The Opelousas courier., 1901-05-25
REVOLT AGAINST SILENCE,
How Solitary Confinement Prisoners Rest
Themselves While at Liberty.

INV Soiitaty SoHIinement PRISONERS ReSt
Themselves While at Liberty.
When the presumr::ye system of Sc
gregate confinement enforced at the
Eastern penitentiary aroused the in
d1gnation of Charles Dickens, and his
trenchant pen gave expression to his
horror OF such punishment, the insti-
tuition on Paramount avenue was Civ
en- a sinister reputation beyond it's de-
serts. Since the great novelist wrote
In terms SO severe of solitary imgris-
onment the results obtained by the
management of the prison here have
refuted in the main the structures
passed upon the Eastern p%enitentiary.
Penologfsts have given their testimony
in favor Of the system which Dickens
condemned, and solitary confinement
is In vogue in many Of the penitenti-
aries of the country. If enforced to
the letter, and a man was compelled
to sit within a narrow cell day after
day, with nothing but his own
thoughts to occupy his mind, then, in
deed, solitary confinement would be a
barbarity that would shame civiliza-
ton and humanity. Madness and death
could only result in the majority of
cases.
But when the convicted man stands
before his Judge to receive his punish
ment, and listens to the words "soli-
tary confinement" their terror Is
lightened by the merciful provision
that his loneliness shall be relieved
by hard labor Then, too, the
crowded condition of the Eastern peni-
Tertiary requires that two, and fire.
quently three, convicts shall be on
fined in the same cell, and the "soli-
tary confinement" part Of the sentence
is more or less a legal fiction.
While a man has the company Of
his fellows and the boon Of work In
the prison there is imposed upon him
a punishment the severity and irk-
someness of which can only be appre-
hended in it's full force by one who
had undergone it. The punishment is
silence. Throughout the day no man
dare speak to his fellow save of nee
essity or by. stealth. To a man who
has yielded to temptation and fallen
from an honorable place in society the
need of human sympathy, the sound
of a kindly voice, a friendly a into
which to pour the torturing surgings
of his mind is most necessary, and
must make this imposed silence ter
rible 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 tumuit
echoing from behind its stone walls,
and wondered as they hurried by If
a bloody revolt was going on within.
A revolt 1t is, indeed, that nightly
takes place, but it is the revolt OF over
burdened hearts, of anguished souls
and black, evil minds against the
silence they have writhed under dur
ing the day. From 6 o'clock until 8
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
ly the hour of 6. At the given time
Dandemonium breaks loose. The cor
ridors echo and re-echo to the yells,
shrieks and songs of the miserable,
Gagged men. Many of them have must
cal instruments, and these add their
volume to the general discord. Fol
| three hours the din continues, but on
the stroke Of 9 the electric lights go
out, silence once more broods over the
gloomy place, and fortunate the man
who finds freedom in sleep.-Philadel-
phia Telegraph.