The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23


 convict preachers and instructors in holy things and enjoy receiving instructions and encouragement in the cells at night
 Some History.
 The penitentiary is a product of ths stem of political progress. In her 20th year of statehood Alabama reached the necessity of such an institution. The woods had given way to great plantations and happy farms. Matrimony by pairing and common consent had been displaced by the offices of the clergy. Court houses had been built, roads opened, steamers piled the rivers, schools and churches were planted in a thousand places. So the stocks, the whipping post, the brand ing iron and, worse than these the coun- ty gaol came to give way to the peni- tentiary.
 Arthur P. Bagley was governor and the capital was Tuscaloosa when the bill passed in the late thirties to build pen itentiary. William L. Yancey was a rep resentative from Coosa county, then em- bracing the fiourishing town of Wetump- ka. Yancey lived at Harrowgate Spring, three miles south of the town, practiced law, owned and edited a large weekly political newspaper. By his influence largely the bill carried and by his influ- ence the prison was located. Wetumpka then had on her thinking cap to become the capital.
 In his annual message to the general assembly of 1S42-43, Governor Fitzpatrick announced the completion of the main building, as 1t stands today and the pay ment of Ss4SS9 for 1t and ten acres of land attached.
 The first name on the prison register was that of white man from Mobile, a harness maker. Hogan was the first warden. As the time approached for the appointment of his successor, he sent up a petition signed by all the convicts 10 emphasize his claims. Yaneey was now the senator from the district composed of Coosa and Autauga and was chairman n of the joint legislative committee on the penitentiary. He reported that Warden Achilles Bradley had gone beyond the appropriation for the support of the pris- on, and farther, this warden had exceed ed the laws limit of punishment in- fiicted on prisoners. Nearly all prisoners were whites. Negroes at that time were slaves, seldom guilty of penitentiary of lenses or offenses against law of any kind. Yanceys committee recommended that whenever punishment of a convict more severe than the dungeon and bread and water was supposed to be necessary, the warden the inspector and the prison physician must determine the nature of 1t by agreement among themselves but in no case must a convict be whipped The first appropriation by law, for the year 1841-2 was limited to $10O00 to SUD- port the penitentiary. All labor was then performed within the walls. The third year $15,000 was allowed for expenses. and this proved so short that the warden drew on the governors contingent fund Governor Fitzpatrick advised that the | warden's debts to the amount of $11 5St | be paid by the legislature and the bill passed.
 1 This was the hair that broke the cam els back. The legislature at once pre- | ceeded to cut the state treasury loose l from the penitentiary, as far as possible l and then adopted that inhuman and dis. | astrous policy, the lease of convicts. h his biennial message of his second | term Gov. John A. Winston reviewed the uninterrupted failure of the pententiar, to accomplish satisfactory results. This