New Britain herald., 1914-07-21
BROUGHT MORPHINE
 TO SING SING PRISON
PIekpaGkei Says He Was Punished
 for Revealing Traffic.

almost all day yesterday in Sing Sing prison in an effort to find out if the drug traffic there is as serious as ex- Warden Mccormick, Assistant Princi- pai Keeper Martin Keeley, two clerks and nine prisoners were questioned. No evidence was obtained of any ex- tensive drug traffic now going on. Three ways in which drugs could be taken into the prison were disclosed through the shipping department tn ough the supply cellar and through the guards. The easiest way seemed so be through the guards.
 Traffic Laws Active.
 The assistant principal keeper said that in his Judgment the drug trafic is now less active than at any previous time in his twenty-three years service in the prison. Warden Mccormick said that his two weeks as Sing Sings head had been too short a time for him to learn much about the subject.
 The commissioners decided to recommend the segregation of .all drug fiends in the prison and to try to figure out some way in which guards would find it less easy to take drugs within the walls.
 Henry Solomon of New York, presi- Leon weinstock of New York, who also is member of the state com mission on new prisons; Frank F. Wade. of Buffalo and Dr. Rudolph F. Diedling of saugerties held the drug hearing. They will start a similar in- vestigation at Clinton prison, Danne- mora, August {, and about August II will begin to inquire into drug smug- gling on BIackweIrs Island.
 No Search of Supplies.
 Arthur Ferguson of the prison maintenance department told the commissioners that supplies arriving by boat for the prison workshops are taken to cellar beneath the mess hall without search. Frank D. Way of the shipping department confirmed this. Supplies are weighed in the cellar, but not examined for druks. Commissioner Wade went out to see for himself and found twenty three prisoners handling stuff in the cellar. while a single guard stood outside talx- ing the air.
 A prisoner told of bringing sixty. grains of morphine, which he said he had obtained in the Tombs. into Sing Sing in a rubber tube hidden in his bandaged foot. Also he had sewed some in his shirt sleeves.
 Revealed Drug Tranic.
 A pickpocket said he had revealed the drug traffic when Clancy was war; den and had been put in a solitary cell on bread and water for nine days as his reward He added that he had been bounded ever since. Two keepers in particular had chalked him up twice for talking loud in his ceJ when, he says, he was innocent. This witness named three other prisoners as drug sellers who received from $5 to SIP a bottle for morphine and $3 bottle for heroin.
 Another prisoner said that he learned to use a drug after a doctor had given him liberally of morphine to kill the pain of a broken arNs He smoked opium at Elmira as "a youth, and afterward, but only as a "joyrider.". This is the term used by drug takers who use the stuff only for pleasure. This man said he had never obtained drugs in Sing Sing. In fact, he had been cured" each of the two times he was sent there.
 'I went to the hospital to get oveI- it," he explained. ITO be sure, if had stuck around the shops I could have got the stuff"
 The next moment he denied having said this. Dr.. Diedling looked at him sharply and said:
 "why, you're doped now. Didn't you have a shot of the stuff tbs morning?"
 Prisoner Denies Doping"
 "No, indeed said the witness.
 pr. Henry IT, Merenees, one of the prison physicians, was called and sur veyed the prisoner with Dr. D;edling. They concluded that the man is so confirmed a drug user that nothing short of a blood test would tell if he had any in the last twelve hours.
 One of the prisoners accused of drug peddiing is an ex-politician of a small town who escaped from Sing Sing some time ago by swimming the river and was not caught until he had reached San Francisco. Another prisoner said he wished for a drink one morning and this fellow brought him a whole bottle of whiskey. How he got it nobody knew, or asked, said the man whose thirst was quenched.
 Assistant Principal Keeper Keeley expressed the opinion that while the drug traffic can be much mlnimized it never can be wiped out. The guards, $500 to ss00 year men, come and go as they please without search. At bottom it is question of their honesty. Warden Mccormick said that if he found a keeper ped- ding drugs he would not only dis