Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1934-06-22
How Political Prisoners
Are Treated In The U.S.A.
IRWIN GOODMAN
Prominent EOrhtN

"i. Prominent EOrhtwt
(Reprinted from the June Labor
Defender)
BY Irwin Goodman
Ben BolOff was convicted for cri-
minal syndicalism in Portland and
sentenced to ten years in Oregon
prison solely because he was a
Communist Party member. He had
always worked in factories. mines,
sewers and had never previously
been i'll. But after fourteen months
Imprisonment in both Jail and pri-
son pending appeal of his case, he
made an affidavit in support of
moves for his release stating that
he was in i'll health. a sore throat
preventing him from eating solid
food. intense pains making il i'm
possible to sleep in his cell at night
and that it was difficult for him to
breathe, to walk. For more than
two months" he added. 81 request
ed the county doctor who visited
the jail every week day, to give
me medical treatment and for the
past forty days he has refused to
give me medical treatment, has re-
fused to either speak or look at
me-" ~ -
Denial of medical aid in Jail does
not tell the whole story. While in
prison he was forced to do the
dirty work out in the rain, cold,
with insufficient clothes to keep
his body warm. Then. too, there
was mental as well as physical en-
slavement. Literature of his own
choice was denied him. For Boloff
was a class conscious worker he
was e political prisoner.
While Boloff was dying in Jail.
the prosecuting attorney protested
his release. He presented affidav-
its to the court from. two jail doc
tors stating his complaint more
recently has been "a throat trouble:
the examination deveiops, the fact
that his throat complaint is moth
ing more than the ordinary com
mon sore throat. He is in reason
ably good health for a man of his
years" But these doctors lied for,
a few days later, the once husky
Russian worker, onIya thirty seven
years old. slowly walked from his
jail cell, a human shell, ghost-like
complexion, coughing splitting, to
be confined in a sanitorium for
advanced state of tuberculosis con-
tracted In jail and prison. On Oc-
tober 18th, 1882, a few months after
his release. Boloff died and another
indictment was laid up against a
barbaric prison regime and its
treatment of political prisoners.
Picture briefly this barbaric pri-
son regime in the United States
wherein our political prisoners are
confined. 1t comprises more than
three thousand federal and state
prisons. refOrmatories, warehouses;,
farms, cl ain gangs. county and city
jails
It's buildings are medieval. Over
one-third of all prisons were built
more than seventy years ago, many
one hundred.
Air space is insufficient. In 1928,
seventeen per cent of the inside
cells had less than 1872 cubic feet
of air space per man or less than
One-t third OF the necessary four
hundred cubic feet minimum and
forty-three per cent of the other
cells had less than one-half the
80 =r"
1t lacks sanitation. Twenty-one
per cent of the mems PRISONS in
Folsom, Cal; Oregon State
prison; Old prison in Joliet, M;
CharlestOwn. Mass; Auburn and |
Clinton. N. Y: used the bucket
exclusively until 1881. probably to-
day. ~
1t Is overcrowded. In 1880 federal
prisons were overcrowded 65.9 per
cent more than their capacity while |
conditions existed in state |
prisons.
ldIeness prevails. More than
one third Of the inmates IN Col
unbus, Ohio, prison have been