Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-20
Investigating the Georgia Peniten-
tiarY

tiary
Some things must be accepted as
fundamental. No state prison is ex-
pected to be handled like a Geor-
gia hotel. There must be some sort
of real discipline or the inmates
will override all authority.
But the continual complaints that
arc being heard make us believe
there is some fire where there is
so much smoke. It is charged and
not denied that many insane peo-
pie are incarcerated within the
walls of the Georgia penitent1ary.
It goes without saying that this is
manifestly wrong. Doubtless insane
people do many things that would
be criminal in sane people.
1t should be investigated thor
oughly and the insane should be
herded to themselves in an insane
asylum. The mixing together of
veterans in crime with insane peo-
pie is horrid to think about, and
it requires no stretch of magma
ton to understand that such
mixture makes a hell on earth.
If the five judges who are lis
tening to the witnesses, and con,
sidering the situation, do not
take notice of the matter here
mentioned another court Of in
curry will be called to investigate
before long.
It IS simply preposterous to
| fling insane men and women into
prisons-where criminals Of any
| type are housed. To state the fact
is simply to condemn. In the year
1878 r. A. Aston, legislator from
Fulton county, made a report on
the atrocities of the conNfct lease
system that aroused the people of
| Georgia to thrills of indignation.
! There were twenty.three or four
little bastard children under three
years old living in prison walls
with their criminal mothers, who
were violently misused by the
prison guards. That Aston report
was the entering wedge which
finally abolished the notorious
convict lease system from Geor-
gia soil.
That the present atrocities in the
state prison are more or less re-
ksultant from the old system, cannot
|, be doubted. In that old lease sys-
tenn, the criminal with money had
an easy time. The penniless ones
| were hlCh6u " lIl0
1t is known that the prison COM
mission was set up to remedy an
evil, it being claimed that the gov
ernor could not give his personal at
| tention.
But in the notorious Frank case,
the prison commission, entire, were
| in MilledgevilIe on the very night
when Leo Frank was taken out by
the mob and lynched near the town
of Marietta. This is well known.
The bunco man, Abe Powers, had
such an easy time getting in, and
so much easier time getting out
that the prison commissions cheeks
should flush up to be exposed in
such laxity and inefficiency.
| Like the federal penitentiary the
i rich criminal can always buy an
easy time while the ignorant and
poverty-stricken get the lash and
the hard luck. 1t may be that state
prisons are all alike-cuttings from
the same piece of cloth--and brutal
to the helpless and complaisant to
| the full-handed.
If so, the retribution of Almighty
God will seek and follow up people
that vote in such managers, commits
sioners, wardens and guards, and
| VINO are so Dllnd they prefer not TO
+ see and so deaf that they refuse to
hear-and justic is lynched brazen-
! ly.
All Georgia is waiting to hear the
verdict of the five judges! They may
or may not hear the outside voices.
Pity for them if they follow in the
old rut.
Can You Help Him?
An old Confederate soldier - by
name, E. D. Pursell-living in
Hackleburg, Ala, was so unfortu-
nate as to have his discharge papers
burned up some time ago, and he
wishes to get a pension, ETC., etc.
He is trying to farm and needs the
| help the pension would give him.
The party writing to me is Of no
relation whatever, but he feels an
interest, also sympathy, and has
asked me to call attention to his
claim, and if any one knows him or
of him, they will be glad if they will
write to him.
Midsummer Storms