The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-05-09
REVOLT AGAINST SILENCE.
How Solitary Confinement Prisoners
Rest While at Liberty.

From the Philadelphia Telegraph
When the presumptive system of se-
gregate 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 Fairmount avenue was given
a sinister reputation beyond its de-
sorta. Since the great novelist wrote
in terms so severe of solitary impris-
onment the results obtained by tho
management of the prison here have
refuted in the main the structures
passed upon the Eastern penitentiary.
Penologlsts have given their testimony
in favor of the system which Dickens
condemned. and solitary confinement is
in vogue in many of the penitentlaries
of the country. If enforced to the let
ter. and man was compelled to sit
within narrow cell day after day,
with nothing but his own thoughts to
occupy his mind, then, indeed. solitary
confinement would be a barbarity that
would shame civilization and human-
ity. Madness and death could only re-
suit in the majority OF cases.
Put when the convicted man stands
before his judge to receive his punish-
ment,, and listens to the words 'soli-
tary confinement" their terror is light
ened by the merciful provision that his
loneliness shall be relieved by hard
labor Then, too, the crowded condi-
tion Of the Eastern penitentiary re-
Quires 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 a man has the company OF his
| fellows and the boon Of work in the
prison there is imposed upon him IL
punishment the severity and irksome-
ness of which can only be apprehended
in its full force by one who has I'M
dergone it. The punishment is silence.
Throughout the day no man dare speak
to his fellows save of necessity or by
stealth. TO q man who has yielded to
temptation and fallen from an honor
able place in society the need of hui
man sympathy, the sound of kindly
voice, n friendly ear into which to pour
the torturing surgings of his mind is
most necessary, and must make this
imposed silence terrible to bear.
The prison authorities recognize the
severity Of the punishment of these
long brooding hours and the mental
strain imposed on the convict. Many
in passing the peniteEtiary in the early
hours of the evening must have been
startled by the cries and tumult echos
Ing from behind it's stone walls, and
wondered aS they hurried by If u
bloody revolt was going on within. a
revolt it is indeed. that nightly takes
place, but IL is the revolt of overbur-
deued hearts Of ansuished souls and
black evil minds against the silence
they have writhed under during tho
day. From o'clock until Q each night
the ban of silence Is raised, and the
inmates of the prison are free to give
vent to the tumult Of their minds.
Locked there in their cells, the great
majority Of the prisoners await eag-
erly the hour OF g. At the given time
pandemonium breaks loose. The cor
ridors echo and re-echo to the yels,
shrielSs and songs of the miserable,
Gagged men. Many of them have mu-
steal instruments. and these add their
volume to the general dscOrd 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