Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-15
$ oIitary Confinement
Makes Maniacs Of Men,
Speaker Declares at Mon
day Conference on Legis-
lation.
House of Correction the Only
Institution Where No Effort
Is Made to Uplift Inmates,
Often Packed Into Cells,
With Thin Soup for Food.

A former inmate on the House OF Cor
rection at HoImesburg stood today in thu
presence OF society women at the Monda,
conference on legislation In the Curtl,
Building and urged prison reform.
He confessed that he had criminal
career Of Is years. Facing the members
81 several women's ORGANIZATIONS, he dis
cussed his case from the time that he
reached 9otfnesburg until he was released
year after with a 81 bill His name
wasn't mentioned.
The House OF Correction. said the
speaker. was the only institution where
no efforts were made to uplift the convict.
The locking up of Ave prisoners in one
cell WAS nothing unusual. Solitary con-
hncrnent, the other extreme, often made
men maniaes.
4 went 20 Holmesburg on an awful
cold day from Moyamensing In the prison
van he said. -Four white men and three
Negroes went up with mel some of the
fellows were almost frozen stiff. The
Negroes were put in one cell and the
whites IN another. These cells are per-
haps by IS by 10 feet in size, and the
one we were In contained nothing but a
bare table and six empty pans for food.
The Ave of us stood up in this cell
from about IL until l. when the keepers
came back from their lunch. Our meal
had been given US before they went to
lunch. Each OF us had half a pan of soup
--one big ladleful-and two slices of dry
bread-ncthing else. The soup has meat
and vegetables in it, but favoritism de-
termines whether you get any solid mat
ter or merely the watery part.
Can you picture a cage in your back
yard absolutely closed on all four sides
with an air hole at the top and a bulldog
In there TO whom you come, open the
door, and throw"in some food three times
day, Immediately slamming the door
shut In his face again and keeping this
up for months, yes, years? What love
would that dog have for you?
WE'LL as days and weeks go by, each
time the Keeper comes around you Jump
20 that door like monkey and you must
keep a smile on your face.
Generally you get so that YOU wake I'D
Between 8 and In the morning Some
lines you hear the rumble of the wheels
of the truck carrying food long before
II comes to you. You get so that You
hear everything, even the midnight round
OF the guard which he makes In sneaks.
You get breakfast at z; this consists
Of what We call bootleg and bread. These
three meals. such as they are, and the
Irregular half-hour of exercise, are the
only events to break the absolute monot-
ony of the day.
At the third month of solitary the
prisoner begins to feel, in body mar
ucuiarly. uneasy, the monotony of each
DAY ana the continuous reading getting
on your nerves in n peculiar way. You
begin to talk to yourself. to look forward
70 that valuable half hour that you are
supposed to get. which is taken away
from you at every chance for small in
fractions OF rules.
About the fourth or fifth month you
begin to bother your keeper asking for |
work You are Just naturally uncomfort-
able all the time; your mind wanders;
you throw yourself on your bed. if you |
care to take the chance. for it Is against |
the rule to use your bed In the DAYTIME.
although the keepers are fairly ienient in
this matter
You reach the point where you can
not sleep. eat. walk. read-you are lust
simply disgusted with life. Not having
food