Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-12-27
REVOLT AGAINST SILENCE.
How Solitary Confinement Prisoners
Rest Themselves While at Liberty.
From the Philadelphia Telegraph


When the presumptive system of seere-
gate confinement enforced at the Eastern
| penitentiary aroused the indignation of
Charles Dickens, and his trenchant pen
gave expression to his horror of such pun
ishment, the institution on Paramount ave-
nue. was given sinister reputation beyond
It's deserts. Since the great novelist wrote
IN terms so severe of solitary Imprisonment
the results obtained by the management of
the prison here have refuted in the main
the structures passed upon the astern pen
llent1ary. Penologists have given their tes-
tlmony in favor of the system which Dick
ems condemned, and solitary confinement
is IN vogue in many of the penitentiaries of
the country. If enforced to the letter, and
| man was compelled to sit within a mar
row cell day after day, with nothing but
ms own thoughts to occupy his mind then
indeed, solitary confinement would be a
barbarity that would shame civilization
ana humanity. Madness and death could
only result in the majority of eases.
But when the convicted man stands be-
lore his Judge to receive his punishment
ana listens to the words solitary confine-
ment their terror is lightened by the mer-
ciful provision that his loneliness shall he
relieved by hard labor" Then, too, the
crowded condition Of the Eastern peniten-
tlary requires that two, and frequently
| three, convicts shall be confined in the
| same cell, and the SOLITARY confinement
| part OF the sentence is more or less legal
| fiction.
| While man has the company of his fell
| lows and the boon of work in the prison
| there is imposed upon him a punishment
| the severity and irksomeness of which can
! only be apprehended in its full force by one
| VINO has undergone it. The punishment is
| silence. Throughout the day no man dare
| speak TO his fellow save of necessity or by
| stealth. To man who has yielded to
temptation and fallen from an honorable
| place in society the need of human SYM
| pathy, the sound of a kindly voice. a
| friendly ear into which to pour the tortur-
| ing surgings of his mind Is most necessary,
| and must make this imposed silence terrible
| to bear
| The prison authorities recognize the Sc
verify of the punishment of these long
| brooding hoursI ands the mental strain i'm
posed on the convict. Many in passing the
| penitentiary in the early hours of the even
| ing must have been startled by the cries
| and tumult echoing efrom behind its stone
| walls. and wonderef as they hurried by if
| bloody revolt was going on within. A re-
| volt 1t is, indeed, that nightly takes place,
| but it is the revolt 81 overburdened hearts,
| of anguished s6dls fand black evil minds
| against the siletiee tHey have writhed under
each night the ban III silence is raised, and
| the inmates of the prison are free to give
| vent to the tunIult OF their minds.
Locked there ih their cells, the great ma
| jority of the prisoners await eagerly the
h hour Of 8. AT the given time pandemonium
echo to the yellS, shfieks and songs of the
miserable, Gagged men. Many of them have
| musical instruments, and these add their
| volume to the general discord. For three
| hours the din. continues, but on the stroke
| of the electric lights go out, silence once
| more broods over the gloomy place, and
| fortunate the man who finds freedom in
| sleep. zSe