The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-20
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.
A Judicial rnvestiEntion Of tho Prison system
unstituted BY Richard VauL.

A Judicial 1nvestirntiOn Of the Prison system
unstituted BY Richard Vaux.
PHILADELPHIA. June la.-During the past ten
or fifteen years q very great deal OF considera-
ton has been given to the subject OF prison dis
cipline, and interest In the subject is being still
further enhanced because Of the international
Prison Congress, which Is to meet in Berlin in
1900 and to which delegates are already being
appointed by Governors OF commonwealths,
Gov. Hastings having appointed Gen. Isaac j.
Wistar to represent the prison system OF Penn.
sylvAnia in that congress OF prison directors,
inspectors and commissioners.
In view OF these facts 1t may interest not only
the people of the United States. but. through
the columns OF II Sun, the prison discipline
rians OF Europe also. to know that what may
fairly be termed "VauNoloRy," or 1.-THE system
OF philosophic penoiogy," is undergoing judicial
Investigation at the place OF its birth-the East
ern Penltcntiary Of PennsylvGnia-and the
friends Of "vauxology," in consequence, are in
mourning, as 1t were in sackcloth and ashes.
The judicial Investigation Of the affairs OF the
Eastern Penitontiary. held with the view OF do
termining the good or bad effects OF solitary con-
finemcnt upon the nervous system. was forced
upon Judge Gordon OF the Philadelphia Com
mon Pleas Court-who. by the way. is one OF the
most humane OF all our Pennsylvania Judges
by reason OF an application made to him for the
Itu1DNd u al IN VI ~ ~
tiary to the Norristown State Asylum for the
Insane. The facts brought before him in that
and after two or three visits 10 the Peniicntiary
he found that the number OF seemingly insane
persons was 50 Ereat hat he appointed a com n.
the foremost specialist Of nervous diseases in
Pennsylvania, Dr.. Morton, President OF the
Mccarthy. ex-Justice OF the Superior Court OF
PENNSYLVANIA, and several other gentlemen or
like distinction to make exhaustive, examine.
| tiDn of the number and condition OF the insane
In the Eastern Penitentiary.
The prison inspectors insisted that there were
practically no insane prisoners in. the penilen-
tiary; the Gordon. commission held otherwise,
and in order thai, the people might see and know
| Der o. the worst cases from the prison to the
large Quarter Sess ops. Court room. and in the
porters. the public OF Philadelphia, and the
PRISON inspectors made examination OF the san
ity Of those so brought 6 6etorg n the sou whose cell
Judge Gordon visited by accident In his per
sonal examination at the prison, was, stood, up
Dr. TStUDte srcn,3 2oV On his head and face We're scars
that DIR. Dercum stated had been made 10y, blunt
Instruments; his arms and breast and back were
covered with scars which the doctor said re-
suited from burns by hot irons, and his Wrists
disclosed scars made, the Doctor said, by thongs.
No questions were asked OF the prisoner, but
two other sane prisoners were put upon the
stand an under the OF oath testified
had been put in the cell with them; that the
scars upon his back, arms, and, breast were
hauc ny II steam pipts AZ NhoNoh otO
TO burn out the devil that he constantly insisted
was ms. c of him; that the scars upon his head
were from the beatings they gave him TO make
him become quiet, AMI the scars upon his wrists
were maue 10y the Irvine string with which they
tied him to the iron wastepipes every night.
Asked as TO how often they beat him. they re-
piled almost every night, ior he was NOISY every
night Of his life, and they could not go TO sleep
until after they had beaten him and tied him,
Asked as 10 whether or not the keepers knew oi
these ~beatings and tIeings, they replied that the
keepers did; that they had frequently asked the
keepers 10 furnish straps for his wrists, and the
keepers had always refused 10 do SO.
All the other insanity cases thus publicly
heard in open court were Of a like character and
just as marked in their dementia. The prison
inspectors reply was that these men we're mol
insane, but that they were malingerlng in ordei
TO be transferred 10 insane asylums. The unan
swerable REPUTATION of that by Judge Gorror
was that in the case OF Jacobs he had but fifteen
days OF an uneNpired sentence to serve wher
these things were taking place.
The statement was. made by the inspectors o
the Eastern Penitentiary under oath that thert
Is no more insanity, indeed not SO much. Incl
dent to the separate confinement system as Il
home and abroad. The statistics showed tina
three times as many insane prisoners are dis
charged from the Eastern Penitentiary cured a
were discharged cured from all the congregat'
prisons in the State during a period of nv
years." In answer here is the annual n. port q
the inspectors of the Eastern Penitentiary 70
the calendar and Official year 1896. On pag
lI6 the following appears:
MENTAL CONDITION OF THE 673 PRISONER
DISCHARGED DURING II YEAR 1896.
No. Per CEN