AMERICAN GAOLS

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1931, Page 6

AMERICAN GAOLS

INTERESTING SING SING. WELL-FED INMATES. COMPARISON WITH CANADA. While in the United States recently Colonel L. M. Mullen, D. 5.0., V.J)., governor of Hobart Goal, visited some of the more widely known American gaols, including Sing Sing. He came back by tile Monowai on his way hom 0 to Tasmania considerably impressed, with what he had seen, particularly with a lock-up in New York, where attendants go round four times a day with buns, ice-cream and other fare, that was the custom at a place where prisoners awaited their trial. Other and more' general features of the American prison system had been almost as interesting.

Gaols in America, were on the average much too big, Colonel Mullen said. With between two and three thousand prisoners in a penitentiary it was impossible to find work for them all, and consequently with time hanging on their hands they occasionally took part in strikes and riots. 1

At Sing Sing, a particularly well-run gaol about 30 miles from the centre of New York city, there were 2400 prisoners; blit tbe authorities were fortunate in having construction work in hand which would provide employment for most of them. At Sing Sing every cell had headphones for wireless entertainment, alid the prisoners played baseball on putside grounds. The Hon E. C. Laws, governor of Sing Sing, was a very:line, man and very efficient; and in spite of the fact that condemned men were sent to Sing Sing from all parts of the country, he was against .capital.punishment. Of the total number of ; prisoners some 1700 were housed in the old Sing Sing building, and hhebottom row of cells was below the river bed. Searchlights and Machine-Guns. Sing Sing was an extraordinary place, Colonel Mullen said, with a railway running right through it and the river on one side, which was the origin jl the phrase “up the river.” Round tile walls at night the prison was like Coney Island—ail lit up with searchlights— and there wore guard posts 100 yards apart, with machine-guns and made of bullet-proof glass. Colonel Mullen went also to the Tombs prison—a remand prison—? 'where at the, time of his visit 900 men were awaiting trial—often an extremely long business. The long delays which occurred between the first remand and the trial itself were a had feature of the American system. It was said they had not sufficient judges to deal with the cases; hut the obvious reply was “why not appoint more?” At the Tombs, two of the inmates had been awaiting trial for 17 months. Here also there was trouble of a kind that was occasionally experienced at most large American prisons. Members of racketeering gangs between whom a state of war existed were sometimes locked up together at the same time ; and the states of war continued. It then became the Governor’s job to keep them apart. Rival gangs got to' o ne_- aHqtlier_; W;i.th. picks .•'and' -shovel's I at a gaol last year and two men had been killed. I

“It’d Make You Laugh. . Generally speaking, prisoners in American gaols were very well fed, Colonel Mullen.said. At Sing Sing they were allowed to spend up to 3-J dollars a week of their own money on luxuries at the prison canteen. In th e Tombs prison, hums, coffee, ice cream and all sorts of things were brought round ■our times a day. Hut that was rather a. different place from Sing Sing. “It’d make you laugh,” Colonel Mullen said. “They call it punishment; hut it's pathetic really.” , ’ In Canada lie visited the New Westminster and Kingston prisons, which were typical of a very different State ul affairs. The authorities are stricter ill Canada now than they used to he mi the colonies, he said. Prisoner’s were exercised for half an hour in the morning and afternoon, but instead of being ' flowed to exercise mi their own way they were taken out under charge'*'of warders and marched round and rountj (lie prison square. Canadian gaols were most impressive. The cells were excellent, the food was good and 'vorything was well kept, and ordered. Kingston, which was the biggest gaol in Canada, had 800 inmates, who were building a new gaol. In Canada, un'ike the United States, where up to 30 cents a day could he earned, prisoners could earn nothing.

Colonel Mullen, who is the president of the Returned Soldiers’ ’League in Tasmania, went to Canada on the presnnt trip with Mr L. A. Robb, president ol the Returned Soldiers’ League in New South Wales, to represent Australia ami New Zealand at th e British Empire Service League Conference at Toronto at the beginning of September They attended also the Canadian Legion Convention at Niagara Falls and the American Legion Convention at Detroit!!