The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-10-17
CRAzED BY SOLITUDE
How Close Confinement Effects the
Kinds of Prisoners.
FATE OF THE IRISH DYRAMITERS.
Tho Course of Treatment That Drove
GniIushcr ana whitehead Insane
I'rIsons-Nost Prisoners Arc Gind
OF An Opportunity to work.

The release of the Irish dynnmitars,
Whitehead and Gallagher from the Eng
]ish prison at Portland, together with tho
fact that both men were Insane when TO
leased, has set the expert criminologists to
bordering over cause and effect
Almost every ono agrees that the direct
cause OF tho insanity OF the prisoners WINS
solitary confinement. In the Portland, as
in most other large English prisons, tho
convicts arc confined separately ut night,
although during the day they labor OH the
congregate system During labor hours,
however, they nro not allowed to speak.
The same rules pertain In u modified form
In this country.
There is nothing in this system cnlculnt-
cd to produce or develop insanity. III ev-
cry large prison, however, convicts cun al
ways be found who simulate insanity for
one purpose or another Sometimes 1t Is
to obtain rest or change Of employment;
mt Others 1t is with hope of being trans
ferrod to some hospital or insane asylum,
where the chances for escape are better.
Tho keepers and prison officials generally
gro familiar with this feature of "shnn-
ming" and they are constantly ON the
lookout for it. Owing to tho fnct that
nothing Is SO difficult to detect us simu-
lation Of insanity, the keepers, prison Off
cials and prison physicians sometimes
make mistakes that arc natural, but griev-
Gus In results
From all that can be learned it was
such mRtake us this that overturned the
mental balance of both Whitehead and
Gallagher. Both men were nervous and
high strung and full of resentment against
tho sentence imposed upon them. Your
habitual criminal will take his sentence
with smirk and u smile and will welcome
his prison associations rs u matter of
course. He recognizes the fact that hc is
among his equals. lie looks upon his fell
low conricts from u criminal standpoint.
Those who arc greater criminals than him
self ho regards as his supcriurs There is
fellow feeling among thnm, and conse-
qucnty an easy month"; balance. There is
very little danger of Il habitual criminal
with hobnailct. brain going crazy.
According To all ihc evidence obtainable
Whitehead and Gallagher felt bitter re-
sentiment against their surroundings from
the first day OF their incarceration. Instead
OF this resentment wearing away with
time. 1t Increased and was fustcrcd by per
potual silence and restraint. No restraint,
however, could prevent their looking about
them Mt tie beetle hrows shocl; heads and
evil faces O! their con runions
First came grief, then resentment, then
alteration. Tho eternal silence and tho
arrange association with hubitual criminals
were too much for them. They began to
act strangely. Tho keepers, knowing that
tho two men were shrcwd and TO II certain
extent refined, imagined that they were
shamming. They were warned but tho
warming had no effect.
y few dnys' solitary confinement on
bread and water will bring them around"
was tho argument of the physicians Then
came what might have been expected in
any other prison under similar urcum-
stances The two men We're put into soli-
tary cells away from tho sight or sound of
any OF their kind ON IL bread and water
diet, which was showed through the small
barred grating without IL word On Sun
Gays they We're conducted separately and
ny dark and solitary corridors 10 the chapel,
where they sat in deep stone pews in such
position that they could see nobody but
tne black clad and sepulchral priest throncd
nigh above them; then back again to the
solitude, silence and gloom of the small
stone CELL
How much OF this sort Of thing can the
human mind endure without giving way;
mentally dull mnp might stand such "A
confinement indefinitely He would hear
~ just as n tiger bears solitary captivity,
DanquetinS silently on whatever might
como through the grating, sullen and lone
~, crouchinB like a wild animal in its cave.
10 men OF the stamp of Whitehead and
Gallagher, however, such II punishment
meant ultimate idiocy pure and simple.
When the mind feeds upon itself, with no
extrnneous relief of sights and sounds. il
Is only matter of time before il snaps.
80 1t was with the two dynamitors. DAVIS
Oh solituue, weeks of silence, months OF
gioem' III an endless round. with no sound