Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

Page 26 text:

24 SOMANHIS EVENTS The gaol fever, cr typhus, as we now call it, was one of the most jearful and inevitable consequences of the overcrowding, misery,, and ne- glect of all sanitary requirements in the prisons. At the Black Assizes at . Oxiord, in 1577, the Lord Chief Baron, the sheriff, and 800 more died within forty hours, from the disease communicated to the court by the prisoners brought up for trial. This is only one of many similar examples on record of the havoc wrought by the disease. If such fearful calamities resulted from the trial of a few prisoners infected with the typhus, what then must have been the death toll in the prisons themselves? Not only in England but in America did these conditions exist. New- gate prison in Connecticut, the ruins of which still remain, is an example. The prison was built underground in the old Simsbury Copper Mines; the site was chosen for its security. The only entrance was by a shaft 30 feet deep. Wooden platiorms on which straw was placed were built into the sides of the cavern to be used as beds for the prisoners. The gloom and stillness of the place can scarcely be realized. The only sound was the steady drip! drip! drip! of water along the galleries. From thirty to one hundred men were placed together through the night—solitary lodging as practiced at Wethersfield after- wards, was then regarded as a punishment. At first the prisoners worked in the mines during the day, but so many dug their way out by means of the mining tools, that the practice was soon discontinued. Workshops were built above ground, where the prisoners made nails, boots, shoes, and wagons. They were all heavily ironed and secured by fetters, and were therefore unable to walk, but could move only by jumps and hops. Those who worked at the side of the forge were chained to their places by heavy iron collars which hung upon iron chains from the roof; the others were chained in pairs to wheelbarrows or benches. They were served with pickled pork for meals, a piece for each being thrown on the floor, to be washed and boiled in the water used for cooling the iron wrought at the forges. Three times the prisoners set fire to the wooden guardhouse over the entrance, and burned it to the ground. It was not until 1827 that the prisoners were all removed to Wethers- field. John Howard, an English reformer, visited the prisons in Europe, and by his books which were published in the datter part of the 18th cenutry, he forced the people to see the shocking conditions in prisons, and awaken- ed the public conscience on both sides of the Atlantic. Captain punishment for all crimes except premeditated murder was abolished in 1794 by the tate of Pennsylvania. ‘his altered the whoie theory of punishment—the whole purpose of the system, Here was a new group of men to be cared for—criminals who sooner or later were not to be hanged brt returned to society. The Quakers of Philadelphia, after trying various experiments, decided that the best solution was solitary con- finement, without work.. This system, known as the Philadelphia or Sep- arate System, has been used until very recently, in fact, it is still in use in some prisons. Now, however, there is a workroom next to the prisoner’s cell where he works alone. This and the Silent System are the two most generally used. . The Silent System is widely different from the Philadelphian. It con- sists of hard labor by day, and in solitary confinement by night. Through- out all this the most rigid silence is enforced. The only person with whom the men are allowed to converse is the clergyman, and with him on Sun- days only.

Page 25 text:

IMANHIS EVENTS 23 a name for themselves. Next year you will be in far better condition than we were this and should turn out a team second to none, from a high school of this size. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors. S. M. H. S. has a school paper which is sent to all the leading high schools 3 over the United States, “Somanhis Events” needs your support—subscribe for it, contribute to it. You must do this if we are to continue to have a paper. Freshmen: We are proud of the spirit your class has shown this year. Spirit is what our school needs. Keep it up. Sophomores: Next fall you will be upperclassmen. Prove to the school that you are prepared to take your places in the junior class. Juniors: One year from now you will be passing over senior responsi- bility to the class below. Be sure that you can do it with a feeling that you have maintained the standard and honor of our school. Classmates: It is with sad hearts that the class of 1920 disbands. All our lives we will look back and think of the good times we have had with- in the walls of this dear old school. The ivy which we have planted to-day is symbolic of the class of 1920. It is a new root just set out in che earth ;— we too are now just entering life’s work. This ivy will grow and gain upon vigor—let us see to it that the members of the class of 1920 ie likewise in the coming years. MARTIN ALVORD. ’20. PRISONS OLD AND NEW Prisons of one kind or another have been in use as far back as history is recorded. As time has rolled on, and society has become more and more complex, the prison and the whole prison system has come to play a vastly more important role in our social life. Each generation has effected some great change. has done something to better the system of punishment. But in this day that we are pleased to call the enlightened Twentieth Cenutry, our prisons are still run by brutal, stupid systems, worked out by theorists who have gathered elaborate statistics to back their statements. Does it not seem a calamity that we, who are pleased to call ourselves enlightened, can devise no better way of preventing crime or of punishing it, if punishment is necessary, than by locking up a man or a woman away from the world, solitary, ostracized, and branded for life as one undesirable by society at large? In the Middle Ages prisons were used for the detention of those await- ing trial by the courts, rather than for the reformation of criminals, as those convicted were put to death, or deported, or set free after being branded or mutilated. The condition of these prisons is of interest and of importance in showing the progress which has been made since then. The buildings were entirely unfit for their purpose and were habitual- ly overcrowded. The prisons are described as “‘pestifereus dens, over- crowded, dark, foully dirty; not only ill-ventilated, but deprived altogether of fresh air.” ; The prisoners were herded together; the “innerent .and guilty, cor- rupt and hardened, male and female, sick and well,” 0 were thrown +to- gether, no discrimination whatever being made. The results were terrifying, but despite the efferts of conscientious reformers, it took many years to awaken pusiblic attention and to enforce the various reforms.

Page 27 text:

SOMANHIS EVENTS 25 Even though none of the horrors or tortures of mediaeval times now exist, some of the punishments for prison offenses quite equal the brutaliy ot those times. Every so often the public is shocked at some prison scandal which leaks out, some new revelation of “Man’s inhumanity to man,” and laws are passed to restrain these brutalities. But the forbidden tortures are always replaced by new ones. This is because the old prison system is founded on the theory that the way to prevent and punish crime is to inflict punishment so dreadiul as to inculcate fear. The prison officials thought, and still think, that the only way to reform a criminal is to ‘break his spirit.” Such a thing has been done many times in our prison torture-chambers, as certain pathetic wrecks of humanity can testify. The old system left wholly out of consideration the fact that the beings who were to be punished were human—ordinary men and women, like you or me; and as such would respond more readily to kindness and fair treatment, than to being treated always with suspicion, and bullied and forced into obeying rules of conduct laid down by the authorities. A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to visit Wethersfield Prison. From the information the warden gave me, I understood that an adaptation of the Auburn, or Silent System is being used there. The men work to- gether, and silence is enforced. At meals, however, they are allowed to con- verse with the ones next to them, if they do it quietly. A group of men were playing ball in the yard. We watched them for a few minutes from the window. They were young fellows, most of them, and it was hard to believe that they were dangerous criminals. Yet the law regards them as such, and day after day, they must go through the same deadening routine, they must waste the best years of their lives in prison. When their term is over, they have received nothing that will en- able them to change their ways, nothing that will convince them that it is for their own good to change. Year after year the prisons turn out men crippled in body and soul, the victims of a senseless) system. “Do you know how a man feels when he leaves an institution of this kind?” one of the Auburn prisoners, a third termer once asked; “I'll tell you how I felt at the end of my first term. I just hated everybody and every- thing; and I made up my mind I'd get even.” Our prisons are full of men serving their third, fourth, fifth, and even eleventh or twelfth term. If, when they had first started on their career of crime, they had been shown a little kindness, if they had been given a “square deal” instead of being clapped into prison with thousands of other “hardened criminals,” the majority of them would perhaps now be good American citizens. Thomas Mott Osborne is foremost among present-day reformers. He has spent a week in voluntary imprisonment in Auburn Prison in an effort to understand the effect of the prison system and routine on the men themselves, It has convinced him that the systems now used will never reform a criminal. Of course, there are many criminals who have reformed after serving one or more terms in prison, but by no stretch of the imagination can the credit be given to the prison system. In order to fit prisoners for taking up an honest life after their term has been served, they should be given some responsibility, a chance to exer- cise their initiative. Mr. Osborne, with the help of Jack Murphy, a “lifer” at Auburn Prison, started the Mutual Welfare League, a society which is based on this theory, and in which all the inmates of the prison are mem- bers. The society is really a form of self-government. The men appoint