HARDSHIPS OF PRISON LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1354, 3 February 1912, Page 4

HARDSHIPS OF PRISON LIFE.

Governor Benjamin Hooper, of Tennessee, who ■ heroically sentenced himself to two days' imprisonment in the State penitentiary at Nashville in order to find out for liimeslf what prison life was like, on December 22, meekly sent for the governor of the prison, and. asking for pen and paper,- wrote out his own pardon. One day's imprisonment had proved enough to damp his ardour. The Governor, who yesterday (wrote a press correspondent at the time) was being lauded for his zeal in the public service, is now being chaffed unmercifully for his ignominious retreat, but he declares' that, honestly .as ho had tried, ho could not stand prison life for another twenty-four hours. "When I ordered myself to be' treated like tho ordinary prisoner I had no notion what the daily lifo in the penitentiary was," lie declared plaintively. "I'll do the boys justice. They obeyed my orders enthusiastically, but it broko me." Mr. Hooper declares that lifo in the penitentiary is unbearable, and ho intends to make use of the experience he lias gained to try to pofton the labours of the convicts. He found that tho work was too hard for any but tho toughest manual labourers, and he declares tluit tho whole system of peu.il servitude is degrading and unnecessarily harsh. He advocates tho abolition of tho disgraceful "stripes," which correspond to tho British broad arrow mark, and says that lie thinks that as the convicts are doing work for the State a fixed scnle of wages should lie paid to their families.. Twentyfour hours' observation litis convinced him that there are a number of convicts in the penitentiajy who. might 1* pardoned or let out on parole, and a long list of Christmas cardons was to bo issued.