Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-01

shortened. Inc lQea Is ehsA' az SHG setS
eight marks If he earns them, and no en- get
no more than eight marks day,
THE GOODWIN ACT.
o.-From the beginning the Goodwin Act
provides that the prisoners shall have SO
many credits, and he is credited with those
when he comes in here.
Al think the English system is pretty
much the same as the Goodwin Act. a
prisoner under the English system gets eight
marks if he behaves himself.
Mr.. Wats-But only if he wins 1t by IN
dustry?
AT he does: that is, what he loses is
mostly for lack of industry. These marks
are intended to be tests of the prisoners IN
tention to reform, and come under the dis'
cipline of the prison, and subject nlmsen TO
that discipline.
Well, where 1 left off, was about
THE CORRESPONDENCE.
At three years it gets down to three
months. Can correspond once in three
months under the rules of the prison but II
he was there twenty years he wouldn't get
any more letters, but could only correspond
once in three months. Now the rules OF
that prison, so far as the probationary prison
is concerned, are that all work In the cells.
In the morning at 6 o'clock the bell strikes.
and everybody has to get up. The first duty
he has to perform is to fold up his bedding /;
that is, roll it up. 1t consists OF three blan-
kets, two sheets and straw mattrass. IL Is
Just laid upon a platform about ten inches
high, and as it recedes back there
is a bench. which raises itself up about eight
hot
puts his clothes on that, and that makes his
pillow. He has no pillow. These clothes are
rolled up ard slowed away and put IN the place
that is made for them ont of the way above.
He then battles himself with bucket of
water there-a wooden bucket, with wooden
fat hoops; no iron about them, because iron
might be used for other purposes wooden
hoops and wooden vessels that contain water.
After he gets through with his bath
he washes out his cell with what re-
mains at that period. When he gets
through the washing they allow certain
length of time the doors are thrown open,
and the prisoners march out in the
corridor with their buckets and other
utensils, and go out singly and empty them.
They come back then and commence the clean
ing of their cells, putting things in order; they
have stationary closets in the cells. AT
o'clock the bell strikes again, and breakfast
is brought to him. He eats breakfast ; fif-
teen minutes is allowed for that, and then his
work is brought into him, and he sits there
till lunch time, solitary he works in his cell {;
partially solitary. They are allowed out so
many hours in week to exercise In
the yard in files; not separate-not
lounging about as they please, but
continuous walking in files, with no opportu-
mites for conversin9 and once week they
are allowed to take bath all over. The
bath is in the yard. That is confined to GER
tain prisoners, and they take their bath in
their turn. While others are walking, some
are bathing, and these are brought cut and
take their place in line again, and others step
up and take baths.
DURING THIS NINE MONTHS OF COMBINE
In the cell the Wardens make their reports
of the character of the man and his industry,
and the doctor once month examines him
physically; strips him stark naked and looks
after his physical condition, and by that is
determined the fitness of the man. These
reports go into the hands of the Governor at
the end Of nine months from the report OF
the Wardens as to the character and conduct
and physical condition OF the man, and he is
drafted from there over to Dartmore, Port
land Docks or Portsmouth Docks, on
the hulks, and different other penal
institutions. If man is sickly and weak
and well behaved, and the prison is not over
crowded, he may remain there awhile. That
is entirely optional with the Governor, and
is regulated by the quantity of prisoners that
he has and the character of the man. But in
some of the prisons there is clothing made and
shoes made, and all that sort of light work.
Those whose physical conditions are such
that they cannot stand labor at the dock,
are sent to these prisons. Where a man is
great, strong, healthy man, he is sent to
the dock, where heavier work Is done-and
they are all graded according to the charac-
ter of the men, and the number Of times they
have been there. F'irst-timers are never
sent where secondtimers are sent, unless
there is some special reason for it.
But the Governor of the prison determines
that question. In other words, there are
nine months probation for them to ascertain
the character of the men. That is the En-
elish system, and that is the system that will
have to be adopted in this State, or there
never can be any classification of prisoners.
Mr. Gibbs How are they instructed?
These prisoners go to their cells and werk,
some at one thing and some at another; are
they given something that they have been
taught before
A.-No, sir. The Warder has to instruct
them-.hs Warder Of the ward. Each tier of
cells has a Warder, and If man is set at
tailoring it is the duty OF this Warder to in
struct him The clothing is all cut out,
worked by cutters, and they follow one line
Of business in each ward. The cells are
about y by 16, l should judge. The light
is admitted through an embra5ure about two
feet long and about three inches wide, about
the same as rifle ports in fortress, and
through the wall there is no hole through
the door at all. The slots are long and verti-
cal These are about three inches on the
outer side, so that when the Warder comes
along he can see the prisoner at work or in his
bed. They have gas jet in the cells, and
the gas jets are turned out at Q. The gas is
turned on by the Warder, and man comes
along with little lamp, and he hands it in
and he lights the gas-a very small Jet. The
prisoner is allowed in his cell a Bible, hymn
book and psalm book.
NO DAILY PAPERS
Are allowed him. He is allowed to draw
from the prison library such books as the
library contains, but only to read, of course,
in his own time; 10 such thing as reading in
working hours. The attempt is, of course, to
shut the prisoner out from the world en-
tirely-to isolate him make him feel that it
is prison, and feel that he is isolated from
the world
l did not learn how many, or what pro-
portion of the cOnvicss were reformed by
this system, but l have records, l think.
Some of the reports are over at the Office that
would show who they claim were re-
formed. The Pentonville prison Is, as
stated, precisely the same as the Millbank.
You know both are probationary prisons.
DETERRISG MEN FROM CRIME.
My judgment, from my observations, as to
the effect that penal institutions have great
influence in the direction of lettering
men from crime, and as to what class
of men are deferred from crime by the
existence of this prison, depends altogether
upon the prison discipline. The prison
that / know is the most dreaded, as stated
to me by convicts that have served terms
there. is the Charlestown Penitentiary,
in Massachusetts,, where they have the silent
system, and OF which the men who have served
in that prison have the most holy dread of
going back there again; not because of the
moral reformation, but for the very dread of
going to that prison-using their own express
sion, that they would rather die than go back
not because they have been abused in any
way or inhumanly treated, but because OF
thatisolation. There they work in lonely cells,
where they are separated one from another,
and when the Warder comes along they are
never permitted to look up. There is no