Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-08
"A Sentence to Imprisonment Means Starva-
ton and Poisoning, Says Author, Who De-
scribes What He Saw on the Convicts' Tables
in the Federal Prison While He Was There.


break, finds its way through and in many
cases the gtst of the story is to the effect that
the food is bad or scanty. Other things the
men behind the bars suffer stoically, or not so
stoically-but lack of food arouses them to de-
spair and frenzy We have lately heard re-
ports from Sing Sing illustrative of this
condition there; and many another jail could
echo the complaints of the unfortunates in
that gloomy hel-chamber.
Convicts know that they are to be punished,
that the Government has sentenced them, that
1t Is the law and though they may find cause
to disagree with the decree that consigns them
to hopeless and useless servitude, they accept
1t as at least legal and incident to the game
played. But they do not believe that the Gov
eminent has condemned them to starvation,
or to poisoning (and the condition in which
food often comes to the convict's table is prac-
tically poisonous). They know that no such
punishment is included in the statutes; and
they can only conclude, therefore, that it is
an arbitrary and Illegal piece of cruelty or
neglect on the part Of the warden or commits
sary officer They are prone to think that
these persons profit financially by cutting
down their supplies, and that they are careful
to conceal the fact in their reports to the De-
partment, or to disguise 1t as a meritorious
economy. At the same time, they are con-
scious that there is no regular channel
through which they can make their injury
known to the authorities, and that nothing is
more readily denied or more easily concealed
from inspectors than is this very abuse.
But the suffering which it occasions is con-
slant and cumulative. They are still required
to perform their labor, as If in full physical
vigor. They punished if physical weak
ness causes them to fall short in their tasks
They feel their vitality ebbing, they find them
selves ever less able to resist the inroads of
disease, their appeals to the doctors are often
met with sneers and even animostty; and
what marvel is 1t that stoicsm and patience
at last give way, and they break out in some
wild and savage excess which justifes the re-
sort by their masters to the dungeon and the
bullet? But death may well seem to the reb-
els preferable to the lingering pains Of the al
tentative fate.
The under-nourishment and Reimbursement
of convicts is, in fact, one of the worst crimes
Of the many which their despots perpetrate
upon them. From any point of view, 1t is bar
barous and wicked-the crime of Weyler
upon the defenseless Cuban revolutionists,
which, as much as the destruction of the
Maine, impelled this country to declare war.
Yet, knowing as we do that it is perpetrated
upon the human beings in our prisons, we sit
supine and acquescent, and thereby make the
crime our own.
Have you not imagination enough to put
yourself for a moment in the predicament Of
the prisoner? There you sit In the narrow
gloom of your cell, or you toll in the sitting
confinement of your work room, and such is
not only your state to-day, but for years to
come it will be unchanged You are isolated
from sight of and association with every man
and woman in the world who cares for you or
thinks kindly Of you; silence and rigid
obedience are imposed upon you; you meet
no looks that are not harsh, and hear no
words but sharp commands or angry menaces.
Your very toll is idle and unpaid, and its dill
gent performance brings you no credit or hope,
except treacherous promises of a good con-
stantly delayed And then picture yourself
when, after wearisome hours, the whistle
blows that means ntermission of labor and
the renewal of strength by food. Yet that
summons instead of cheering you, does but
make the burden of your misery heavier.
Sullenly and heavily, in the endless line, you
tramp into the huge, comfortless hail. with its
hideous tables and benches, and as you pass
up the aisles you glance abhorrently at the
dirty scraps and masses of provender dumped
careessy out of noisome buckets by the filthy
hands of the servers upon plates still rough
and foul with the hardened grease of foregoing
meals. You are faint for lack of nourishment,
yet the sight of what is provided, and the un-
clean smell of 1t, nauseates instead OF inviting
you. Eat you must, if you would live and
have strength to work, yet IL you eat you In
vite sickness and suffering, and If you could
eat all, and assimilate 1t, you would still leave
the table but half fed.
Every tyro in physiology knows the erect
upon the general organism of detection and
resentment at meals. Prisoners more than
men in any other condition need abundance
TO eat and good cheer while eating; but the
food they get and the circumstances In which
they get it. causes them to degenerate physi-
caIy and the body affects the mind. Physical
disease breeds the disease of evil thoughts
and impulses Criminals might be generated
by prison food alone, without taking account
of their previous records and future prospects.
We of Atlanta Penitentiary used to hear &C.
casionally of the billsoffare of our repasts In
the prison that were daily forwarded to
Washington, by way Of reassuring the Depart
ment of Justice, and whom else 1t might con-
Germ, as to the substance and excellence of
our nourishment. These alimentary documents
might be compared with like lists at Delmon-
ico's and the Waldorf and the names of the
viands would be found to be Identical The
Inference to the legal mind, not to speak Of
the psychological one, plain the conyicts
at the penitentiary Jared as sumptuously as
do the banqueters of the Four Hundred-at
cost moreover, to themselves, not even wait
efs' tips.
For here were rich soups and gravies, sub
stantial roast beef succulent steaks and chops,
the renowned baked beans of legend, comfort
ing hashes, pies and buildings, fresh vegeta-
bles including the famous sweet potato of the
South in its pride; and long draughts OF milk
from the tranquil cows Of the pasture, to-
gether with tea and coffee from the Orient,
sugar, mustard, salt and pepper and vinegar,
enough to begule the most squeamish appe-
tite and to top off with, fruits in their season,