Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-01-18
NEW YORK'S GREAT PRISON.
LIFE AMONG THE CoHvICTs IN.
INJURED IN SING SING.
sOw Newcomers are Made Into 'sTl-
gers''-A Regiment and a Hail OF
Busy Prisoners.

aOw Newcomers are Made Into s'I1-
gers''-A Regiment and a Half of
Busy Prisoners.
After all, the State prisons of Concord,
Auburn and Sing Sing sort are pretty
much alike, writes correspondent OF a
Boston paper You see great rows OF
shops, chimneys belching smoke, gangs
of convicts marching to and fro at morn
ing, noon and night, and there is ever the
same dull routine, which rarely varies
summer or winter. The dismal waste of
human opportunities, which comes to be
ones uppermost thought in inspecting
these vast penal establishments, makes
one sad. 1t is horrible, the whole thing.
| could not help wondering why the men
did not make one mad rush out on the
piers and plunge into the water on the
free-fowing river, and so end it all. The
interior of Sing Sing is not cheerful. The
cells are built back to back, in six tiers,
and there are in all 1900 cells, beside
some few outside. In these 1900 odd
cells are placed over 1900 men. 1t is a
sadly overcrowded prison. 1t is to be
borne in mind that Sing Sing is the place
where the New York city courts send
their convicts and that it is, in fact, the
one State prison of the great me-
tropolis. The cells at Sing Sing
are very small, too small for the
sleeping accommodation of a human
being, and when two men are placed in
one cell, as is often done, all sanitary
laws are defied. The cells are seven feet
long, but only three feet and four inches
wide! Think of that. There is not room
enough therein to swing the most
diminutive cat without the greatest
danger-to the cat. Think of passing
your Sundays in one of these stone and
iron boxes, and think, too, of summer
night in closet of such hliputian size.
1t is not the fault of the present manage
ment of the prison that the accommoda-
tions are so poor, for Sing Sing prison
was built thirty-four years ago, and the
projectors thereof now occupy, for the
most part, the usual six feet by two of
mother earth, narrower quarters than
they built for living men,
On the train which brought me to
Sing Sing were five young men in hand
cuffs, the latest installment from the
metropolitan courts. One was colored
fellow, two Enthusiastically Irish, and two
of American lineage. AS they entered
the prison doors to begin their servitude
of years, batch of released men walked
out into the free morning air under the
cheerful sun. What sensation Of in
finite relief it must be to be able, after
many years of prison life, to walk out
into unwalled space, and to be able to
look about without meeting a keepers
watchful eye! The released men walked
with swinging step up the hill, and cast
no look behind.
The newcomers were a doleful con-
trast. They were marched to the clerks
room, where short young man with a
red mu5tache, seated at table with a
big record book before him, asked the
men in turn the routine questions, in
Guiding the pertinent inquiry: "Were
you ever in prison before, and whereof
Several of them had "done time" some
in prison, others in county penitentiaries.
While one man was undergoing ques-
tioning, the others had to stand with
folded arms, facing the wall. They
looked blue enough. Finally, each man
was asked to empty his pockets and take
off his jewelry. Plated cuff buttons and
studs, watch chains, keys, rings, etc.,
were taken off and put in packages
against the day of release. One young
man said of his sleeve buttons: "They
are not worth saving" Then the clerk
told the men that they would be dealt
with humanelv, and as kindly as prison
regulations would allow, if they con-
tinued obedient to the prison rules, and
he stated to each man the amount of
Communication time he could secure by
uniform good conduct. The men then
formed in Indian file and were marched
off to another building, where l saw
them strip themselves of their clothes
and take a warm bath with plenty of
soap Their old clothes were taken
away, never to be returned to them,
every prisoner on release being furnished
with estate suit" or prisoners cast
off suit. The suits discarded on enter
ing the prison are cleansed by immersion
in brine, etc., and finally placed in the
clothing-room for men to wear away, if
they prefer old clothes to estate suit, "
as they generally do. After the bathing
the men were furnished with striped
suits, and they then submitted their mus
taches or boards to the convict barber in
waiting for them. They looked there
after like all the rest of the work-a-day
prison world. Then they are each taken
to cell, and locked up against the NOR
row, when each man of them would be
set at work in one of the shops, and
would thus have entered on his routine of
life to last for years. Thereafter, the
marching in lockstep, theeating of prison
hash side by side with felons of all de-
grees, the sleeping in stone box, the
utter subsection of the man to routine
as rigid as cast-steei and as memorable as
adamant This is convict life in the great
State prisons of the land. This is the al
most inevitable result of crime. "Only
young and foolish thieves expect to keep
out of the places" said convict of ex-
perience to me few days ago at the
Eastern Penitentiary, in Philadelphia.
1.-THE punishments here are severe, >
said the ed-mustached clerk to the young
men standing before him with folded
arms. Yes, they are severe. The
brutal "paddle" is no longer
employed in the State prisons Of
the Empire State The paddle was ar
instrument of leather with short
handle. The principle of the thing il
the wrist and the human hand In plain
English, padding" meant a leather
spanking. And such spanking meant
blistering business. 1t was inhuman ant
bad in every way. The padded convic