Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-16
CRUELTY IS DENIED
Charges Against 0ccoquan
Management Answered.
REPLYBY Superintendent
Says Guards Who Were Discharged
Made the Accusations.
LITTLE OCCASION TO PUNISH
MI. Whitaker Declares Only Sixty
Four Men Have Been Put
Under Restraint.
REPLYBY Superintendent
LITTLE OCCASION TO PUNISH

Complete and detailed answer to all the
charges Of cruelty. mismanagement. sell
ing and drinking of liquor at the Deco
guam workhouse was made today to the
Commissioners by w. H. Whitaker,
superintendent of the institution. In his
answer Mr.. Whitaker bitterly assails the
former guards who made charges against
him. On this latter point Mr.. Whit
takers reply says:
These affidavits have not been made
through any sympathy that these eX-
employees have for any prisoner or pris-
oners who have served time here, but
they have been made because of the per-
sonal dislike each of them has for the
superintendent, because it devolved upon
him to discharge them from the force
for disregard of the rules and regula-
tons of the institution
Speaking to the charge of too severe
punishment, Mr.. Whitaker says that out
OF 1,6CO prisoners at Occoquan since its
beginning it has been necessary to put
only Sixty-four under restraint, twenty
six of these being men who had made a
dash for liberty.
Handcuffed to Tree.
| During the first few months, while the
| plains, he adopted a plan of Handwriting
| recalcitrant prisoners to a tree, requir-
ing them to stay there during working
hours, giving them a bread-and-watei
diet He says that this was necessary.
| seeing that the prison was nothing
more than a camp and that there were
no buildings erected for the purpose Of
| melting out punishment.
| AS to excessive cruelty, as specifically
| charged, the report says:
| AT no time nor at any place has any
prisoner been strung up by the hands
to such height that he has had to
stand on his toes. On the contrary. each
prisoner punished always has been placed
in natural position, and in no case has
his health ever been impaired
| In the colder weather, Mr.. Whitaker
explains. this method of punishment was
abandoned for the ''third-grade table,
where bread and water was served, re-
that diet for ten days or two weeks, ac-
| cOrding to the nature of the case. or I'M
til they promised Ito go back to work
| and behave themselves
Room for "Bad" Prisoners.
| Still later. a room was built in one
| of the new buildings, where bad"
prisoners are handcuffed during work
ing hours. and which, according to the
report. is kept comfortably heated.
AS for the statements that prisoners
were exposed all winter until they
were stiff with cold, Mr.. Whitaker
makes a curt denial. He says, how
ever, that there have been times when
prisoners, as we'll as officials, have
been pretty cold. but attributes that
to the fact that the institution has
been little more than camp. He says
that his own house has been too cold
for comfort. However, he gives the
death record of the institution as EVIL
dence that no one was badly treated.
In eight months the institution has
had six deaths from natural causes and
two deaths from an accident. the fall
ing of tree.
The report says the death rate is much
land this in view of the fact that many
of the men we receive here are physical
wrecks, diseased and unfit for work Had
such treatment been melted out to pris-
oners here as these discharged and dis
Hruntled men would have the public be-
lieve, more deaths would have occurred
and more sickness would have been re-
corded in the hospital"
AS to the charge of liquor drinking
on the premises. Mr. Whitaker reports
that he has kept up personal investi-
CATION on that matter for eight months
and has been unable to find any evidence
Of liquor being sold on the workhouse
grounds.
The report adds But l have found
in few cases that officers were using
structions given them. In each instance
where positive proof was found the guilty
officer was Immediately discharged: and q
majority of the men who are now fling
complaints with you are men who were
discharged and who We're using liquor"