Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-01-27
Reid & Hughes
94-1OO Bank ST., Waterbury.
ALLEGED STATE PRISON ABUSES
The Legislature should Investigate,

The Legislature should Invest gate.
the Reported acknowledgements.
1t is probable that the legislature will
investigate the reported mismanage-
ment of the state prison ut Wcthers-
field. Bennett =. Powers, deputy war
den until discharged by Mr. Chamber
lain, has this to say of the way things
were run then prison "Chamberlain
hired lot of mon to act as guards who
had never had any experience whatever
in prison. lie set these men TO watch
ing gangs of clever, tricky CUnviCtS.
It's [only Il wonder the number of es-
capes was not larger. \ prisoner
named LIE Court was sent out to the ice
house TO work i'll custody of one of
Chamberlain new men. The guard
walked into the icehouse and left the
prisoner alone. OF course lie Court
walked OFF. He was not recaptured'
John Thomas was n colored man who
was in for twenty years. Chamberlain
had him t.. wait ON table. Thomas had
only been at his new job short time,
when he, too, dccamped, taking with
him quantity of jewels and articles OF
clothing belonging to General Chamber
lains family. John Thomas was not
recaptured. \ prisoner named Horner
two weeks. He was sent out
with one of Chamberlain's new
guards to work in the buildings
then in course of erection. The
guard sat down and read newspaper
and Horner went away. He has not
since been heard of. y life sentence
man named Pagan also escaped. All
these escapes were due to gross careless
ness on the part of Warden Chamber
hin in assigning prisoners to the care of
inexperienced and incompetent keepers.
Another instance of lax discipline was
exhibited in his treatment of n life
prisoner named Abbott, from Water
bury, who was in for murder. Abbott
was an. old, broken down man. and
Chamberlain made this an excuse for
allowing him to roam around Wethers-
field at will. This old man would fire.
quently get drunk and not show up at
the prison. for days at time.
SIN all my Thirty years experience as
a prison official l never refused to re-
lease q man from the black cell when
he sent for me and promised to do
better. Chamberlain, however, fire.
uuently kept men in these dark. uncom-
Portable holes for five days at a time,
and that for offenses that should have
been treated with tritling punish
ment. Not the barest provision for a
mans comfort while undergoing such
barbaric punishment was made by this
military warden. The floors were of
cement without even plank for the in
mate of the cell to rest upon at night.
lin the spring of 1888 Mrs Carpenter,
the matron of the prison, accused War
den Chamberlain of having made i'm
proper advances to her. Mrs Carpenter
had been connected with the prison
about twelve years. She was married
woman, her husband being an inspector
in the prison shoecutting shop. He is
well connected: one of his brothers is
Judge Carpenter, of the supreme court.
The directors assembled to make an in
investigation. Two of them We're the
guests of the accused man, and drank
his wine and listened to his stories while
waiting for the trial to come on. Mrs
Carpenter could, of course, produce no
witness to prove the truth of her asser-
ed unfounded by the directors. In the
course of the investigation several
female prisoners told similar stories.
On the first day of June, 1888, Mrs Car
penter and her husband were dismissed
from the prison.
"The details of the shooting of prison
er Burke have never been accurately
Published. Burke was mere lad. not
more than II years old. One day he re-
fused to obey his keepers orders, and
when the latter threatened him with
punishment he caught upa shoe knife
from his work bench and defied the
keeper. Chamberlain and deputy,
armed with a heavy cane, went out to
quell the disturbance. Burke was or
dered to throw up his hands, but would
not do it. He did not even draw the
knife. Chamberlain, however, drew a
revolver and shot the boy. Burke
swerved a little and the bullet hit him
in the fleshy part of the arm"