The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-09-05

and their visitors, seated at the
long table in the visiting room.
His story and the stories of other
prisoners in Indiana's village or
"silent men" viii be told during
this series of life behind Michigan
City prison walls.
These stories will disclose a
prison management that fails to
segregate desperate criminals from
first-offending youths. how youths
fall easy prey, under threat OF
death, to imprisoned perverts.
Shocking tales of prisoners cast
into the prison insane asylum be-
cause some one thought them
tough guys" will be related in con-
trast to penal methods elsewhere
under which prisoners are plugged"
only after scientific tests by SCI
entists selected on basis Of their
professional experience and train
ing.
A Village of Broken Men
Within the high walls of the
prison, inclosing twenty-three acres
of grounds and buildings, 2,379 men
live, some for the remainder of their
lives.
Among them are murderers,
thieves, robbers, embezzlers, kid
napers, yeggmen, moral perverts,
forgers, wife-deserters and rapists,
Their specific offenses run the
whole gamut of crime. They haze
been sentenced from every col uliVy
in the state.
Among them are bankers, OaKerS'
bond statesmen, bookkeeperss' me
chanics of all sorts, lawyers 0oc-
tors, pharmacists, engineers, farnIu
ers, architects and in fact repre-
sentatives of nearly every business.
trade and profession-and Of none.
A village of broken men.
Plant Is Well Managed
The physical characteristics of
the prison are progressing. Stu
ated in the dunes along the shore
of Lake Michigan, the big house"
has water view equal to any in
the middle west.
The prison lawns are beautifully
kept and bright with flowers. Dor
matories and cell blocks are clean.
There is evidence on every hand
that the physical plant is being
competently managed. The food is
edible.
Penal experts declare the defenses
against prison breaks are adequate.
A new guard" box, bristling with
machine guns, stands inside the
prison at the main gate, memorial
to the escape of the Dillinger gang
sters, erected shortly after their
break for freedom. Prisoners call it
the "Dillinger" tower.
Officials, who will not be quoted,
agree that the expenditure of $685.
600 contemplated by the state this
year to erect new guard towers, in
stall electric f1ood-lights and walls
and make other Improvements will
not solve the problem of clearing
the name Of the Michigan City
prison of the scandal which has
been attached to it since a series Of
jail breaks began less than year
ago.
Khan Brutality Barred
For several days the writer prac-
tically lived in the prison. He otalked
to inmates. guards, officials and
other attaches. From D. G. Stephen
son, former grand dragon of the
Ku-Klux Khan, he obtained the story
Of the khan regime in the prison, a
story subStaAtiated by officials.
From the lips of broken men he
has heard stories of brutality which
are comparable only to the tortures
inflicted by the fiercest savages in
the early days of American history.
He has seen man, once a per-
feet physical speciman, reduced to a
gibbering weakling.
In trips through the prison, he
has seen the bitterness of men who
are denied their freedom because
they thought they could beat the
law.
The Lack of a System
He has seen women, mothers,
wives, sweethearts weeping as they
came from interviews with men
whom they love. despite restraining
bars of steel.
He has seen children at play on
| the rude tables of the reception
room with daddy" and has heard
their childish laughter rescund
where heartaches through the weary
years have turned men into desper.
ate, freedom-seeking shells.
Behind these scenes lie facts-fre-
| quently cruel factS-that strike at a
system or the lack Of it.
Tomorrow's installment will deal
with conditions at Michigan City
prison caused by lack of adequate
segregation of deSperadoes and