The Sunday globe., 1901-05-26

FOR ashtine a street duel in which the defamer
ofhisfamiiy was killed. Pardoned after eight
wears Imprisonment, he proposes IN the
SSoinmns Of the Globe to tell "a plain, unvar
nlshed tale' of life In modern penitentiary
-EDIToR)
The routine of prisoners daily life
is Objectionable in the highest degree
to the habitual criminal who has been
accustomed, until his confinement, to
lead the regular life of tramp This
does not apply, of course, to the acci-
dental criminal who has been either a
farmer, mechanic, or a professional
man previous to his conviction.
In the Ohio penitentiary the prison
ers are required to arise at $3.50 A. M.
in the summer months and be in their
shops at work at A. M. They get for
breakfast a cup of coffee, minus sugar
and milk; a thick slice of bread, and
a little plate Of butter sufficient to
spread thinly over the bread. On this
meagre breakfast the convicts are re-
quired to work at their several avoca-
tions until IL noon. These employ.
ments vary from the light work Of
broom-making to the heaviest moldins
in the boundaries of the prison.
The various trades and manufae'
lures conducted under contract or by
the piece price plan, in this prison,
run the gamut of all the outside trades
and manufactures. The bolt shops are
sly i'm number. all under the one con.
tract to a Columbus citizen named b.
II. Landman. This gentleman has made
an independent fortune by the sweat
and toll of the convicts He is among
~ faGhfnnQhlp
the Buckeye capital. The founderie5
are under different contractors, as are
the furniture, cigars, the glove, the
broom, the hoe and farm implements
and other manufactures, but all are
severe strain, even the lightest, on a
prisoner working six hours on single
Slice Of bread and a cup Of very weak
coffee, At noon the men are marched
from their shops to the dining-room,
where they are served with potatoes,
meat and vegetables sufficient for an
average appetite, but in most cases the
men have been so overworked during
the six preceding hours that their ap-
petites have been more or less affected
by their weakening toll. Hence the
numberless cases they are too weak to
relish the food, and the time given be-
ing only a half hour from shop to din
ing-room and return, the dinner IS,
therefore not as sustaining and nutrl-
tious as it otherwise might be. At
p, M. the men are again marched to
the dining-room from the shops and
given a cup of very weak tea, minus
sugar and milk, with a regulation slice
of bread and some side-dish, such as
Jelly, apple butter, etc. From the din
ing-room they are marched to their
cells and locked up until the follow
ing morning. All prisoners are re-
quired to be in bed at P, M, when
the lights are extinguished and the
guards make the rounds of the cor
Tidors with bulls-eye lanterns, exam
lining through the bars of each cell, the
tired and worn-out occupant.
This daily routine is varied on Sun
DAYS by church service in the fore
noon in the prison chapel, which is fol-
lowed by dinner, usually OF a better
character than the week day meal
after which the prisoners are again
locked up and not unlocked until the
following morning at $50 A. M.
The excessive labor imposed on the
prisoners has been time and again ex-
plotted in the public press, owing to
tbe numbers who 90 down under the
strain and the crowding of the prison
hospital with the wrecks of physically
perfect men who entered the prison
but short time previously. The legis
lature of Ohio, under the pressure OF
this public opinion, abolished the con
tract labor system, or at least moulneu
It in such a manner that the piece price
system was, wherever 1t could De en-
forced. substituted in the shops ana
factories of the prison. The abolition
a
not absolute, but had strings attached
which neutralized its benefits so far as
the prisoners were concerned.
recent agitation has been started
in Ohio to initiate New York State In
the abolition of all contract and other
labor where the convicts are rented to
outside employers or manufacturers
This has been bitterly fought by the
contractors of the Ohio prison, and SO
far they have succeeded In preventing
the necessary legislation. The system
of renting prisoners to contractors In
holt shops. boundaries, and other heavy
and laborious toll is wrong in theory
and nractice. The prisoners are not
benefited nor reformed by such exces
sive toll, the State derives but little
revenue from the convict's labor, and
the only person whom 1t BENEFITS is the
rich conscieneeless contractor OF the
Landman stripe. The average price
maid for an abe-bodied convict In foun'
darv and bolt shop is less than go cents
a dav. The State is compelled to fur
nish the shops, feed the men and pay
for their medical treatment; hence the
60 cents very rarely compensates the
state for the food clothing and med
ical treatment Of the prisoner. and the
Ohio penitentiary, like all other sim
liar institutions, requires each year an
appropriation by the legislature.
New York State is demonstrating
that the prisons can be as near self
sunporting by the State employing Its
own prisoners, as under the system oi
letting them out by contract to out
side manufacturers and contractors
Besides the heavy manufacturing, such
as founderies, machine and bolt shops
are abolished. and the physical con
dition of the men is thereby uninr
paired and instead of being discharged
broken down and decrepid at the eX
piration of their sentences, they now
leave their prisons in New York able
to toll and work for their living az
their former avocations.
Under the Coffin humane administra
ton, the prisoners working in foun
daries, the bolt shops and hoe shops OF
the prison were given a luncheon al
$50 A. M. each day, consisting OF q
slice OF bread and a piece of sausage
or cold beef This thoughtful and hui
name action of the warden was the
means Of saving much more than the
cost of the luncheon to the finances oil
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