Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost YearsMaybrick, Florence Elizabeth
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Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth, 1862-1941; Trials (Murder) -- England; Women prisoners -- England
No one can realize the horror of solitary confinement who has not
experienced it. Here is one day’s routine: It is six o’clock; I arise
and dress in the dark; I put up my hammock and wait for breakfast. I
hear the ward officer in the gallery outside. I take a tin plate and a
tin mug in my hands and stand before the cell door. Presently the door
opens; a brown, whole-meal, six-ounce loaf is placed upon the plate;
the tin mug is taken, and three-quarters of a pint of gruel is measured
in my presence, when the mug is handed back in silence, and the door is
closed and locked. After I have taken a few mouthfuls of bread I begin
to scrub my cell. A bell rings and my door is again unlocked. No word
is spoken, because I know exactly what to do. I leave my cell and fall
into single file, three paces in the rear of my nearest fellow convict.
All of us are alike in knowing what we have to do, and we march away
silently to Divine service. We are criminals under punishment, and
our keepers march us like dumb cattle to the worship of God. To me the
twenty minutes of its duration were as an oasis in a weary desert. When
it came to an end I felt comforted, and always a little more resigned
to my fate. Chapel over, I returned directly to my cell, for I was in
solitary confinement, and might not enjoy the privilege of working in
company with my prison companions.
Work I must, but I must work alone. Needlework and knitting fall to my
lot. My task for the day is handed to me, and I sit in my cell plying
my needle, with the consciousness that I must not indulge in an idle
moment, for an unaccomplished task means loss of marks, and loss of
marks means loss of letters and visits. As chapel begins at 8:30 I am
back in my cell soon after nine, and the requirement is that I shall
make one shirt a day--certainly not less than five shirts a week. If I
am obstinate or indolent, I shall be reported by the ward officer, and
be brought to book with punishment--perhaps reduced to a diet of bread
and water and total confinement in my cell for twenty-four hours. If I
am faint, weak, or unwell, I may be excused the full performance of my
task; but there must be no doubt of my inability. In such case it is
for me to have my name entered for the prison doctor, and obtain from
him the indulgence that will remit a portion of my prescribed work to
three or four shirts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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