The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1894-01-11
Prison Life In England.


comparison of the rules of an American
prison with those of an English prison, made by
the Boston Herald, 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 to him by his friends He is never
permitted to see newspaper or a 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 permitted to speak unless
he is addressed by prison officer.
prisoner sentenced for a term of three years
or less may see a visitor once in three months
in the presence of prison officer. and he may
write one letter. To men whose terms are longer
such privileges are granted less frequently. For
the first month the prisoners bed consists 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, a pillow and two coarse sheets.
At the end of a month, if he has earned suffi-
! cient number of good conduct marks, he has
mattress three nights a week. Later he has a
mattress five nights week. and at still later
stage, if his conduct has been unexceptionable,
he may have mattress every night. He has
also in his cell bucket, a water can. tin wash
q u
spoon and tin plate. He never has a knife or
| fork and he has nothing to eat requiring the use
| of these implements. He must get up at o clock
| and his breakfast is brought to him at 7:3O. 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 a half of
| "stirabOut,'' a grueke mixture of oatmeal and
| Indian meal. In the fourth and best stage OF
| his Imprisonment he has a pint of porridge
with his bread for breakfast. and better din
ner but 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 attached
to them and where there is workshop
man who has labor sentence must go on
treadmill for two hours and half in the morning,
and for two hours and three-quarters in the
afternoon. In some prisons there is a worse
kind OF labor than the treadmill. 1t consists
of turning heavily weighted crank. which serves
no purpose whatever except 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 movement. The entire
system of discipline in English prisons is military
in it's rigidity. and it is never relaxed There are
no DEMONSTRATIONS of discomfort, of delight
or of contempt on the part of the prisoners; pan
demonium is never reproduced. as it is in prisons
in some of the states; the hOOtiug and whistling.
the yelling and ''cat calling in which American
prisoners sometimes indulge, never even
remotely initiated in an English prison. The
English convict is not by nature more respectful
or orderly than the American convict, but he
knows that djSObedience will be Immediately
punished; he knows that the statutes of parlia-
ment have framed the conditions under which
he is to serve out his sentence. and that the
power and the system of the prison are such
that he must obey the rules suffer the cOnse-
quences. Escapes from English prisons are SO
rare that they assume the character of marvels.
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