The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
From the Kansas City Star.

XN HEN a prisoner in the peniten- NWODJ tary in Lansing, Kan, be- w comes so unruly that no ordi- nary punishment will improve his tenn per and make him obey orders he is put in the crib.
 Perhaps you have visited Lansing-gone through the twine plant, furniture fac- torv overall factory, the library and chapel the mines; but have you ever seen the crankhouse and the crib? Hardy likely that you have. The crankhouse IS a most unpleasant place to visit. There are sights in there that you would not likely forget soon-and, of course, the guards want to spare you from seeing such disagreeable things. The cribs, for instance; always the cribs; you'll never forget them. You may never see man fastened in one of these things, and you may hear much from the guards about the ferocity of those who have had to submit to such reforming influences. You may be told that the latest prisoner who suffered there tried to kill the cook or did kill the doctor, but nothing he had done could be quite bad enough, you will say to make such punishment Justified or to drive the memory of it from your mind. When you get home again and put on your lounging robe and light your pipe to smoke you'll think of that dia- bolical contrivance in the crankhouse in Lansing prison, and the chances are you won't read your paper understandingly. Nothing ever will make you forget en- tirely the vacant, staring eyes and ex- pressionless faces of the unhappy wretches in the crankhouse, most of whom know all about the crib and its quiet torture.
 Quiet torture. That's it exactly. w. H. Haskell, warden and senator; J. w. Dob- son, deputy warden, mild-mannered, agreeable, an excellent official, long tried and capable. These men did not invent the crib. They found 1t there when they followed in another's footsteps It is said by competent persons that they have almost ceased to use it. except for insane prisoners, who must be restrained to save their own lives. The pity of 1t is that the warden has not burned it long ago.
 It makes your heart grow tighter when you see some of these things You cant deny a shudder and feeling of compass sion for the fellows that are in there, many of them for life. depending for every favor on the capriciousness of the guards, who can make or break them according to the way they may feel about it after dinner some day.
 It isn't hard to understand that A man who has lived for IS or 20 years in prison is likely to go out with a chip on his shoulder or grudge against some one in authority. That spirit produces gossip. and gossip sometimes gets into books and these books hold fearful tales.
 There was "The Kansas Inferno" writ | ten in Lansing by life prisoner-it is said This book was published in Wich l ita, and no one knows how the publish 1 CTS got the manuscript It tells about the crib in this way:
 Tt is a box with holes for air into | which a prisoner is put face downward. with bar across his back, his hands !! bound to his sides or breast His head | and neck and his feet are then 'triced l up so that he is in the form of a bow. | and there he stays sometimes for 4s hours. Men have become raving maniacs l in the crib.''
 The cribs in the "crankhouse' in Lam 1 sing do not quite come up to this de- | scription. They are cases made of oak 1 slats, about seven or eight feet long. 1 four feet wide and probably four feet deep-large enough to hold very big | man. There is no bar and place for one 1 to be fastened, and the prisoner Is not | tied to it in any way. His hands are 1 put In leathern huff, resting on his i breast-he lies on his back. The crib is closed and he Is left there, alone, to think 1t over. There is another crib few feet away. and perhaps 1t contains a | gbbering malefactor who finds delight in ! yelling and pumping his head against the , slats. This is enough to drive the other man crazy if he isn't in as bad condi- | ton himself, and in any circumstances 1t certainly does nothing toward quieting the most obstreperous prisoner. If he is | just mean and lazy and vicious 1t makes him worse-if 1t doesn't make him mad to stay there in that crib the most sol itary of all solitary confinement, the per lection of cruel ingenuity; not so degrad- ing, perhaps as the whipping post, used in some state prisons today, but in finitely more harmful to the few remain ing shreds of morality. hundred times more destructive of manhood. relic of barbarous tmes
 Just how far prison officials should go in punishing convicts is question that has received much attention. It needs much more. It is important to record in |