New-York tribune., 1919-10-22
Observation-Disclosures
plain of Harsh Treatment
i'm Fl. Leavenworth Before
Meeting of Association
Officer Defends System
City Reformatory Official
Says Many Inmates Are
Former Service Men

Court martials and military prisons
were objects of attack and hot discus
sion yesterday at the afternoon ses-
sion of the annual congress of the
American Prison Association, held IN
the Pennsylvania Hotel. When Major
John a. Hunt, commander of the dis
ciplinary barracks at Governors Island,
spoke in defense of the army court
martials, q volley of questions was
hurled at him Two conscientious OBJ
jectors interrupted the meeting to
voice their grievances in emphatic
terms.
Major Hunt, representing Secretary
Of War Baker, who was unable to at
tend the congress, made the statement
that in his twentv-eight years Of ex-
perience in the army the Juge Ad-
vocate's office had been uniformly fair
in all cases, and that the army court
in general was not anxious tc obtain
convictions.
This brought to his feet E. NJ.
Humphries, conscientious objector
from Germantown, Pa, who said he
had been convicted while at Camp
Wadsworth, Spartanburg, S. c., SEN
fenced by court martial to ten years
imprisonment and discharged at the
end of nine months. He charges that
the Leavenworth Military Prison was
full Of spies.
Evan Il. Thomas, conscientiou4 OBJ
iector tried by court martial at Fort
Riley, Kansas, and sentenced to
twenty-five years imprisonment, said
he had been discharged mysteriously
last January after five months in
generation. Aattacking the military
prison system in general and Fort
Leavenworth in particular, Thomas in
timated that with the full knowledge
and approval Of Secretary Baker and
Colonel Sedgwick Rice" recalcitrant
prisoners at Fort Leavenworth were
confined in solitary cells darkened by
wooden doors; and that the prisoners
we're kept standing nine hours day
shackled to the bars Of the doors and
fed bread and water every other two
weeks. Among other charges brought
by Thomas were the following:
That solitary confinement ii
darken.d cells, with bread and water
for food, was a barbarous form Of
punishment still in practice in mill
tary prisons; that prisoners suspected
u insanity we're kept in discip mary
barracks at Fort J.tavenworth under
conditions that were shocking; that
the disciplinary regime It Fort Leaven-
worth under Colonel Rice included the
ball and chain for at least one man and
that tho lockstep was enforced fer
prisoners working on the punishment
gang"
Major S. W Brewster, assistant
superintendent of New York CITY Re
/ formatory, in an address on military
Offenders and Sentences" argued that
military prisoners should receive as
fair a showing as civil prisoners.
There are now 1000 military
offenders serving time in penitentiaries
and prisons" he declared 1t woulc
appear that some effort should BIZ
made to obtain legislation so that the
man charged with mild military Of
fense could have the same chance OF
working out his reform as his more
fortunate brother convicted III tht
civil courts.
"A considerable portion Of those nov
being committed to our penal and cor
rectional institutions served III tn
army or navy during the war. Som
of them were convicted by nilitar,
courts and discharged from the service
The number of former soldiers an.
sailors confined in our institutions vii
increase during the next few years, an,
it is my opinion that large mum