The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-03-27
SIBERIAN PRISONS MATCHED.

Prisoners Reeking I'm Filth and Conn
PEELED to Gnaw Their Meat Like
Dogs. In Irons Night and Day.
The work house of Kansas City is frame
building. little better than a shanty, on a
vacant lot at Twentieth and Flora streets
1t is two stories high, and the cellrOom on
the first floor is only forty feet long by
twenty wide. In it are twelve cells, all of
wooden bars. In this hole has been con-
fined as high as 200 men and boys. There
are now ninety in it. Each cell has two
hunks and the ninety men are appOrtiOned
in the twelve cells.
Every man as soon as he enters this place
prisoner is shackled with heavy manacles
that weigh from twelve to twenty pounds.
These are never removed. The poor wretch
must wear them night and day. at work, at
meals and in his sleep. They are fastened
on the ankles so tightly that the victim can
not take off his pants, and wears them as
long as he is in prison, unless they rot off.
White and cOlOred men and boys are locked
up Unfortunately together. and the
strongest get the hunks and bed clothes,
while the weakest lie shivering uncovered
on the damp stone floor.
In one cell is fifteen year old white boy,
and his companions are five burly negroes.
The stencil and filth of the place is abOmi
nable. The prisoners are covered with lice
and bugs, while the whole place is reeking
with vermin. There is a trough in which
the men can battle in cold water if they feel
like it, but as the manacles prevent them
from undressing, the iron being riveted on,
very few OF them ever wash.
Men enter this place-criminalS perhaps
but they leave it hardened and ready to
commit any crime that will send them to
the penltentiary. There is one poor wretch
confined in this hell hole who came of re-
spectacle family in New Albany, Ind. He
came to this city some five months ago
looking for work. and was finally arrested
for vagrancy, but unfortunately having
revolver IN his pocket the charge was
changed and he was fined $500 or years
Imprisonment. He has already served four
months, and says when he is released he
will kill the warden so as to get hung. He
has lost every bit of manhood and glOriss in
it. His name is assumed to save his
mother. This is but one of scores of SINH
lar instances.
There is no work for the prisoners eX-
cept stone breaking, and but little of that.
The laws here are very strictly enforced.
The usual sentence for vagrancy, drunken
ness. carrying concealed weapons. etc., is
$500 or year in the works, and the ma Or
ity get the latter. The food is wrecthed and
insutfici ent, and so fearful are the authOri
ties that man may get a weapon that
knives and forks are denied the prisoners.
The food is given them in a tin dish, and
the men must tear the meat with their teeth
and hands like animals.
The house for the women beggars de-
scriptiOn. 1t is a frame hut. barely twenty
feet square, containing one room. in which
are huddled Unfortunately women and
girls, black and white. There have been
thirty of these unfOrtunates in this small
room at one time. The floor is Uttered
with bedding, while red hot stove stands
in the center, and ventilation comes through
couple of small, barred windows. There
are no laundry facilities for either men or
women, and when reporter visited the
wOmen'S quarters half of them were grouped
about the room in shameless nudity waiting
for their clothes washed in hand basin.
which were drying about the stove. The
sentences of the women are as severe as the
observation-disclosures Grit.