The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-08

l use; that he may attend Sunday school 1 and chapel service each week, and when l there is apparent necessity he may see the chief officials of the institution to | ask advice or to talk over supposed | grievances by sending in q request and | stating the reasons for the desired in- l tervieW. Of course the official ad- 1 dressed is the final judge of the sufli- l ciency and urgency of the reasons Slv- 1 en, though all keepers are instructed not to forward such requests as seem | to trivial to merit attention.
 l By strict obedience to the rules the prisoner assures to himself all the re- wards for which the state laws make ] provision and all the privileges named ! in the rules. He is sure of his weekly tobacco ration, of being allowed to write letter once in five weeks and to see friends, if they present themselves, and he is also sure of the good will of his keepers, who have power to add to his comforts or to increase his misery, and in either case keep strictly within both the letter and the spirit of the rules and the traditions of the institu- ton. Strict obedience assures him the benefits of the "good time" law, under the provisions of which three and a half years actual service frees him from five years sentence, and every year more than five named in the sen- tence is discharged by six months inn prisonment-eXcept the men who are sentenced for life-and it assures him the benefits Of the indeterminate sen 1a hi l1a lNn leased on parole at the end of eleven months if he is first offender and is not convicted of murder or other crime deemed of like heinousness.
 Each Monday the convicts who have been received into the prison during. the preceding week are taken into the chapel, where the chaplain reads and explains the rules and offers such ad- vice as his judgment may suggest. A copy of the rules, plainly printed and pasted on rough cardboard, is hung up in every cell, and another copy is bound in every catalogue of library books one of which always Is to be found in each cell After the chaplains reading and explanation of them, the convict of av- craze intelligence has no difficulty in knowing exactly what they enjoln and allow, and what they promise and forbid If he gives attention to the chaplains explanation of them he has no clouded conceptions of the probable or sure consequences of their violation as well as of the gains of willing obedi- ence. The great majority of prisoners have judgment that tells them it pays to obey and have sufficient control of themselves to yield the required obedl- ence.
 A small minority seem so weak men tally that they neither understand the rules when they are read nor are able to read them understandings in the quiet of their cells, A yet smaller mi nority seem to lack the judgment to tell them that defiance of authorities is a losing game In the penitentiary and the will that gives them that control of themselves that keeps them at least apparently within the bounds of obed- ence. These are the men most trouble some to the authorities, who bring most punishment on themselves, and who. if under long sentence, are likely to die directly or indirectly because of ire quent and continued confinement in the dark cell. It is a saying among prison officials responsible for the discipline of the institution that one-tenth of the convicts get nine-tenths of the punish ments
 The punishment of violators of the rules is in the power of the deputy war den and his assistant, subject to the ap- proval of the warden, to whom each case is reported While I was al Joliet the practice was that all punishments inflicted in any day were reported to the warden the next morning. but as he and the deputy want substantially the same thing from the punishment of the dsobedient, it was rare thing that he filed serious objection to anything done by the deputy or his assistant to preserve discipline. No keeper or other official is allowed to touch a convict for punishment, except when he is at tackled, and then the keeper uses the heavy official cane-club, which is the only weapon put in his hands. The deputies alone carry revolvers, and guards on the walls have Winchester repeaters, Cases Of prisoners attack ing keepers at Joliet are comparatively few.
 The severe punishment inflicted there for continued dis1bedence is protracted in the dark cell, where the offender stands s<chained to a grated iron door eighteen hours of the day. He stands erect inside the door, and his | only change of position is what can be had by alternately bearing the weight of his body first on one foot, then on the
 
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