The record-union., 1894-02-01
PRISON LIFE IN LONDON.
Iron Discipline the Rule and Disorde
of Any Kind Almost Unknown.

Iron Discipline the Rule and Disorder
of Any Kind Almost Unknown.
A comparison of the rules of an Ameri-
can prison with those OF an English pris-
on, made by the Boston Herutd, shows
that the American prisoner has many
more comforts and liberties. A man in
an English prison is almost as dead to
the outer world as he would be in his
tomb. Nothing in the way of food or
reading matter can be sent in to him by
his friends. He is never permitted to see
a newspaper or magazine He can write
and receive letters only at long inter-
walls, and from the time he enters the
prison until he leaves it he is not permit
ted TO speak unless he is addressed by
prison officer.
4 prisoner sentenced for term of three
years or less may see q visitor once in
three months in the presence OF a prison
officer, and he may write one letter. To
men whose terms are longer such priv
ileges are granted less frequently. For
the first month the prisoners bed con-
sists of nothing but broad board like a
table top, three or four inches above the
floor OF the cell. He has no mattress, and
the bed clothing consists of a rug. a
blanket, pillow and two coarse sheets.
At the end of a month, if he has earned
a sufficient number of good conduct
marks, he has mattress three nights
week. Later he has mattress five nights
a week, and at still later stage. if his
conduct has been nunexceptionable, he may
have mattress every night. He has
also in his cell bucket, water can, a
tin washbowl, towel, a soapdish, salt
cellar, wooden spoon and tin plate.
He never has knife or fork, and he has
nothing to eat requiring the use of these
implements. He must get up at 6 o'clock
and his breakfast is brought TO him at
1880. He eats every meal in his cell. In
the first stage of his Imprisonment he has
only bread and water for breakfast, and
for dinner pint and half of 'stirabout,"
gruel-like mixture of oatmeal and In
dian meal, In the fourth and best stage
OF his Imprisonment he has pint of por-
ridge with his bread tor break fast, and
better dinner, but even the fourth-stage
bill of fare is never changed throughout
the year. There are no holiday dinners
nor an extra dish on Sundays as in some
of our American prisons.
Not all the prisons have workshops at
tached to them, and where there is no
workshop man who has labor sent
ence goes on tread mill for two hours and
a half in the morning and for two hours
and three-quarters In the afternoon. In
some prisons there is worse kind of
labor than even the treadmill, 1t con-
sists of turning a heavily weighted crank,
which serves no purpose Whatever eX-
cept TO record the number of its own
revolutions. A days labor consists of
from 5000 to 10000 revolutions. In other
prisons the prisoners are set to pumping
water. AS this serves some purpose it is
not so depressing as the crank move
ment. The entire system of discipline
in English prisons is militory in its rig
idity, and it is never relaxed. There are
no demonstrations of discomfort, OF
delight or OF contempt on the part of the
prisoners; pandemonium is never repro
duced, as it is i'll prisons in some of the
States; the booting and whistling, the
yelling and ''cat-calling' in which Amer
lean prisoners indulge are never even re-
motely initiated i'll an English prison.
The English convict is not by nature
more respectful or orderly than the
American convict, but be knows that dis
obedience will be Immediately punished;
he knows that the statutes of Parliament
have framed the conditions under which
he is 10 serve out his sentence, and that
the power and the system of the prison
are such that he must obey the rules or
suffer for the consequences. Escapes
from English prisons are so rare that they
assume the character of marveis.