The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-04-09
PRISON RINGS AT.
JEFFERSON CITY,
HAWKINS SAYS
Dunklin Senator Declares He
Made Discovery While
Visiting Prison.
FOUND CONNECTS WITH
HANDS ABOVE HEADS
Asserts Prisoners Were Punished
for Offenses That Were
Insignificant.

hennetC, MO-, April Senator
Charles P. Hawkins, chairman of the
special committee of Senators appoint
ed to investigate penitentiary condi-
tons, today gave to a reporter a de-
scription of the hanging up of four
convicts by their wrists in dark cells
of the Missouri penitentiary, three
weeks ago.
Hawkins branded the mode of pun
ishment as "inhuman," an exhibition
of the brute force which characterizes
the system with which the Missouri
prison for many years has been con-
ducted," and as system of punish
ment mot calculated to improve the
convicts."
Three of the convicts whose punish
ment was witnessed by Hawkins were
white men not more than 25 years old.
The fourth was negro.
''The inquiry made by Senators Ca
sey, Kinney and Brogan, who accom-
panied me to the prison." said Haw-
kins, "elicited the information from
one of the white youths that the only
offense for which he was being pun
ished was that he had failed, through
physical inability, to complete the task
set for him under the contract labor
system"
Prison officials have reported that
the system of stringing up convicts
for infractions of the prison rules had
practically been abolished since the ex-
posture of the brutal punishment of
the convict Willis some months ago.
Hawkins revelations of the sight he
witnessed was startling, he said, to
himself and the Senators who accom-
panied him.
CAS- 1 walked out of the Capitol at
ter the morning session of the Senate
one day about week before adjourn
ment, Senators Kinney, Brogan and
Casey, who were standing near an au-
tomobile in front Of the Capitol, ask
ed me to take a ride. / did not know
where we were going.
"When we reached the penitentiary
Kinney said that he had received pri-
vate information that a st. Louis boy
in whom he was interested was being
STRUNG up" and he wanted to investi-
gate it.
owe went Immediately to the pun
ishment hall. The guard at the door,
although he knew who we were, stop
ped us and said that we could not en-
ter the building.
"Tt would be all my jobs worth if
1 let you in there now,' he said.
81 replied: You might get job
some place else. 1t is pretty sure to
cost you your job if you don't let US
in He then went to a telephone OF
speaking tube and called up somebody
for instructions. Within a minute we
were taken into the building.
ave found four cells occupied. l
should say each of the cells was about
three feet wide, eight feet long and
possibly eight feet high. They had
no light except such as entered
through the heavily grated steel door.
Each cell was about big enough to put
a hog in, if you didn't want him to
turn around.
"To the grated door of each of four
cells man was strung up. He was
handcuffed, with his hands stretched
above his head so high that he barely
could rest his feet on the floor. None
of the men seemed to be pulled to tip
toe.
"The three white men were young,
none more than %. One young fell
low, who appeared to be 20 or 81, was
in great pain and continually twisted
his body about in an effort to gain
some ease or rest, but there was none
for him.
'These white men, in reply to our
questions, told US why they were be-
ing punished. l do not recall the rea-
sons given, except by the youth l have
just mentioned, but I do remember
that at the time / considered the of
fenses trivial
"The man Kinney thought was in
the rings was not there, but Kinney
took great interest in the men there.
81 believe the bill abolishing con-
tract labor and transferring Juvenile
offenders to a reformatory at Boon
vile will greatly improve conditions.
The Missouri penitentiary system is a
relic of days of barbarism. l have
to say against the prison Of
ficers, and what I say is against the
system.
"The committee will continue its eff