The Ocala banner., 1921-11-18

So.
Tor every ten inmates g.. 100
80 riorlaa Prison Farm. I saw ~
~ lolsmen, earning not a cent !,
pay take out into the fialds - ).
D1oaa IN their stretches as i =, i
eo s the their gangs Of
eonsic1s, Doth white and colored
inere We're lifers managing the
chicken colonies; convfcts carins 80 80.
.ne nogs, the cattIe-evervtbing
wherever turned, these convicts
turned, these convicts worked aImost )
en'ireiy without guards. In the wo-
men quarters l saw some tb,r+r
eo'ofea prisoners entirely under the
supeFVision OF one white woman. !
neat modest appearing conyict bar.
sen with sentence of ten wears
Later tar of in the fields. SO small as
simply 20 dot the landscape, this groun
appeared, digging potatoes, clearing
the fields. >
y not a great stretching Of the
truth TO say that a prison is as
strong as the personality of its war.
cen | know of northern prisons where
II is said, the warden does not
care TO go down into the prison ward
among the inmates. But at Raiford
Warden Bitch stood at the gate of
the stockade while the men filed ont
from dinner to go to work. He gave
quick. concise. unmilitaristic com
mands, and settled at once the fre-
quent questions raised by the convict
foremen about the afternoons dis
position of the working gangs. 1t
seemed to my northern imagination
an echo of the old semifeudal planta-
ton methods, with the changes that
time and Imprisonment would bring.
on upon their horses rode the in.
mate foremen with their gangs.
There is fine spirit of humanness
pervading the place saw the re-
commentator to the pardon board
written by Warden Bitch for Uncle
Ben" a colored man of uncertain
age. He is an Industrious white
mans niger" And Uncle Ben GRIM
ed appreeiatively. Uncle Ben, recent
ly discharged from the prison, is in
love with woman prisoner, who
cooked at the dairy farm of the prison
when Uncle Ben worked there They
want to marry, and the warden is
asking the pardon board to let Mary
out.
The spirit of the place? No wardei
in any prison can conceal the "spirii
of the prison from the trained OBJ
server A warden can attempt tc
camouf1age his institution by expati
ating upon the high polish of the
floors, the excellent cleanliness of the
hooks and crannies, the fine light
bread, the precision of administra
| tion-and those are necessary parts
of a prison regime. but not the SOU
of it. The warden can seek by hale
and hearty ioviality. or by an assump
ton of learning, or confidential com
| nlunications, or apparent solicitude
for his boys. or for ''penology,'
and the like. to conceal other con
ditions of dubious nature
| But he cannot camoulage the way
\ the inmates react to him, look al
him, get ready for him as he ap
proaches and these things are tell
| tale barometers of an institution
This Raiford project could hardly
/ last over night. with the present paid
employees. If something besides the
law did not hold lit together. Even
the powerhouse. the electric plant
the mechanical heart OF the institu
tion is run wholly by inmates. At any
instant. Of an evening. the lights could
ali be cut of. the power shut down
The few cars or teams could be com
mandeered without TOO much difficulty
So something must hold Raiford to
gether. for throughout the institution
during the day, there are no guns
The gangs working under inmate
overseers are not dominated by shot
guns or rifles
The something that makes Raiford
"a is probably a combination OF good
snirit. the sense Of a square deaf
traditional submission 70 authority
and 4 fear OF the extremely heavy
nanalties for attempted escape. II
would be hard to escape permanently
n these desolate stretches. But 4
men were goaded. they would ire
anently try. whereas the RECORDS
seem to show about one escape a
rnonth-a strikingly low record
The spirit Of an institution fs the
anast asset-or the greatest liability
thaf can be presented 20 the ssate q
~ institution. Industry. product