The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-05-29
CHILDREN CRY FOR MERCY
FiendiSh Treatment Of Juvenile
Offenders in English Prisons.
A DISGRACE TO CIVILIZATION
Little Chaps Hardly More Than
Babies Are Placed in Solitary
Cells, and Fed on UuwhOltsoIne
Food Revelations of Wilde.

London, May 29.-Whatever may be the
Oscar Wilde, who was released fro m
prison on May 10, after serving two years,
he has done a service to humanity 10y
writing remarkable letter about the al
most fiendiSh cruelty of the English prison
system in the treatment OF child priso-
neTs.
A WARDEN named Martin, who was EN-
pIoyed at the Reading jail, where Wilde
was confined, was dismissed the other da y
for giving two or three biscuits 20 a
Starvingchildi none Of thecells. The VIII le
convict system of England is too barbarous
! for belief in a civilized country and age,
/ but when it is applied to a child of eleven
years as in this case, it is inhuman.
In the course of long letter Wilde says:
Il saw three children Urefc rring TO the
Monday previous TO his released, who had
just been convicted They were standing
IN a room in the prison dress They were
all small The youngest, to whom the
warden gave the biscuits, was a tiny little
chap, and it was evident that the prison
officials were unable to find clothes small
enough to fit him.
II ne present treatment of children is
terrible. Children can understand pun
snment inflicted 10y an individual; what
they cannot understand is punishment by
society \ child Is taken from its pa-
rents by people whom IL has never seen.
and finding Itself in d lonely cell and or
dcred TO be punished by the representative
of a system that il cannot underst and, be-
comes a prey to the first and most proni-
nent emotion produced by modern prison
Iifc-the emotion OF terror The ter7Dr
OF q chId in prison is limitless | remem
Der a. 7 was going to exercise, seeing
in ,inIy-lighted cell opposite my oyva.
a small boy. Two warders were talking TO
mm with sOne StemncSs. The child :
face was like a white wedge There was
sheer terror in it, and in the eyes vas the
terror Of a hunted animal. TheneNt morn
ing / heard hin, at breakfast time crying
and calling TO be let out. From time 10
time could be heard the deep voice Of a
warder telling him TO be quiet, and yet hs
had not even been convicted of whatever
the little orfense was with which he was
charged He was simply on remand
This terror that seizes and dominates
the child As the grown man is also inten-
SIZED beyond power Of expression by the
solitary cell system Every yEild is con-
fined in a cell foi twenty -three hours out
OF the twenty-four. This is the appalling
thmg-to shut child in a dinly-lit cellfor
twenty-thrce hours IT day is an example pf
cruelty aud OF stupidity.
"Inhmman treatment Of a CHILD IL always
inhuman by whomsover inflicted. hut iuhu-
man treatment by society is to a child
'nare terrible, because no appeal TO the
parent can be made To let out the child
from the dark room. 4 warder cannot
Most wa~derS are fond Of children, but the
system prohibits the rendering OF the child
any assistance Should they do so, as Mar
tin nd. they are dismissed
The second thing from which child
suffers in prison is hunger The food con-
sists Of piece OF usually stale, badly
baked prison bread and a tin Of water for
breakfast Atnp)n he gets tin Of coarse
indian meal stirabout. and at $50
piece Of dry bread aud a tin Of water for
supper This diet in the case Of a strong
man always produces illness, chiefly diar-
rhoea In fact. in big prison aStrlnEent
medicines are served regularly as matter
Of course. 4 child, As a rule, is incapable
of eating the food \ child who has been
crying all day and perhaps half the night
IN a lonely cell, aud who ) preyed upon by
terror. simply cannot eat food of this
coarse horrible kind
la the case Of the little child to whom
Martin gave the biscuits the child was cry
ing from hunger.
He was Mt erly unable to eat the bread
and water served for his breakfast Mar
TN went out after breakfast and bought
few biscuits for he child rather than to see
him starving II was a beautiful action.
and was so recognized By the child, who,
utterly unconscious of the regulation Of the
prison board told one Of the senior warders
how kind the junior warder had been to
him The result was report and Martins