Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-12-07
TO The VOTER OF VIRGINIA.

| cause.
DEAR BROTHER:
A called meeting of our Legisla-
ture will convene shortly, but far
more important object than that for
which it convenes can be brought
before it when it meets, and brought
by you.
Three great leading papers of the
United States have, in the past year,
published stinging criticisms upon
the condition of the State Prison of
Virginia-criticisms which should
make every lover of his State blush
with shame, not at seeing our Com
monwealth held up as a public spec
tacle for the scorn and disgust of the
civilized world wherever these arti-
cles are read and copied, but because
every word that has been written is
strictly true, and each one of us cit
liens Of this State is responsible for
letting the horrors so freely men,
toned continue in existence.
Our State Prison, built for three
hundred men. has for some years
past held an average of fourteen hum
dred. One very ordinary size room,
or cell, during the past year has con-
tanned twenty-nine men; several
others have contained over twenty
each. All hold entirely too many
inmates for their capacity. Sleeping
hunks, or shelves, are let into the
walls on two sides of the cells (al-
most from floor to ceiling in some of
them), leaving very small space for
the mass of men packed there to
move about upon the floor between
them.
Each cell is lighted and ventilated
only by small, heavily barred win
dow at one end, and a very small
transom over the door, which is op-
poslte the window, aud leads into
little, confined courtyard that itself
has poor chances indeed for fresh air,
as it is inclosed on every side by the
high, heavy walls of the prison, which
are built all around it. Lately, bar
red iron doors have been substituted,
in the worst cells, in warm weather.
for the ordinary heavy wooden ones.
This merciful effort at relief has been
of some benefit in decreasing the
sufferings of the inmates of these
suffocating rooms. No ordinary con-
veniences of modern city houses sup
ply the Institution, except rooms
where the men can bathe; and every
relief of nature must take place with
in their cells.
1t is almost miracle that no
scourge of disease has broken out
among them, and from them to the
city all around them, from this one
dreadful fact alone. Loathsome ver-
min are in the walls that cannot be
eradicated, although the effort is
made to do SO, and the prisoners in
summer cannot escape being devour-
ed by these horrible insects at night.
in addition to their excruciating mis-
cry from the fearful heat, foul, dis
gusting air and densely crowded
state. Many liberated prisoners
have told me that on summer nights
sleep was an impossibility to them,
and life itself an intolerable burden.
There have lately been two hundred
and fifty-eight cases of the torment
ing skin-disease known as "itch,"
due entirely to their over-crowded
condition, and but for the most strin-
gent medical precautions every pris-
oner in the place would, no doubt,
have fallen victims to this odious
malady.
Small wonder, then, that the hos
pital has needed and received a large
additional building within the past
few years. The hospital, itself, sup
posably the most probable place
for originating and propagating the
germs of disease, is right in the midst
of the close, confined courtyard, into
which the door and transom of every
cell opens for its only chance of fresh
air.
No wonder that men can die in
such a place so easily. No wonder
taat so many come out from there,
broken down in health and spirits,
when they entered it strong, active
men. | heard one of our most prom
inent citizens say that Virginia
might blush beside Siberia if their
prisons were compared. / heard
one of the leading citizens of the
United States say, after he had visit.
ed our penitentiary, that it was the
most dreadful place he had ever seen
on earth, or words to that effect.
Another horrible result of the
crowding systsm is this: Numbers
of comparatively innocent, inexpe-
rienced young men, locked IN for per-
haps comparatively light offence,
are forced inexorably into closest con-
tact with desperate, hardened Williams,
to be familiarized with degradation
and vice, that no decent being can
even mention; which vice cannot be
banished while mass of criminality
| is Tins hacked hnnalaaslu fnnrnthor