The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-12-13
PRISON NO -.
PLAY HOUSE
Columbia Man Gives His
Views Of States Prison

4 =, st ~
To the Editor of The State: -.
Do we want a well disciplined
penitentiary or community SER
vice building to entertain erimi-
nals?9
The public has seen the report OF
the state board Of public welfare as
appeared in The. State Wednesday
morning, November 20. And after
It is all sifted or boiled down It
;; appears to be nothing more er less
than an attack on Captain Rob
erts, the. present captain of the
!! guards. whom the board of direc-
tors Of the penitentiary will tell
you is as considerate and humane
a man as you could find, and as
any one could possibly be and at
the same time maintain discipline
as it should be at the state pen
itentiary where at present they
have the worst bunch of criminals
and crooks they have had in. the
history of the penitentiary, and it
takes a man who knows what dis
cipline is and how to maintain it, to
handle them.
That Captain Roberts discipline
at the penitentiasy is based large
" upon his personal likes and dis
likes, as stated in this report. IS
iunfounded. SO I am reliably. inform
- ona hoe apoopofo1 frop, soypo
of the criminals that were inter-
rogated by the. board and we
know how much regard for truth
these criminals have. Captain
Roberts was not questioned as
why such and such a person was
punished. nor were any cases in
vestigated. but from. what I can
learn simply a bunch Of prisoners
questioned with reference to pun
ishments they may have received.
The incident Of man handcuffed to
the bars Of cell. I am reliably in
formed, was laandcuffed this way
in periods Of four hours, and not
made to sleep that way. Any one
interested, please investigate why
it was done, and You viii find out
that the case had to be handled
as it was.
AS for rules, there is no need
of any printed rules for convicts
at a penitentiary, Jail. changing
or anywhere else. only one rule
needed. do what you are told to do
and be quick about it. 1t is true
some prisoners have been whipped.
Have YOU ever received at home
or at school mercitul whipping,
or ever heard of any one receiving
one? Any one who likes to see
iustice done, and At the same time
have prisoner handled as he
should be. not as you should handle
bad Sunday school boy, would be
we'll satisfied with the explanation
given as to why whppings We're adj
! ministered
Nov: as to riot that happened at
the penitentiary Has anything
been said about what brought this
on or what caused it, Was il be-
cause OF tie food or was it because
or i'll treatment? No. it was neither
of these. Here are some of the
things that led up to =, and I
wish all OF the public knew il.
When Captain Roberts took
chlrse about Is months ago. he
found that from 80 10 30 convicts
had leave of absence from the pen
itentiar>' every night and we're to be
iceen on the streets of Columbia
more than Il Citadei cadet would be
given or seen the streets of char
; lesion i: month. He stepped this.
Ee searched their cells. after hav-
ing in over 100 cases to break "a
private lock the prisoner had ON
his cell. to keep it from being
searched in the day time while he
was out. and took away the citi-
zen's clothes each one had and also
gathered up II large qua nifty of
murderous looking knives and dag
| gers made out of old files. bludgeons
and most every kind of a murder
Gus looking implement you can find.
tie has the collection. you can see