The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1913-07-20
rrilcptic Skaters Nerve of
Men in the Death House
! asHe Raves Of Chair.
WATER IN ST1LWELL CELL
uou Doubled in Dark Cage Like
Circus Beasts-COmfOrts
of the Doomed.


.ar,er for THE NEW YORK Sun went
,hrough Sing Sing yesterday TO ma
go, lust how had conditions are IN
..r,snn that has been called "hlthy,"
,..s,,,ent" and about the worst prison
-, ,h. world" by such men as James
" osborne. Richard NJ. Hurd' Edwin
- Hotter. Gov. Suffers own invesu-
Gator. George w. Blake and Hraho
r,rv Of Westchester county.
condition that the new warden
,.n,ss NJ. Clancy. is trying to end right
suav is the presence In the condemned
ce,s of an epileptic who Is periodically
,,s.re and will probably be hopelessly
,rsane later. This man annoys the
.,..r inmates sentenced to death.
among them ex-Police Lieutenant
charles Becker, whose cell IL nearly
.n,,s,,e the lunatic's. Becker minds
,ns epileptics rawlings less than do the
,our runmen. Gyp the Blood. LEFTY
Louie. Whitley Lewis and Dago FRANK
q, the other end Of the tier. 1
Dr Farr. the prison physician. has
renorted that the mental condition Oh
s,is man, Alexander Skwirsky. Is prob
/.h,v hopeless. 1t will take some time
ia get him out OF the condemned cehs'
apparen;ly, as a court commission s
necessary TO determine his insanity.
,.n,u he has been legally adjudged
insane there Is no warrant to remove
him.
Raves Of the Chair.
To every one who enters he shouts
his tale Of woe and his laments faii OH
INTO mere sounds and raving.
Don't YOU send me to the electric
chair" he yells. q don't want to die.
Aough. Aough! Warden, when are
Aou going to kill me? There's Becker
/1ut where's Dago Frank?
So he goes on till the nerves OF All
the doomed men are on edge.
Two things stand out clearly IN an
inspection Of the eighty-fve year oio'
state jail. One Is that men are reduced
10 the level Of beasts by doubling up
IN over 200 cells. The other is that
with the absence Of running water III
the cells and the system OF night
buckets the health of men is menaced
from the day they are put within the
,rison.
= There are other defects NJ Sing Sing.
plenty of them, but these two things
that the State OF New York allows are
indefensible. The cells themselves are
dwarfed and airless and In the bottom
tier often dangerously damp. They are
difficult to clean and often house vermin
as we'll as men.
Some OF the prison workshops would
he condemned by any board Of health.
Ma can obviously keep clean In the
prison only with difficulty. There Is
Usually little incentive to work well
or to plan for decent living when the
day Of release shall arrive. But the
things that break men down are
doubling up and the bucket system
1t Is because Of these two crimes that
Sing Sing must be emptied at once.
Cannot he Rcmedied.
Neither Of these two conditions can
be remedied. There Is no chance now
that Sing Sing will see the day when
It >tas not more inmates than cells.
TO eliminate the night buckets by put
ting running water In the cells Is a
physical impossibility. So ancient and
ponderous IL the construction OF the
cell block that plumbing of any sort
! would simply mean tearing 1t down and
rebuilding 1t.
This cell block, built in 1S25.28. Is an
amazing relic OF an age when punish
ment meant inhumanity. The great
gray walled building stands almost ex-
actly as when 1t was first erected. The
same narrow Sits serve as windows.
Most Of the light comes from big inlets
cut In the walls about sixteen years
ago and heavily barred.
When you enter from the yard you
Sook straight up nearly hundred feet
10 roof unbroken except by round,
hooded ventilators many feet apart.
IN the centre of this vast room, the
core Of it, stand six levels Of cells Ole
above the other. towering nearly to the
roof. They are back to back and are
reached by wooden. unrailed stairs and
narrow little balconies. There are 200
on each level. 100 facing northeast and
fhe other hundred southwest.
4 Man whs rGiIded the Cage.
i life termer has made that grim
interior place that an artist would
half close his eyes over by painting the
stoneWork outside the cells In the like
ness Of Breccia marble, golden brown
with Neining In red. A light blue paint
coats the inside OF the cells. This bit
of color is the background for fiat
handed small iron doors with apertures
about the size Of squares on a checker
boerd
As a picture there Is something e
said FOR this cell block. but otherwise
~ 's brutal pen. Men behind those
doors. 80 grilled that the least possible
lsAt enters, remind you of those cages
'hr circus procession when you were
hoy--cagcs that were all boarded uT
EXCEPT for peephole and that were
marked Dangerous with sometimes
'he name Of the animal inside.
the cells are three and q half fee
VIDE when you get inside. The door
"'e about two feet Wide. 1t Ia sever
''e' from tho cemented noor to tn
rough stoncwork overhead. The bee
or be is fold up against the wall. Whel
'H'y are down there Is hardly room Il
stand. In some cells a poor chal
s'hnds In corner. But mostly the Onl!