Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-26
PRISON INTERROGATION.

Inc Assembly COmmltlee on WAYS and
Means resumed last evening the investigation
of the management of the San Quentin Prison
r. ii. Beamer, of Woodland, testified: He
| last year purchased from Mr. Cloe, of that
place, bags for eight cents each, delivered at
Woodland. and of prison manufacture At this
time he received circulars from the prison stat
+! ing that the same bags could not be purchased
| from there at leSs tnan eight cents each on
| Jackson-street wharf, San Francisco Others
purchased at Woodland at same price that he
| did.
| Captain Mckenzie, now private detective.
| and who was Captain of Guard at San Quentin
Prison in 1855, testified: Have known of drunken
ness among guards five or six were discharged
for that cause, and many were guilty of same
offense but not discharged. Costello, still there
| was drunk on several occasions, also one Proc.
tor, and were not discharged. Phil. Donavan
one of the guards got drunk and was not only
not discharged but was promoted. Frank
Clayes, another guard, gets drunk. All these
men were reported by me but it did no good
1t was said that Clayes was DR.. Mays nephew,
and must not see that he was drunk. Costello
was a friend of some one, and hence he could
not be interfered with. Costello was gone one
time nine days. but nothing was done about it.
left the office of Captain of Guard last Decem-
Der. Fuller, the prison druggist, have seen
drunk. have seen him in a condition that
would hate to have him fill pre-
drink, but have seen him drunk. / never
| saw the Warden in the State Prison. l received
my orders from Captain Chambers At times
his conduct to under officers was very insolent
Il
| guard, left because of Chambers conduct to-
| wards him. Another who did SO was McIaush-
lin so heard. Donovan took a disreputable
woman up into his room and kept her there
| about three hours, and Costello had one in his
room two hours or so. told Captain Chambers
OF it, but nothing was done about it. This was
last summer. one of the women was prosti-
| tute from San Francisco, and the other did not
know.
A prisoner named Woods, serving life sem
| tence was permitted to dress in citizens cloth
| q "a in nac'
quarters, outside of the prison walls. There was
nothing to prevent his escape.
Captain Pau took the stand again and ex-
| planned his testimony heretofore given concern
| ing fayoritism shown by Captain Murphy TO
| Bailey. l find, said Captain Paul. that Bailey
had given information to the prison officers
| and the favor shown was for this reason and
| which should have probably done myself.
Captain NJ A. Smith testified that he was
Chief Turnkey of San Quentin Prison for a
| while. At one time the Captain of the Watch
Captain Proctor was not there when it was his
time to be on duty, and found he was down
the road drunk. On one occasion, when Dr.
Durant was away from the prison, DR.. White of
San Rafael, was procured to attend prisoners
Mclaughlin, OConnor, Colonel Mckenzie and
Others left the service of the prison because of
the conduct of captain Chambers. One time
he called guard a !" damned lunk-head" He
abused them in language and by his conduct in
various ways. Captain Chambers is often very
| when 1t was his turn to be on duty, was down
| the road playing poker; did not see him there,
but know il to be fact never saw Dr. in
rant do any lind of inspection duty while was
there. know of prisoner Wood wearing citi-
zens clothing and sleeping outside of the prison
walls. He was in prison for life, or supposed to
be. There was nothing to prevent his escaping
| while sleeping outside. He was outside four or
five days, to my knowledge II was claimed by
parties at the prison that bags made by the
| night shift cost much more than those made by
the day shift. The witness stated that he
had nothing whatever to do with this.
Woods was brought down from Folsom by Cap
tain Chambers as his confidential clerk. At
one time a man named Van Nasel was outside
and hid in the lumber and could not be found
| Captain Chambers told some of the TRUSTEES to
go and look Tor him, and promised that the man
| who found him should be pardoned within two
days. When told that he better be careful what
he promised, as some man might find him for
whom pardon could not be obtained, Captain
| Chambers said pardon would be obtained for
any one that found him. Woods very soon after
found the man and Chambers next day told me
that might give him citizens clothes, as he
would be pardoned in two or three days. After
little hesitation and further direction on the
| part Of Chambers, gave him citizens clrthes
| Woods thereupon dressed in them and was per
mitted by Chambers 10 sleep outside of the
| would be pardone0 Immediately. Woods STAYED
outside five or six days, and then an order was
received from Warden McComb to return him
to the inside, and ne was put at work in the
sash and blind factory.
Captain Thomas was again placed on the stand
| and asked by the committee 10 produce his state
..
comprising the amount produced by the night
and day shifts. respectively. A lengthy discus
| sion of the Committee ensued, and finally the
statements were filed with the committee, to be
returned TO him as soon as subscriptions could
| he made by the committee clerk. The state
ments were filed. Witness stated that at first,
after the night SHIFT was put on, the day shift
was 91a hours and the night shift 615 hours. The
night shit did not amount to much, and subse-
| quently orders came to make the shifts equal
| and to keep the account OF output in same
|
and then the method of keeping was
changed so as not to keep any of Il e accounts
separa'e, but to report entire output as one. On
November 18th an order vas issued to increase
the number of looms run at night. This came
| ostensibly from the Warden, and it has been
| followed to the present time. OF course by run
ming many more looms at night than during the
day, the night shit work is made to appear as a
success Witness was jute agent for the prison
| under Warden Shirley and also under Warden
| MeComb until recently
/ John McCrae, of San Quentin testified: Saw
John McComb, Jr. on November 6. lsss-last
election day-giving the guards tict cts He was
| at the polls. think Captain Smith was watch
| ing to see that the tickets given were duly de-
| posted. Young McComb was peddling Repub
lcan tickets. l stayed only a short time ana
| then walked off. Saw him give out about y
tickets. have lived at San Quentin is years
Am a hotel keeper and ne er was connected
with the San Quentin prison.
| Adjourned until 7:30 this evening
| TIE SENATE COMMITTEE
The Senate Committee on State Prisons held
| It's flrst meeting last night, and preceded to
| investigate the management of the State Prisons
| at San Quentin and Folsom, and the authentic
ity OF the letters published in the newspapers,
| and purported to be written by some of the
prison officials. Senator Goucher presided
The first witness was ex-Warden Ames. of
San Quentin, who succeeded in knowing less
| than Missouri juryman and kept his II outh as
1 close as Long Island clam. In answer to
queries by the Chairman and members of the
committee he stated that since his retirement
| from the position of Warden of the Prison he
had had dealings with the officers of tnat in
stitutlon in the way of purchasing jute for the
manufacture OF guuny sacks. He had business
relations with both Mr.. Shirley and Mr.. Nc
Como and thought they dealt with him hon.
c lily enough, but that he paid more for the
| materisls than they would cost him TO import
he had read the letters = hich appeared in the
! newspapers. but he knew nothing about the
authenticity of them. When asked IL he knew
! Mr.. Mccomb's writing, he ssid that he had a
letter written by h'm and knew it was from
him, but he could not tell another unless he
1 had that to compara with it. He stated that he
knew nothing OF the management OF the prison.
| George A. Marvin. former guard at Folsom
was called and testified that he had no oppor
tunity of seeing how General McComb managed
the prison. He had seen two of the guards
drunk while off duty. One OF them, named
peared for duty the next morning, but the wit
ness did not know how long he was retained
Witness was lothe to talk and could give the
committee but little light on the affairs of the
prison. He was discharged by Captain Cham
bers, who gave as a reason that he fMaryin) had
ridiculed Chambers work, but did not state in
what manner 1t was done.
! subpoena was then ordered by the Chair
man to be served on Chairman Shanahan of
| the Assembly Committee ON Ways and Means.
| to bring him before the committee with the
letters published regarding the prison manage
ment.
John McCrae, saloon and hotel keeper at
San Quentin, was the next witness. In answer
| to questions he said he did not know of any of
the. prison officials being drunk, and knew
nothing of the management OF the prison. He
never visited it He stated that the day after
| the election Captain Thomas asked him if he
| thought young John McComb did rightin bull
DOING the guards at the polls on election day
A great number of questions were asked and ellie
tied the statements that young John McComb
had brought about dozen guards to the polls
on election morning, and on arriving about
twenty live feet from the ballot box had handed
them tickets which they folded themselves and
voted. One OF the guards who thus received
the tickets was named Mills. Young McComb
came to the polls about o'clock and did not
leave until dusk that evening; the witness him
| self had charge of the Democratic tickets He
had seen his name in the letters printed in the
newspapers, in reference to some houses he had
purchased from the State, and were removed by
the State to his property. Young McComb, the
witness stated, was secretary for his father
Warden McComb. The witness stated he did
not know why he was subpenaed
communication was then received from
a n RrT1a |r Irr ~ l. Il.