Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-17
MOVE BEGUN TO
STOP FLOGGING IN
MICHIGAN JAIL

| JACKSON, Mich.-Men starved
and fIogged day after day and later
| sent to an asylum
Men Gagged for many days in steel
cylinders so narrow that the prison.
ers must stand upright
Men attempting suicide to escape
the horrors of hunger, flogging and
torture cells.
Legislative investigation of these
crueltles and conditions in the Michi-
gan state penitentiary here promises
a complete reorganiza ton of the Pc
nal system.
Senator John w. Smith, chairman
of the prison committee of the state
| senate, has made a personal inquiry
at the prison. AS a result he an
nounces corrective bills will be intro
duced before the legislature.
THE first" he says, will make 1t
crime for prison official to inflict
torture"
Smiths investigation revealed the
names of two prisoners from the
state asylum for the criminal insane
who were flogged in the penitentiary
and soon afterward recommitteeds to
the asylum hopeless maniacs.
This is how the flogging is done
The prisoner is stripped; mana
cled hand and foot; laid head down
across a barrel A wet sheet is
stretched across his back The prison
flogger uses heavy paddle of leath-
er. The paddle is perforated with
small holes. It is steamed until pill
able. The holes suck the flesh tor
turously after each blow. The steam
ing of the paddle adds TO us pa1rruI
sting. The prison physician stands
by to give the signal when to stop.
When? When the pulse shows the
flogging has gone the length of hui
man endurance.
Convicts told Senator Smith that
the physician doesn't give the signal
till the prisoner has lost conscious
ness.
Z Warden Harry Hurlburt and DR.
Robert McGregor, the prison ply
sician, both told Senator Smith the
flogging was necessary to maintain
prison discipline. They said they took
every precaution against permanent
physical injury.
At Smiths request DR.. McGregor
produced records of the prisoners
who were sent to the asylum after
being flogged.
Thomas Schultz, an habitual crimi-
nal at twenty-one, was returned from
the luSdH6 dSy lOlll " lily
as cured. He assaulted a prison
foreman. Over a period OF ten days
he was given ISL lashes, 40 being
given the last day. Two weeks later
he was sent back to the insane asy-
lum.
viously had been in the asylum, at
tackled a guard. He was given tnlrty
five lashes, put in solitary conflne-
ment, and then sent back to the asy-
lum. .,
in the same attack, was given five
lashes., placed in solitary confine-
ment, and sent to the asylum.
81 have gone to my quarters ana
wept after a flogging," the warden
told the senator, "but 1t is the only
way to protect the lives OF my as
L have flogged only seven prison
ers."
''Flogging is confession Of the
future of the present prison system
said Senator Smith. "a large number
of prisoners are mentally defectlVe,
more than it could cure other insane
men. Other men in the prison should
be on parole, doing useful work.
Senator Smith found in the prison
under life sentence constructor en-
gineer who had killed his wife. TINS
man mad no reCOll6CIIou OIL t1lo VI iiiiS
Previous to the murder the mans
skull had been crushed in railroad
wreck. 'This man should be OPP
Grated on" said Mr.. Smith.
Mr.. Smith also interviewed a boy
of fifteen under life sentence for
killing his stepmother. Il didn't get
along with her very WELL" the boy
said, "and besides I had sore foot
that day. Mr.. Smith called this case
purely one of bungling-"the boy has
the mind of a child of eight; he
should be removed from prison sur
roundings and placed in an lnstltu-
ton for detectives"
The investigators found in solitary
confinement a war veteran who had
sold a diamond ring to bury his wife.
This ring, it happened, was still be-
ing paid for on the installment plan.
Therein lay his crime. He was IN
solitary confinement for whistling in
his cell 'Sheer brutality" said Mr..
Smith; "the man should be out on
parole earning a living for himself
and his little daughter"
Mr.. Smith is no idle theorist He
served as a soldier in the Philip
pines, was labor leader, an amateur
boxer of local note, and a political
worker. He became chief deputy
sheriff of Wayne county, of which
Detroit is county seat. He often sent
ex-convicts, whom he was helping
to make good, to work on his farm,
near Detroit. And he instituted self
government among prisoners in the
Wavpa county jail.