Evening star., 1915-07-18

ems the spirit of the place changes,
sometimes for the better. generally for
the worse. But the physical parts of
the prison-the cells. walls. the build
ings themselves-never change. They
always have been a horror. They al
ways have been the most disgraceful
exhibit in the state of New York. And
as long as one stone of Sing Sing
prison remains on another, to the peo-
pie Of that state it will continue to be
a shame and a reproach. 1t was built
in 1885. and in 1846 it was condemned.
That was eleven years after it was
built, or seventy years ago. During
those seventy years in New York city
on many street corners, building after
building has been erected, each better
than the last. In any big American
city the contractors can in few
months wreck a skyscraper and in its
place run up another.
But Sing Sing remains just as 1t was
in 1885. except that with each year 1T
has grown more of a menace to health
and public decency and safety 1t be-
longs to the dark ages-to the days of
dungeons. thumbscrews and cat-o'-nine-
tails. Indeed, not SO long ago, in Sing
Sing men were strung up and beaten
with the paddle"
In Sing Sing there are 200 cells. into
which in eighty years the sun has
never penetrated. have stood in
them on the hottest of June days. and
with my hand felt the walls sweating
~
These cells are so small that II you
try to turn or walk in one of them
you wipe the damp walls with your
BODY. The cells are insanitary, filled
with vermin. exhaling decay. The num-
Der OF men the prison has killed, has
driven mad, has for life crippled with
rh
speakable diseases, will never be
known. And for what the conyicts suf-
fered from the prison itself and entire
ly apart from what they suffered at
the hands Of the warden and the keep
ers. the people of the state of New
York are. responsible. 1t was their neg
lect that killed the convicts. 1t was
their neglect that drove them insane.
For eighty years legislature after
legislature has been told that Sing
Sing prison was for its inmates a de-
stroyer OF health. of reason and life.
But the men in stripes had no votes.
And so while the legislators could al
ways hnd money to build armories and
to At them with billiard rooms and
bowling alleys. there never was enough
money to pay for tearing down the
pesthouse on the Hudson and to re-
place 1t with building that would de-
prive men Of their liberty, but would
not also torture them and drive them
mad
Before Osborne came to Sing Sing
the rules governing the treatment Of
the inmates were as wrong as the
prison. They were founded on fear In
the past, for every rule our forefa-
theirs or we made to control prisoners
that was the inspiration. We were
afraid. We were protecting ourselves.
We were thinking only Of our own
safety. 1t was an ostrtchlike idea of
safety. We thought II We brutalized
men. II we degraded men, II we filled
them with hatred of us, II we treated
them like beasts. no matter what hap
pened to them. we were safe. We did
not see that we were merely breeding
more criminals. making bad men worse,
forcing them forever to remain out
laws. We thought of them only as wild
beasts that should they escape might
tear us to pieces. So fear made us
mark them with stripes. fear made us
crop their hair.
Because we were afraid II they spoke
they would only plan to escape, we
turned them into dumb animals. Two
years ago when with a keeper I was
leaving the printing shop at Sing Sing.
convict called after US: Goodbye,
Mr.. Davis" For that offense for daring
to- open his mouth, three days were
added to the time he must remain in
prison.
A coward always is cruel. and because
the rules were born of fear. the rules