have at the Institution she repeat
edly said that she would kill Minnie Hur-
ley, and us officers, too The woman, Jen-
ME SWitZer came here a very had woman.