Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1901-06-13
The State PenitentiarY.


dox, published in the Richie Gazette :
The Warden has sole control, prac-
tically, of the entire machinery OF the
institution, and as result if he wants
to conduct it wisely, he must know all
the details. To come in a stranger
and undertake task of that kind is
quite difficult. There are eight hun
dred and six prisoners, besides the Of
ficers, who number forty-one, and to
get a small army like that to move
harmoniously in a space Of FIVE acres,
to feed them all, clothe them, main
tain proper discipline and keep them
all employed, requires thinking.
About FIVE hundred and seventy
FIVE of the men ale working in the
shops. There is broom shop, whip
shop, a skirt shop and apants factory
In the broom shop they make twelve
hundred brooms day. In the pants
factory they turn out one hundred and
twenty-five dozen pairs daily. They
make pants from eight dollars doz-
en- to thirty-three dollars dozen and
all this product is sold to wholesalers
none going to the retail trade. c. B.
Rouss and the Baltimore Bargain
House are big buyers in the skirt and
pants shops.
We have our own water works and
electric light plant. All the build
ings and the cells are lighted by cleo
tricity and all the buildings are heated
by steam. Coal is used to fire the
boilers, the mind being less than a
half mile away. We also have drug
store and a hospital. We have a
night school and aim to teach all IL
literate convicts to read and write and
they are given lessons on all impcr-
tant topics. The prison also has an
immense library filled with choice
books, papers and magazines, and all
prisoners who are on their good be-
havior can have them under certain
regulations.
The men go to breakfast at 6.l0
o'clock in the morning and are at
work by $50. They work until ll.30
and have dinner and are at work again
by noon. They work until four o'clock
and then have supper. After supper
they march in the yards for exercise
until about FIVE o'clock, when nearly
all of them 60 to their cells and are
locked up. A few men, generally
about sixty, are permitted to stay out
until about nine o'clock to do the work
in the kitchen, bakery and other
places. At nine o'clock. a bugler
sounds the call, the lockout gang comes
in, all the lights go olt in the cells
and perfect silence is maintained un-
til six o'clock in the morning The
discipline is perfect, almost, in fact
it must be, or it could not be managed.
Chapel services are held every Sun
day at nine o'clock and last an hour.
The services consist Of singing by the
leaders and the convicts, after which
they have a short sermon bv one Of
the town pastors, who is paid for 1t
by the State The prisoners are per-
fectly orderly and the services are well
worth hearing.
After the services, the men are
marched in the yard until dinner
time. After dinner they 90 to their
cells and the second and third Sundays
they are permitted to write one let
ter. These letters are all sent out to
a certain guard who must read them
to see that they contain nothing OBJ
lectionable. Last Sunday the guard
had six hundred and twenty-five let
ters to read and you may be sure it
was no small task. The letters are
then sent in to my Office and are ad-
dressed by convict clerk. The State
pays the postage one day in the month,
and the prisoners must pay the other
day.
In addition to our own prisoners
We get great many United States
prisoners from Virginia and Washing
ton City. The government pays US
for maintaining them and we work
part Of them in the shops and thus
make profit out Of them. We get
cents per day for the pris-
oners work in the shops. We feed
them land pretty well, too) for nine
cents day and the whole expenses is
about twenty-seven cents per day.
We are thus enabled to pay all ex-
peuses and clear some money besides.
One reason for this is that We use pris-
oners for nearly everything. The chief
cook and all the other cooks are pris-
oners. The druggist is a prisoner. Ny
private secretary is prisoner and be