The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-20
LIFE PRISONERS HAPPY
THEY ARE BUOYED UP NTH TIE
HOPE OF ULTIMATE P4RD0N.

the Nervousness of Men Who VII
Get Out of Jail Some Dny-The Lift
Aen at Sing Sing and the Records o
Some of Them.
The composure of the life prisoner is
one of the many mysteries of prison life
1t is difficult to understand how such
men can go through the routine of work
smiling and happy, and apparently at
peace with the world Nothing seems
more horrible to the observant visitor to
large prison than the life of it's in
mates. For the first time he realizes
not only how long a year is, but how
long day Is, especially day unbroken
by anything unusual. Yet a more pla-
cid, apparently contented lot of men
than the life prisoners in large prisons
1t would be difficult to find.
The effect of prison life on the life
man is in such contrast to that on the
convict with whom the law has dealt
more mercifully that one becomes more
and more amazed as he observes it..
sing Sing prison furnishes as many, if
not more, illustra tons of these peculiar
tiles as any prison in the country. The
man who comes there with five, ten or
fifteen year sentence to serve, be he a
man experienced in prison life or new
to it, enters on his enforced stay within
four walls in a ferment of nervousness.
1t takes weeks sometimes months, to
wbip him inf CHI nd n acr-
tation is only suppressed, and he is
man who must be constantly watched,
not because he Is likely to make trouble
for long-term men rarely take
chance of losing their commutation-bu
because he is likely to make mental or
physical wreck of himself.
From the day that a limited sentence
man dons his suit of stripes he begins to
look forward to the day of. his release.
1t may be twelve, it may be fifteen years
away, bet he knows the very day of the
week on which it will come, and knows
almost to the minute when he will be
summoned to the warden's office to re-
ceive his civilians clothing and the few
dollars his years of toll have earned for
him, and to be told that he is free He
doesn't have a happy moment until that
day rolls around.
The way the convict figures out his
time is one of the interesting things
about a prison. Few of them have cal
endars on which to mark off the days;
they carry it in their heads, and there
isn't case known at Sing Sing prison
where man lost track of his count A
keeper at Sing Sing prison recently ex-
y,Jo
to a distinguished visitor. The visitor
was incredulous.
ASK any man in this room how long
he has got to serve" said the keeper.
The visitor was in the shoe shop. He
put the question to a convict.
Three years and thirteen days. said
the prisoner without looking up.
"Seven years and twenty-seven days"
said another
A dozen other convicts answered with
equal promptness They knew to the
very day when they would be released.
1t is the last year of mans term
that is the hardest for him to bear. To-
ward the end he becomes unusually
nervousj He fears that he may invol-
UNFAIRLY commit some infraction that
will lose him the three or four years he
has shaved off Of his term by exemplary
conduct. Then again, the end so near,
but yet a year off. makes that year al
most unbearable. There is to-day in
Sing Sing prison a young man who has
served all but one year of a ten years
sentence for arson He is a handsome
chap and is the Beau Brummel of the
prison He keeps his striped coat and
and calf shoes, which his family-said to
be well-to-do-send to him, and does his
daily work in the principal keepers Of
flee. He went through all the drudgery
of the common convicts life up to a
short time ago, when man was needed
who could attend to books Now that
his long sentence is nearing an end his
condition is pitiful. Every evening as
the sun goes down he goes out of the
principal keepers office into the court
yard and stands watching the day dis
appear. AS the sun goes out of sight
over the horizon he goes back to the
principal keepers ROOM puts on his hat,
selects a book from the small library
and with pleasant good night goes to
his cell, where he reads until ten o'clock,
when lights go out. There is little dan
ger of this young man ever finding his
way into prison again, once he regains
his freedom.
With the life men all is different
Whether it's because most of them have
just managed to escape death or from
some other reason, they are a remarka-
bly, philosophical lot. They came to the ,
Jail Respondent over the future, as is
natural, but they become more and
more resigned to their fates as the days
roll by. In Sing Sing prison, where to-
day some twenty men are serving life |
sentences. they are the best prisoners in |
the place. They have no Communication
10 earn by good behavior, yet they give |
little or no trouble. They rarely get |
1owncast and cry out against their |
fates. On the contrary, they are good |
1atured about it. The only explanation
IF their failure to pine away from the
very hopelessness of their condition is
hat they all hope to be pardoned sooner
Or later. According to Principal Keeper
whose twenty-five years
If service at Sing Sing has given him a
are knowledge of criminals and their
the belief that he will ulti-
nately be pardoued is desp rooted in the
mind of every life prisoner. There is a
nan in Sing Sing prison to-day who be-
ran his term of life imprisonment there