Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-10-28
PRISONS OF THE WORLD.
Those Of America Compared With Those Of
Other Countries.


Other Countries.
Edgar I.ydon Moulton Of London, England,
a retired merchant, who is in the United
States examining penal institutes in behalf Of
the Prison Reform Society, is at Chicago. Mr..
Mouf,ons sympathies were aroused in behalf Of
convicts by seeing the brutality of certain off,
ciais in the convict camps OF Australia, and
after his retirement from active business ten
years ago he began the work which he 10 now
engaged in Of inspecting prisons and laboring
In behalf of prisoners. He is not in the en-
ploy Of the Prison Reform Society, but reports
Of his investigations are sent to the secretary
of the society in England
In my visit to the United States have Wis
tied several Of the larger jails and peniten-
tiaries, said Mr.. Moulton, land for the most
part have found them well conducted. and in
most instances have found the prisoners well
one piece of brutality, however, that
have since wished might have been spared,
the attack made on prisoner in the Auburn
penitentiary who was attempting to escape. A
prisoner who becomes unruly deserves punish
ment, but not euch punishment as that
saw inflicted. j had visited the Sing Sing
prison, and last Sunday I paid visit to
the state penitteniary in Auburn was told on
my arrival there Of the disappearance of pris-
oner, Oliver Curtis Perry. the train robber.
1t seems from the story told me that Perry
had been locked up in a dungeon for an at
tempt on his keepers with knife
and that he had succeeded in dig
ging his way from that cell to an adjoining
one, which was unlocked, and in escaping. This
was Saturday. He had hidden in the broom
factory, and careful search had failed to I'M
earth him. Sunday afternoon he became des-
perate through hunger. In trying to cross
an open space 70 the collar factory
he was discovered and keeper caught him. A
second keeper coming up grabbed heavy
billet Of wood, and, though Perry was not then
unruly hit him over the head, knocking him
insensible and injuring him badly that
told he could not recover. The assault on the
prisoner seemed to me to be entirely uncalled
for and unprovoked.
II have travelled all over Europe visiting
prisons, and at the time of the prison reform
saw the prisons of the car. Much they are
TO be condemned. have never seen or heard
directly of single brutality which equaled the
attack made on the defenseless prisoner in Au-
burn last Sunday"
What are your impressions regarding prisons
In the United States aside from this particular
instance of brutal treatment?''
MY impressions are favorable. ! find pris-
ons here much better from a health stand
point than English or other European prisons
They are more roomy, are light and ventilated
and the sanitary conditions are better than
ours. This is the advantage of newness,
ana then the lesson has been learned
that strength does not necessarily mean thick
ness Of walls and smallness of window. Keep
ing prisoners at work is much more humane
than to keep them locked in small cells with
nothing to distract their thoughts from their
gloomy and cheerle3s surroundings"