New-York tribune., 1897-07-22
N4NTEACTURING MADMEN.

Mention was made the other day of reports
concerning the Irish political prisoners in
British ia!ls. Those unhappy men are said TO
be losing their minds, as well as bodily heatn
as q result of their confinement. few years
ago two of their comrades were released IN, as
was alleged state of mbecillty or insanity,
superlnduced by the treatment they had suffered
in prison. Many tales have been told of the
horrors Of Russian prisons and the Siberian ex-
lie system. and their destruction Of minds and
bodies And over all these things the world
and especially the United States has waxed
righteously indignant. Orators and writers nave
dwelt with fervent rhetoric upon the iniquty
of administrative Gystems under which men
are deliberately deprived Of their reason, of the
very element which differentiates them from
brute beasts; and Great Britain and Russia have
been more or less untruthfully inveghed against
for reviving the terrors of Torquemada and
making real the grewsome imaglnlngs of Poe.
Yet here in the metropolis of the Empire
State of this most virtuous and enlightened
Union, the Government has deliberately gone
into the business Of manufacturing madmen.
II is driving prisoners insane through system
attic refnements of cruelty rvallng any that
have been told in history or devised IN morbid
fiction. The Chinese have horrible haDit OF
torturing men to death by depriving them OF
sleep. Put they are halfclvillzed Mongohahs.
In the 1nguisition men were driven 10 Madness
and then to death through being deprived OF
drink while cool water and sparkling wines
were tormentlngly displayed just out of reach
But that was in the Dark Ages. 1t was re-
served for highly cultivated Americans, IN the
closing years Of the nineteenth century, to IN
fict more agonizing tortures and more surely
TO destroy both mind and body by deprlvng
their victims Of all employment with which 10
exercise the muscles or engage the brain.
That Is the appalling indictment against
which no pleading can avail. Months ago II
was officially reported that, owing to enforced
deness, the inmates Of Sing Sing Prison were
| being hurried wholesale to the discipline rooms,
the hospital and the madhOuse. Now comes
like report from the Kings County Penltentary.
Seven of its inmates have been officially de-
clared insane, and at least two more will prob
| ably thus be declared before the week Is out.
| Their madness is Of most agonlZing kind,
marked with horrors too great to be described
| In public print. And OF the cause OF 1t there Is
no shadow of doubt. The prisoners have for
months been pleading pitifully to be allowed to
work, as starving men might pray for food.
| Their petitions have been, perforce, denied.
They have been doomed to utter idleness and
Isolation from their kind. In some cases death
has mercfully come to their relief; but In many
dissolution of the mind has preceded that OF
the body. The prison has become feeder TO
the asylum for the insane.
1t Is a hldeous reproach to our penology. There
are those who think 1t strange that better
disposition cannot be made Of murderers than
killing them, and that simple shutting up In
prison Is not the best use to make Of ordinary
criminals There can be no possible dissent
from the opinion that systematically to drive
prisoners insane V Q blot upon civilization