SING SING PRISON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1119, 8 July 1913, Page 4

SING SING PRISON.

A PLACE OF TORTURE AND

DISEASE.

[A cablegram from London, dated June 22nd, published in a Sydney paper, states that Sing Sing Prison, in New York, will soon be a thing of the past. A grand jury reports that the place is not tit lor animals. It is overcrowded, and the prisoners are declared to be stricken with disease and unclean. It is further stated that men who are condemned to the punishment of the dark cells are frequently driven insane. The following report by a Special Commissioner, who had been investigating the conditions of the famous gaol, was published in New York in May.] Special Commissioner George W. Blake, who is making a whirlwind investigation of the State prisons, has presented his report on Sing Sing to Governor Sulzer. Although there are few specific charges, the report generally scores the institution and the management as a “startling illustration of mismanagement and waste.” Commissioner Blake declares that conditions at Sing Sing are so frightful that not even the* warden or the prison doctors attempt to defend them. “The worst feature of the prison management cannot be discussed in any public document,” he says, “but the subject is of such vital importance to the welfare of the State that no time should be lost in suomitting it to the attention of men competent to present a method of bettering a condition that breeds disease of the mind and body and that should touch the hearts of every man with human instincts.” The report continues: — “The prison is remarkable because of the lack of any cohesive or well poised plan of government. It is so slipshod and incompetent as to breed the suspicion at the first glance that the purpose is to cover up dishonest methods by a brazen show of innocent carelessness. LAW VIOLATED BY WARDENS. “I found no man in the prison who appeared to know the slightest thing about the work he was expected to do, with the exception of the prison doctors, who are without doubt conscientious men striving to do their duty in the face of manifold difficulties. irniniinro—nama—b—b—b»

“Warden Kennedy has violated the law, he has permitted the creation and continuance of unbusinesslike methods and has caused the State to lose thousands of dollars in a way that points directly to graft. He has made no attempt to protect the inmates from disease and vice ; nor any effort to produce better conditions in this prison. During his administration scandals of the prison management have become rife in every section of the State.

“I do not wish to bear too heavily upon Warden Kennedy because I am strougly of the opinion that the facts set forth in this statement are due directly to Joseph F. Scott, who was for nearly two years Superintendent of Prisons. I have dug into the sterile soil of prison management to discover if possible one redeeming trait in the management ot the prisons of this State during the period in which Col. Scott was in control, but I have found not one sign to show that he was either competent, conscientious or industrious.

Dr. Mareness, the assistant prison physician, gave this testimony concerning conditions at Sing Sing.

“There are 200 cells flush with the flagging. In the hot months moisture on the walls is perceptible and tangible. The cells are primarily responsible for the large number of cases of rheumatism that occur in the prison. A number ot these cases have been severe enough to incapacitate a man so that upon his discharge he was partially, if not wholly, unfit to follow his usual work. At the present time there are a large number ot chronic cases of rheumatism in the prison. Two hundred cells are occupied by two or more men. No care is taken in selecting the two men who have to occupy a single cell. A man sentenced to prison for assault and undergoing bis first term of imprisonment, is sometimes compelled to occupy a cell with an habitual criminal. The cells are infected with vermin. It is impossible to fumigate or disiniect them.” SUPERINTENDENT INDIFFERENT. Dr. Mareness told Mr Blake that Colonel Scott was indifferent to the great necessities of the prison, and that during his administration there was no improvement in the bad moral conditions that prevail. The report on this point says;— “One man said to me that the only offence that a prisoner could commit that would be followed by speedy punishment was the offence of trying to get something to eat. He told me stories of such a frightful character as to appeal to the most unfeeling person. Colonel Scott knew of the existence of these horrors. There is no doubt about that, and yet he never made one effort, so far as I was able to learn, to minimise them. “The low thief, stricken with disease, with no mental capacity and with the lowest possible instincts, has often been locked up in a cell with a man of education, of some ideals and of clean personal habits. This would be bad enough if the cells were light, or large, or clean, instead of being dark, and small and filthy. Also, they are unsanitary and those on the ground floor drip with moisture so that the inmates of them have striven to protect themselves from the chill and dampness by hanging sheets and blankets over the walls. In these cells men contract rheumatism. In many cases they become victims of chronic rheumatism and go out crippled for life. “Into none of the cells on the lower tiers has a ray of sunshine entered for eighty years. Stories of torture of prisoners in the Middle Ages bear no comparison to the tales that have been told me of the lives that some ol the prisoners in Sing Sing live, Dife in these cells is torture to every grade of man with a spark of imagination, or who ever lived in a decent home.

TORTURES INCREASED ON SUNDAYS,

“ Even the lowest and most degraded man must undergo cruel and unusual punishment when confined in these cells during the hours of the night. But when comes Sunday or a holiday the horror of the situation is increased. During these periods the men are confined in their cells for eightteen or nineteen hours and it is no exaggeration to say that after these periods of confinement the men go out pale and staggering.” “ A Sunday or a holiday is a -dreadful thing for these men. It is bad enough when one man is alone in the cell, but when the men are doubled up the physical suffering is greatly increased.” Commissioner Blake advises the Governor that he will make another investigation in an effort to expose men in this State, some of them public officials, who banded themselves together to wring money from these prisoners. “I have evidence,” says Commissioner Blake, “showing that because of influence exerted by men well known in various walks of life money has been wrung from persons seeking clemency for prisoners,” The report also shows that there are about 1500 prisoners at Sing Sing, a large majority of whom are daily suffering the horrors described by Mr Blake. The industrial department, the report charges, was used by Frederick Hamlin Mills, the prison sales agent under Col. Scott, for putting money in his own pocket. Bad as conditions were prior to 191 1 . the report cites, they gradually became worse, and the beginning of the last era of bad management came

with the appointment of Patrick J. Tracey as superintendent of industries. The report says that Tracey knew nothing of this branch ot the work, and the position was taken out of the competitive Civil Service for him. It further charges that in hundreds of cases materials were purchased without competitive bidding. big waste: of food.

“ The waste in the commissary department,” says the report, “ is so exceesive that it looks very much as if food was thrown away in order to create an excuse for buying more for the benefit of somebody’s pocket. Good beef came into the hands of the storekeeper, bad beef is served to the inmates. I found nobody who could or would explain this strange occurrence.

“ Figures from this department excited my admiration of the capacity of the warden to consume beef. During March he was served with 469 pounds, which seems a deal of meat for one family to eat.” Mr Blake says the food waste at Sing Sfng in a year aggregates 15,000 dollars, and on Thursday, April iSth, 1000 pounds of food were taken from the tables and thrown into the swill barrels. The commissary department of the prison is run along incompetent if not dishonest lines. There is criminal carelessness if not downright grafting.