The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-10-06
SAYS PRISONS
:. MAKE CONv|CTS
New York Official Served a
, - Week in Penitentjary.
SAYS SYSTEM IS CRUEL
Declares Prisoners Lose Their Free
dom Of Action and Become irrespon.
sible When Released.

Millburn, N. Y, Oct. 6. n Thomas
Mott Osborne, chairman Of the state
commission on prison reform, came
out of Auburn prison after spending
day in the dungeon cells with i've
other inmates.
Osborne, under the alias of Tom
Brown, on Saturday was reprimanded
in the basket shop for going to the
sink without permission, and in the
discussion he decided to quit work,
and on his refusal to go back to his
bench was taken before Principal
Keeper Patterson, who, after warning
him that the only alternative to ODE
dience was the cooler" locked the
amateur convict into what he termed,
on his release, to be 1.-The innermost
circle of inferno" On Sunday, pale and
weary, The was taken to his cell, and at
the usual chapel hour was allowed to
20 in with the rest of the prisoners.
Mr.. Osborne. alias Tom Brown, had
made arrangements to end his term on
Sunday, and when Chaplain Copeland
called him out from among the con-
victs seated in the big hall there was
an ovation never before repeated in
Auburn prison.
/ Rising from the gray clad men,
"Tom Brown" was called to the plat
form and then delivered talk to the
men, in which he told of some of his
experiences, and commended men and
keepers for the excellent manner in
which they had allowed him to work
out his plan without obstacle or inter
ference of any sort.
e On leaving the prison, Mr.. Osborne,
although anxious to go to sleep in his
own comfortable bed at home, consent
ed to make statement and said:
n5"I am more than ever confirmed in
my previous opinion that the prison
system is singularly unintelligent, in
effective and cruel. In many respects
the material we'll being of convicts is
carefully looked after. For instance,
found the food unexpectedly good, the
cells while exceedingly antiquated are
clean, we'll lighted by night and are
satisfactorily ventilated However, /
am told that in cold weather they are
often exceedingly damp.
- "My adoption of an alias proved to
have been most valuable in getting
on common ground with the men. Had
I used my own name there would I'M
questionably have been embarrass-
ment and there would have been far
less freedom of natural intercourse.
Incidentally may say that the man
who can deceive in any way group OF
state prisoners will have to be an ex-
pert.
lone or two things it may be well to
say while the matter is quite fresh:
First is that the prison system is
absolutely form of slavery, and that
al the great truths enunciated by Lin
coin and others against negro slavery
an init aa applicable to prison slay-
6ry. 1t takes from the convict his in
Edividuaf initiative and freedom of ac-
tfon Rnd he becomes an irresponsible
Fautomaton When he returns to the
outside world, therefore, he finds he
is unable to resume his own initiative
and to be the, guider of his own des-
TIMES.
This accounts for so many men
who leave urison and return as Sec
ond termers. From the first moment
that man arrives in prison he is
made to realize that he is no longer an
individual human being. He is only
one very unimportant unit in COM
munity which is undergoing pennance
for certain crimes, and the pennance
differs only in the matter of duration.
The next companion on my tier of cells
may be a forger, burglar, murderer.
defaulting cashier; he may be col
lege graduate or Bowery tough, an
intelligent Yankee or an ignorant for
eigner, yet all are clothed alike, fed
and housed alike, and each man ceases
to be an individual and becomes a
moving automaton in gray suit"