“According to the statement of one of the members who inspected the camps, the use of shackles on human beings is barbarous, and the suffering and inconvenience caused the prisoners by being forced to wear the irons could only be realized by seeing a prisoner who wore chains which reached from knee to ankle and a cross chain connecting each leg. “Squire Allen, in speaking of the conditions which he found to be caused from the use of shackles, said that several of the prisoners’ legs were almost decayed under the clamps which held the chains. Squire Allen said that especially in the cases of long-term men--those who were sent up for eleven months and twenty-nine days--the wearing of the chains was a horrible thing to think about. He said abolishing the custom of wearing the irons would be a great reform in the modern method of caring for the county prisoners. “The shackles are riveted on the legs of the prisoners the day they are received at the camps, and the irons are never removed for any purpose until the day the prisoner is given his liberty. The prisoner is forced to sleep in the chains, it is said, and it is impossible to remove the shackles without the aid of a skillful blacksmith.” * * * * * _Moyamensing Prison Investigation._--Philadelphia’s old prison is now being investigated. The January grand jury made, among other statements, the following: “No bond of humane feeling existed between the keepers and the prisoners. “The closets in the cells are foul-smelling, germ-breeding holes of sickness. “The old straw mattresses upon which the prisoners sleep are really filled with vermin. “The conditions of the cells of the untried prisoners are worse than the cells of those serving a sentence. “He deserves all he gets, let him have it, is apparently the motto at Moyamensing.” * * * * * _The Missouri State Prison._--“The Missouri penitentiary at Jefferson City is twenty-five years behind the times. It is a source of shame to all Missourians.” That is the substance of a statement on the Missouri penitentiary by Dr. C. A. Ellwood, professor of sociology in the University of Missouri. Dr. Ellwood says the blame does not rest on individuals so much as the system. For fifteen years he has been working to secure an industrial reformatory for the State. He also thinks the “contract system” is a great force for evil. It makes easier the smuggling of opium, the worst curse of a prison. Seventy per cent. of the long term prisoners are slaves of the drug, according to a former warden.