TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1254, 4 June 1914, Page 4

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.

CHARGES IN AMERICA. County prisoners in California who refuse to work on public roads are handcuffed to trees and fed upon bread and water until they are willing to do so, according to statements made by persons who recently concluded an investigation of accusations made by alleged victims of such punishment.

The charge was made by ten men who recently were convicted iu Los Angeles of rioting. They were sentenced to serve from three months to two years in the county gaol, which meant that they would help build country roads. The ten prisoners refused to go to work because they had appealed for a new trial, according to their attorney. As a result of their refusal, it was alleged, they were handcuffed to trees, their hands being gradually raised until the weight of their entire bodies was supported by their wrists.

One of the convicted rioters stated that he had been thus trussed up one day until noon, although he was willing to go to work at ten o’clock.

The 0 fficer in charge of the prisoners said all that was done to the unruly was to handcuff them to trees and that the result was merely to ‘ ‘make the men awfully tired.” He said he had no other way of punishing them, as the law prohibits striking them.