The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-11-03
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; TOrturing Men in :
) Free America. 3

What goes on behind prison walls?
Terrible things, inhuman punish
ments and despicable tortures are
common to not a few penal institu-
tions, 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 a series of articles
on the evils Of some prisons, and the
hopeful progress upward in others.
Of the worst type Mr.. Russell con-
siders the Ohio State Pe%nitentiary a
fair sample. He thus describes a
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 %pungently 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 and perspiring men Is a
suggestion to jostle complacency.
There Is first the outer wall with
barred windows, few. and narrow;
then a space of ten o. twelve feet,
then the cells in five tiers. At noon
barely so much light enters the cor
ridor that one may see ones way
about. No light enters the cells. In
to these black caves, where the chill
Of old stone walls strikes n like a
palpable thing, and where the heavy
air is stirless always, not one ray of
natural light has penetrated for sew
enty-fve years. And 500 mel sleep
in these caverns.
Especially does Mr.. Russell attack
1.-The contract system" Under this,
in the Ohio State Penitentiary, he
says the .~convicts worked in shops I'M
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 took 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 a bathtub, his legs being man
acled to the floor and his hands
chained before him. A guard takes
a fiat 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 tia prescribed number of times
-four or five according to the prison
officers, ten to thirty according to the
prisoners. ., - 5000.
"Bull-rings" means that the pris-
oner is strung up by the wrists in a
dark cell and thus left hanging, 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-
ouent'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 a few narrow Sits in the
door and is otherwise unventilated.
At night the victim is usually low
cred and allowed to sleep on the
hoor-usually, not always. .