The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-09-20
A Wave of Prison RevOlts

"A w ave VI IISOI ASSE OA"0
For the second time within week the in
mates of an American prison have attempted
to revolt. The bloody massacre of prisoners
at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, of last week was
followed by the riot of Tuesday in the Mary
land state prison at Baltimore. Both out
bursts were provoked by what the prisoners
describe as cruel and inhuman treatment
In the Baltimore case the prisoners had re-
peatedly pleaded with the state officials Tor
redress of their grievances, but were scorned
/. by the whole state administration from the
democratic governor, Albert c. Ritchie down
to the Roman Catholic warden Pat Brady
in direct charge of the prisoners.
For the past several years there have been
continuous outbreaks in one form or another
of the inmates of American prisons. Such
outbreaks are only possible when men have
been goaded to the last extremity When I'M
armed prisoners, locked behind steel bars, re-
volt against their treatment it is of itself
evidence that they consider death at the
hands of the guards preferable to their ex-
istence within the prison. 1t is a damning
indictment of the penal system. The whole
system of dealing with criminals in the
United States is one of the most backward,
the most vicious, in the whole world. With
very few exceptions the wardens are plain
ignoramuses, whose conception of admins
trative capacity is the most ferocious bru-
H. IL
exception of Lawes, in charge of Sing-Sing,
there is not a prison warden in America who
ever heard of the science of criminology.
And even Lawes, who processes to be stu
dent of criminology, remains the head of an
institution that still carries on practices that
are but slight departure from the tortures
of the Spanish inqusition.
Contrast the American torture system
the gallows, the electric chair, the lethal
chamber, the dark cells, solitary confinement
with the Soviet system, for instance. In
stead of iron bars and small shrinking cells,
the prisoners of the Soviet state live in we'll
furnished, light, airy rooms. There are no
iron bars and no restrictions regarding their
talking with other prisoners. Instead of be-
ing isolated from their families they are per-
mitted long, intimate private visits. During
their terms of Imprisonment they are taught
some trade or profession that will make them
useful members of society and enable them
once and for all to abandon lives of crime.
They are granted vacations every six months
during which time they may visit any place
in the Soviet Union they choose. The Soviet
prisons are in reality rehabilitation institu-
tions for human beings who have not been
able to function in a given social environ
ment.
Instead of being compelled to listen to the
fatuous imprecations of priests and the i'm
beetle believing of salvation army captains,
the prisoners of the Soviet government are
under the careful observation of specialists
in criminal psychology Each prisoner is a
special problem and every effort is directed
toward developing him to stage where he
will consider himself a useful citizen of the
country and of the world instead of an out
cast.
This contrast is only one of tens of thou
sands that distinguish a Communist govern
ment from a capitalist government. Only the
abolition of capitalism will end the fiendish
tortures of prisoners that provoke such out
breaks as the Florida, Louisiana and Balti-
more affairs Only a society that exists for
the benefit of the masses who inhabit the
earth will be able to apply scientific rene
dies to all social diseases.