Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-30
AS REVENUE Saver
Hopeful View of the Districts
Penal Farm.
FINE SOIL; PLENTY WATER
Superintendent Expects to Make the
Institution Profitable.
BUILDING WINTER QUARTERS
Prisoners Kept Busy and Under Dis
cip1ine- Held to
Strict Account.

The Districts workhouse prisoners at
Occoauan are engaged principally in
building the winter quarters designed to
house 40 prisoners. Scarcely anything
more than the very first beams have been
laid for this new structure but it is
planned to have IT finished before winter
begins. The nights are getting chilly at
Riverside Park" as the. prisoners call
their stockade. and today double set
Of blankets will be given to every man
in place of the single blanket, which
until now has been sufficient.
| The winter quarters viii! be substan-
TALLY built of timber. and will be used
for two or three years. For this reason
they are to be termed "subpermanent'
| quarters. 1t is planned by Supt. Whit
taker to have no stockade or fence
| around these quarters, as it is believed
| man at each corner of the building, arm
| ed with rifle. Is much more effective
| than stockade. The fact that one man
broke through the barbed wire stockade
around the present temporary camp seems
| to bear out this idea.
Always Under Guard.
The men work in gangs of about fifteen
with a guard standing somewhere in the
background with a rifle. The guards
dress in khaki and some of them have
the facial expressions and the ferocious
mustaches of the most approved fictional
type of South Sea pirates. Some of the
guards have been unsatisfactory, and
these have been let out as fast as they
got in. Others of the guards have had
mysterious influence" and, boasting of
it, have run against Supt. Whitaker and
breach of discipline. influence or no
influence, out they have gone. For a
time it looked as il the incoming guards
would have to keep to the left and the
outgoing guards to the right, in order
to prevent confusion. Until be gets just
the thirty-five prison guards that he
wants Supt Whitaker Is going to keep
on hiring and firing.
Qualities Hard to Define.
Just what comprises a good guard
would be hard to tell. Mr. Whitaker be-
lieves that a guard should be firm. that
he should treat prisoners with an iron
hand and at the same time have GER
tain amount of soft-heartedness. He
should not be impetuous, nor should he
lack initiative. He should be alert and
wide-aWake at all times, and should be
able to bluff magnificentiy, and If neces-
sary back his bluff up with bullet. He
should never let a prisoner believe he Is
weak. even If such is the case. For
Dis01ne Commissioners hope to get thirty
five E1on Of this kind.
The guards who have been discharged
from Occoquan tell all sorts Of tales
about the way guards and prisoners are
treated, but in the final analysis 1T sits
itself down to the fact that Supt. Whit
taker maintains strict discipline and
expects to be obeyed. Many of the pris-
oners complain that the discipline is too
strict, and 1t is very strict inside the
stockade. They must act there like per-
feet little gentlemen. But they are not
in the stockade very much, as they are
marched out early in the morning to
the work, and go to bed at $50 pm.
They are not allowed to run about the
stockade, nor to talk in loud and bolster
Gus tones. They sit along the outside
Of the big tents. on benches. They are
not allowed to move away without per-
mission from the guard. This Is strictly
enjoined. Supt. Whitaker says that once
in while fight will occur at one end
of a line of prisoners, and without
just such discipline the whole outfit will
nock to the fight and perhaps start a
dangerous riot.