The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-02-14
REVOLT AGAINST SILENCE.
How Solitary Confinement Prisoners
Rest Themselves When the
Evening Hours Come.


When the presumptive system OF
scgregate confinement enforced at the
Eastern penitentiary aroused the IN
d:gnation of Charles Dickens and his
trenchant pen gave expression to ms
horror of such punishment, the instl-
tuition on Paramount avenue was given
sinister reputat ton 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
Eastern penitentiary. Penologists have
given their testimony in favor OF the
system which Dickens condemned, and
solitary confinement is in vogue in
many of the penitentiaries of the coun-
try. If enforced to the letter and
man was compelled to sit within mar
rev cell day after day with nothing but
his own thoughts to occupy his mind,
then, indeed, solitary confinement
would be barbarity that would shame
civilization and humanity. Madness
and death could only result in the ma
jority of cases.
( But when the convicted man stands
/ before his judge to receive his punish
ment and listens to the words solitary
confinement" their terror is lightened
by the merciful provision that his lone
liness shall be relieved by hard labor"
Then, too, the crowded condition of
( the Eastern penitentiary 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
4 fellows and the boon of work in the
prison there is imposed upon him
| punishment the severity and irksome-
ness of which can only be apprehended
in its full force by one who has under
gone 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 honor
able place in society the need of human
sympathy, the sound of a kindly voice,
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 penitentiary in the early
hours of the evening must have been
startled by the cries and tumult echo
ing from behind it's stone walls, and
wondered as they hurried by if a bloody
revolt was going on within. A revolt
it is. indeed, that nightly takes place,
but it is the revolt of overburdened
hearts, of anguished souls, and black,
evil minds against the silence they have
writhed under during the day. From
six o'clock until nine 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 eager
~ the hour of six. AT the given time
pandemonium breaks loose: The cor
ridors echo and reecho to the yells,
shrieks and songs of the miserable,
Gagged men. Many of them have musical
instruments, and these add Their vol
ume to the general discord. For three
hours the din continues, but on the
stroke of nine the electric lights in the
cells go out, silence once more broods
over the gloomy place, and fortunate
the man who finds freedom in s;eep.-
Philadelphia Telegraph.