The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-24
REVOLT AGAINST SILENCE.
How Solitary Confinement Prisoners Rest
Themselves In the Evening Hours.

When the p~resumptive system on
segregate confinement enforced at the
Eastern penitentiary aroused the IN
dignation of Charles Dickens and his
trenchant pen gave expression to his
horror OF such punishment, the insti-
tuition on Paramount avenue was given
a 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 tie
main the structures passed upon the
Eastern p~enitentiary. P~enologists have
given Their testimony in favor OF the
system which Dickens condemned. Inc
solitary confinement is i'm IN
many of the penitentiaries of the coun-
try. If enforced to the letter and a
man was compelled to sit within a
narrow cell day after day with nothing
but his own thoughts to occupy his
mind. then. indeed, solitary confne-
ment would be barbarity that would
shame civilization and humanity. Mad
ness and death could only result in
the majority of cases.
But when the convicted man stands
before his judge to receive his pun
ishment and listens to the words sol
itary confinement" their terror IS
lightened by the merciful provision
tina his loneliness shall be relieved by
hard labor Then the crowded con-
dition of the Eastern ~penitentiary re-
uuires that two. and frequently three.
~convicts shall be confined i'm the same
cell. and the SOLITARY confinement
part OF the sentence is more or less
a legal fiction.
While a man has the company of
his fellows and the boon of work in
the prison there IL imposed upon him
a punishment the severity and lrk-
4 AalN In nnnEa
hended in it's full force by n VINO
has undergone il. The punishment Is
silence. Throughout the day no man
dare speak to his fellow save of ne
cessity or by stealth. To a man who
has yielded to temptation and fallen
from an honorable place in society the
need of human sympathy. h sound
of a kindly voice, a friendly ear into
which to pour the tortuTing %surgings
of his mind is most necessary, and
must make this imposed silence terri
BILE to bear.
The prison authorities recognize the
severity of the punishment OF these
long %brooding hours and n mental
strain imposed on the convict. Many
in passing the penitentiary In the early
hours OF the evening must have been
startAad by the cries and tumult echo
ing from behind it's stone walls. and
wondered as they hurried by II a
bloody revolt VAS going on within. "A
revolt il il. indeed, that nightly taxes
place. but IL is the revolt OF overbur-
dened hearts. Of anguished souls. and
black. evil minds against the silence
they have writhed under during the
day. From 6 o'clock until 3 each nigh'
the ban of silence is raised, and the
inmates of the prison are free TO give
vent to the tumult of their minds.
Lacked there in their cells the great
majority of the prisoners await Gag
erly the hour of 6 o'clock. AT the CIV
en- time pandemonium breaks loose
The corridors echo and re-echo TO th'
wells. shrieks and songs of the miser
able. Gagged men. Many OF them nave
musical instruments. and these ado
their volume to the general discord
For three hours the din continues. bu'
on the stroke OF 3 o'clock the electri'
lights in the cells go out. silence once
more broOde over the gloomy place
and fortunate the man who finds free
dom in sleep.-Philadelphia Eveninf
Telegraph.