Part 4

There are in almost every prison those who are called “trusties”—prisoners who are given the privilege of doing work outside of the prison, going on errands, etc., without the presence of a guard. Others have unusual liberties within the prison walls. Life prisoners and those who have received a sentence for a number of years and have not yet made up their minds to reform, often give the officials considerable trouble in trying to make their escape; although, as a general thing, life prisoners are well-behaved persons. There have been some noted and desperate efforts made to escape prison. Desperate characters have used all their ingenuity in devising plans for an escape and watch an opportunity to raise an insurrection at a critical time. There have been times when the insurrection was so great as to defy the prison officials, and the disturbance could only be quelled by the daring boldness and wisdom of the warden or general officer in charge. When a number of desperate prisoners get such an advantage they will fearlessly face death rather than yield. A few such noted instances are on record. It is, however, very difficult for a prisoner to make good his escape. If successful he must go under an assumed name and always be a fugitive from justice. If a failure is made he is apt to have to serve his full sentence instead of having advantage of the commutation of “short time.”

[Illustration: Scaling the Prison Walls.]

Bloodhounds are kept at the present time for the purpose of capturing those who try to make their escape, and there are men behind the prison walls who carry ugly scars made from deep flesh wounds by the bloodhounds during the time of their capture. There are times when a fire breaks out in a prison which must receive immediate attention of all available help. It is at such times that desperate characters undertake to raise an insurrection and make their escape. Many prisoners have been known at such times to show their manhood, and offer their services and manifest their loyalty by aiding the officers in keeping the prisoners in subjection and in extinguishing the flames. Such prisoners should be highly rewarded, and many of them shortly afterward receive their pardon in honor of their loyalty and good principles shown. The prisoner who desires to have favors shown him in prison should, upon first entering, decide to obey the prison rules to the best of his ability. Anything to the contrary will bring the ill favor of the prison officials upon him. An attempt to escape will not be forgotten and he will be very closely watched and denied many privileges which he could have otherwise enjoyed, and is not apt to be made a “trustie.” It is therefore a wise plan to decide upon perfect submission from the beginning of the confinement.

A PRISON REFORM.

The highest ideal of prison life is not simply punishment for evil doing, but should be a reformation in the lives of those who are thus incarcerated. We are glad to know that there is really a reformation being brought about in the rules and government of the prisons in our land.

It is said of one of the kings in a country in Europe that, being desirous of knowing how the common people lived, he dressed himself as a peasant or tramp and went about from place to place among the poorer class of people, and while thus lounging about the city he was met by a policeman who demanded him to give an account of himself. Not giving the proper satisfaction, the policeman hurried him off to a dungeon-like cell. The prisons under that king’s domain were in a sad condition—dirty, filthy, alive with vermin, and were most degrading places. Thus the king was obliged to spend the night in such horrible quarters, which was in great contrast to the royal palace. However, it was a night well spent, though but little enjoyed by the king. He was touched as never before by a sympathetic feeling for the poor unfortunate human beings who were cast into such places. He at once ordered a renovation of all the prisons throughout his kingdom.

Aside from our penitentiaries, there are jails, work-houses, and places of imprisonment, many of which are allowed to become filthy, with lice and other vermin in almost every crevice, making the place not only extremely unpleasant but unhealthful to every inmate. No doubt if many of our lawmakers and other influential people of our country were compelled to spend a few days or nights in such prisons there would speedily be a great reformation in the prisons of our own land.

Aside from cleanliness and government of prisons and jails there is a reformation in which we can all have a part, and help to point the unfortunate ones to Him who is able “to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.”—Isa. 42:7. A number of our penitentiaries have comparatively good libraries furnished by the state; some have not yet been supplied with libraries; and even among those that are supplied there are more novels than good, wholesome religious works. However, in some prisons each prisoner is supplied with a Bible of small print, and there has been an earnest plea from the prisoners for good, wholesome religious literature by way of books, tracts, papers, etc. Our jails have as a general thing been sadly neglected on this line.

A few months ago we made an effort through the Gospel Trumpet Publishing Company, of Moundsville, W. Va., to supply jails and prisons with small libraries of good unsectarian religious books, such as would be a benefit to the prisoners and tend to lead them to a higher aim in life. We were soon greatly surprised to realize the demand from prisoners for such literature. A few hundred jails were thus supplied with libraries and religious papers. It was almost astonishing to learn in reply by their letters of appreciation that in many places they had never been thus remembered before. Some prisoners had been in for a number of months without any religious reading matter and scarcely any one to visit them.

Being thus reminded of a lack of duty brought to mind the words of Jesus, as mentioned in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, wherein he was speaking of the end of time when the nations should gather before him and he would separate the good from the bad. And we read where he says, “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was _in prison_, and ye came unto me.... Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

My dear reader, how will it be with us when we appear before the King in all his glory in that day? Can he say of us that he was in prison, and we came unto him? Or shall he be compelled to utter these words: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: sick, and _in prison_, and ye visited me not. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me”?

While we enjoy our beautiful homes and the pleasures of life and freedom, the question comes directly, Have we done our duty toward the prisoner? Have we visited Jesus in the prison? We may not be able to go there in person, but we can visit them by providing them with silent messengers by way of good books, tracts, papers, etc. There are doubtless thousands of professing Christians who never gave a dollar to help a prisoner, who never visited a prison in person or in any other way. There are those who could spend hundreds of dollars in supplying prisons and would not feel the weight of it financially, but we should make an effort on this line by giving to the extent that we may feel the weight of the sacrifice, and thereby God will be greatly glorified and many prisoners led to seek the Lord and live a pure and holy life.

Some of the most intelligent and highly educated men are found behind the prison-bars and fill felons’ cells. It is not always the man of low type, ignorant and uneducated, that thus meets his doom. There are men and women from every class of society. There are men who are hardened in crime, whose consciences seem seared, yet none so hard-hearted, none so low down in the depths of sin that they have not a spark of manhood to which there is an appeal. Brutal treatment will not reach such specimens of manhood; however, they must be brought under strict discipline of the requirements of servitude and given to understand that perfect obedience is required; yet with all that, when they are told in a kind, gentle, loving manner and given to understand that they are entitled to the best privileges of the prison as they deserve it, that little spark of manhood will soon be kindled into a flame. There are prisons where a small per cent. of the monthly earnings are placed to their credit, which in a few years amounts to a large enough sum to give them a fair start at the time of their release. If they are disobedient, so much is taken from their credit. But aside from the kind moral treatment there must be something more effective. The hearts of these hardened criminals must be changed by the power of God. The prison officials who fail to realize or recognize this necessity have to a great extent failed in their reformative efforts. Every effort possible should be extended in behalf of the spiritual welfare of the prisoners.

[Illustration: Tracked by Bloodhounds—Captured.]

There is an evil existing in our jails and work-houses that is startling and alarming, nevertheless it continues throughout the breadth of our land. A young man or wayward boy is arrested for some trivial offense; it is probably the first time he has been guilty of thus breaking the law. He is placed behind the prison-bars to await a preliminary hearing before a justice of the peace. He is then liable to be sentenced for from thirty to ninety days in jail, or bound over to court, which is to be in session a few weeks or months later. In the meantime he is confined in the jail to await his arraignment before the court.

Let us now take a look at the jail itself and its inmates. It is well secured with solid walls, iron doors, and prison-bars. There are a few private cells, a broad hallway, and large room into which from five to fifty persons are confined. Sometimes even a greater number are thus imprisoned without grade or discrimination of crime. The tender youth must intermingle with those who are steeped in sin and hardened in crime. He is here taught to play cards, read novels, use vulgar and profane language, practice the most vile habits, plan for burglaries, and comes forth a rogue at heart, and a hardened criminal. Otherwise, had there been the proper discrimination, separating those who are just starting on the downward course from the hardened criminals, there would be a reformation in their lives instead of a degeneration. These are facts that can not be denied—facts that stare us in the face, and are sad truths that will continue to hover over us, as it were, until the good people rise up and protest against it for a proper reformation on this line. The good people of our land would be surprised, yea, stricken with consternation, were they to visit most jails and work-houses and make a thorough investigation, to behold the filth and general sanitary condition of the place, which is infested with lice and other vermin.

It is right and proper to send people to jail or prison who will not behave themselves. They need both punishment and reformation. This can be done effectually and with good results if the proper course is pursued.

_HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA PENITENTIARY._

WRITTEN BY A PRISONER.

In 1863 the state was admitted as one of the constellation of states of the union. Virginia had seceded from the union by a majority vote. The strong and indomitable minority citizens of the Old Dominion residing in the western part of it, many of whom were Scotch and Irish descendants and natives of the adjoining states, who had taken up their homes in the valleys and on the hillsides, were loyal to the Union, loved well the flag, and reverenced with an undying affection the builders of the union of states for the greater blessing of the people, and stood firm and unyielding for an indivisible united country. By their hands and brave hearts they built a state stretching from the Potomac to the Ohio river, carved out of the Old Dominion. The war-born daughter of the historical commonwealth proved, in the subsequent years, to be rich in the production of materials in active demand in the marts of commerce, and she now outstrips her mother state in the race for greatness, prosperity, and happiness.

Many regions of the state are mountainous, and the principal industries are lumbering, mining, and oil production. Many of the white people are typical mountaineers and somewhat rough and uncouth in manner, while the negroes, many of them, have drifted from North and South Carolina, Alabama, and other southern states to be employed in the development of these industries.

There are very many respectable farmers, professional and business men, and cultured ladies residing in these almost inaccessible parts; but the rough element in many places predominates, and the order of the day and night is drinking and brawling, ending as a rule in desperate encounters and murder. Most of the white and black inmates of the penitentiary have been and are now composed of the lawless men from these regions, from the time it was only a stockade of ten acres in 1866, when Hon. J. W. McWhorter of the Tenth Judicial District was appointed warden by Governor Boreman. He resigned the position after viewing it. In a letter to Warden Hawk he states it was for the reason that there was not so much as a building erected for the shelter of the inmates, and he thought he could not work the convicts to advantage under the circumstances. The penitentiary has been improved from time to time to the present, by additions, until it is a massive structure of stone and iron, with a high stone surrounding wall. It has 695 inmates at the present writing.

The center, or main building, is built after the old baronial castellated style of architecture, and with its several stories height, it makes an imposing appearance. It is flanked on the north and south by the stone and strongly-barred buildings, wherein the old and first built stone cells and the modern steel ones—900 in all—are placed. Entrance is to be had into the prison proper by means of a round turning iron-barred cage in the main hallway of the central building.

The cell-building halls are kept in a neat and clean condition; the cells are in good sanitary condition and are kept in good order by the inmates, many of whom are artistic in taste and paint and make many fanciful designs as adornments of their small sleeping quarters. The yard, limited in area by the shop, dining-hall, engine and hospital buildings, is artistically laid out in grass-grown plats and flower beds in season. Around the area of space on brick-laid pavements the prisoners are permitted to walk in columns of two according to grade for exercise during the afternoon after working hours, and Sabbath forenoon prior to and after chapel services. At the four corners of the penitentiary walls are stone turrets where armed guards are placed from four o’clock a. m. to 9 p. m.

Upon West Virginia establishing a state government, Wheeling was selected as the capital where the legislature met in session in 1863, with Hon. Arthur I. Boreman as chief executive. The prison was located in 1866 at Moundsville, Marshall Co., then a beautiful village a few miles from the seat of government. The location, for drainage and sanitary conditions, might have been better selected from one of the many surroundings hills than in the midst of the village in the valley on the banks of the Ohio river.

Moundsville has since the location of the penitentiary there, grown into the eighth city in population of the state, and is now a manufacturing and resident town possessing daily and weekly newspapers. Modern improvements prevail, with water and electric light systems and street-car lines connecting with Wheeling and adjoining suburbs. The magnificent mound erected by the Mound Builders many years gone by for the burial of their dead, to be seen near the penitentiary, is one of the attractions to the thousands of persons who visit the locality.

Hon. G. S. McFadden, of Moundsville, was the first active and practical warden of the penitentiary. With the means at hand he made many praiseworthy improvements for the amelioration of the inmates during his incumbency. The condition of the prisoners during the four years past and now, is a vast improvement over the old system. Skilled and humane prison managers for many years were wanting. The condition of the inmates was at times deplorable in the extreme. The methods of punishment in vogue were extremely severe, the work laborious, the clothing of the zebra kind, the lock-step exacting, the supply and kind of food indifferent and bad. The employment of the prisoners on the state account or under contract was unprofitable, and expenses for the prison’s maintenance piling upon the taxpayers, who made just complaint. Loud demands were made by the people of Moundsville and throughout the state, conversant with the deplorable condition of the affairs of their penal institution, for a change.

After Governor Atkinson’s inauguration, March 4, 1897, he appointed Colonel S. A. Hawk as warden of the penitentiary. He was at the time of his appointment a well-known business man of Huntington, Cabell Co. For a number of years he was also known as a popular employee of an Ohio river steamboat running out of Huntington. He was at one time a successful merchant, hotel-keeper, contractor, and during President Harrison’s administration as President he was an official of the Interior Department in charge of the public domain in Arizona Territory.

Prior to the incumbency of Warden Hawk the West Virginia penitentiary had for years been running behind the legislative appropriation many thousand dollars annually, and not much, if any, success was made in the reformation of the prisoners. Altogether the prison was in bad order when he took hold as warden, he not only introduced reformatory treatment with respect to the prisoners, but he has made the institution bring to the state an actual profit over and above all expenses for maintenance. Warden Hawk took hold of the penitentiary management May 1, 1897. He discovered that his predecessor’s method of punishment was principally solitary confinement. Twenty-seven or more prisoners were undergoing the punishment on bread and water, and they presented a pitiable condition. Their labor was lost to the state; their mental, moral, and physical health undermined; hope seemingly was blasted, and they were strangers to God. The warden turned the key and liberated these men and put them to work, which they gladly expressed a willingness to do.

He adopted the new and advanced method of prison management in line with up-to-date penalogists; viz., The grade system, plain clothing in lieu of stripes, more and better food, first-class medical attendance, every prisoner at work, more personal liberty and exercise granted; he made himself approachable to those prisoners having a grievance, and in so far as he could within the bounds of true discipline, rectified them. Religious worship was fostered and encouraged; punishment for willful infractions of the rules and regulations governing the prison, sure and certain, by black-listing from special privileges, for a period of thirty days or more; the lock-step, by carrying on the yard an iron weight during working hours, and in extreme cases of fighting and other reprehensible misconduct, corporal punishment with a leather strap was inflicted, or by buck-and-gag. Other changes of a minor but not less ameliorative nature were made conducive to the moral welfare of the inmates.

To bring about these humane changes many and substantial improvements were made in the way of buildings and additions without cost to the taxpayers, for the prison was more than self-sustaining, and a handsome sum of money was on hand for this purpose.

PRISON LIBRARY.

January 1, 1900, Warden S. A. Hawk completed the erection of a two-story brick addition to the prison dining-hall. The second story room, 40×40 feet, was dedicated by him to the use of a library and school. The fixtures were placed in the room but there were only a few mutilated books at hand to begin with. E. E. Byrum, President of the Gospel Trumpet Publishing Company of Moundsville, hearing of the situation, offered his gratuitous service to the warden to aid him to build up the library to a respectable proportion. Upon the assurance given him that there was no available appropriation to purchase books for the library, Mr. Byrum called the attention of the members of his company to this state of affairs, and upon their advice and with their consent, a splendid lot of artistically bound religious and other suitable books valued at $1,000 was placed at the disposal of the warden for the use of the prison inmates. So grateful were the prisoners, the warden, and prison employees at the generous gift that it was

_Resolved_, That the prisoners of the West Virginia penitentiary, through Warden S. A. Hawk, tender their grateful thanks to E. E. Byrum and to the Gospel Trumpet Publishing Company, Moundsville, W. Va., for the very welcome gift of books placed in the prison library for their use.

This fine gift of standard literature, including 500 song-books, was a nucleus for the building up of an excellent library, few equaling it in the state.

Thousands of circular letters were mailed by the warden to the leading citizens of West Virginia and leading publishing houses of the country asking for donations of literature. The responses were generous—donors sending from one book to cases containing hundreds of books. One year after the opening of the library twelve thousand standard religious and secular books and magazines were donated. It is true many of them were second-hand and worn, except those received from the publishing firms—such as the people of the state could afford to give.

The library represents to every inmate the warden’s desire that every one of them should feel that an opportunity for newness of life to them is open, and in such opportunity may be found an ample encouragement of good purposes and well-meant efforts. Better life, better men, hence a hope for the prevalence of improvement.