Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-11-24
Deeoa escscacoooeco
! T~orturing Men in :
; Free America. 8

Ef- |
What goes on behind prison walls?
Terrible things, inhuinan punish
ments and despicable %tortures arc
common to not a few penal i%nstitu-
ticns, according to the report made
by that veteran investigator and So
cial philosopher, Charles Edward-Rus-
sell. For Hampton's Magazine Mr..
Russell is writing q series of articles
on the evils CT some prisons, and the
hopeful progress upward il others.
Of the worst type Mr.. Russell CO..
siders the Ohio State PsSitentiary a
fair sample. He thus describes u
part OF it:
The first buildings are cell houses,
Here is one built in 1884. 1t is a
frightful place, very dark. DAMP, and
to the senses pungertly suggestive OF
long and odorous occupation. The
ventilation is so bad that even when
the tenants are gone forth the air is
heavy and foul; what it must be when
the 500 cells are occupied with
breathing ard p%erspirinG men IS a
suggestion to joztle completeness.
There is first the outer wall with
barred windows, few and narrow;
then n space of ten or twelve feet.
then the cells in five tiers. AT noon
barely so much light enters the cor
Tidor that \ may see one's way
about. NJ light enters the cells. In
to these black caves. where the chill
of old stone walls strikes n like a
palnable thing, and where the heavy
air is %stirless always. not Il ray OF
natural light has penetrated for sew
enty-fve years. And 500 men sleep
in these caTerns.
Especially does Mr.. Russell attack
e'the contract system" Under this,
in the Ohio State Penitentiary, he
says the convicts worked in shops un-
der the direction and control and
practically at the mercy of the con-
tractors, who were irresponsible to
the State or in this matter to any
other human authority.
Each convict must each day pro-
duce a certain amount OF work called
his task" If he fell short the con-
tractors foreman reported him to the
guard who forthwith tcoil him TO the
cellar"
THIS was the place OF judgment
and OF torture. The deputy warden
sat as the court; on the report of the
guard swift sentence was pronounced.
Usually the offender was condemned
to be padded, sometimes to the bull
rings, sometimes to the. water cure.
and in many cases of old offenders to
all three-one after another.
Punishment by the paddle is man
aged in this fashion: The prisoner is
seized, stripped and bent over the
edge of 9 bathtub, his legs being man
acled to the floor and his hands
chained before him. A guard takes
a fat instrument, ash, three and a
half feet long. two inches wide. fitted
with a handle. He soaks it in hot
water. Then he beats the prisoner
with it a prescribed number of times
-four or i've according to the prison
officers, ten to thirty according to the
prisoners.
"Bull-rings" means that the pris-
oner is strung, up by the wrists in a
dark cell and thus eftNhanging, like
a carcass of beef. Sufferers from
this device and other witnesses have
declared that the chains are some
times SO adjusted that the delin-
quent's feet barely touch the floor.
This is denied by the prison officers.
There is no reason why it should not
be true; the guards are a law unto
themselves! The cell is perfectly
dark except for what light filters
through few narrow Sits in the
door and is otherwise unventilated.
At night the victim is usually low
cred and allowed to sleep on the
ioor-usualIy, not always. 80.