The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries — John Shaqi
The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri PenitentiariesReynolds, John N. (John Newton)
History
The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries
Reynolds, John N. (John Newton)
Prisons -- Kansas; Prisons -- Missouri
"The discipline has been carefully looked after, and as a general thing
prisoners yield to strict discipline quicker than most people think.
They seem to see and realize the necessity of rules, and very seldom
complain, if they violate them, at the punishment that is sure to
follow. Our punishments are of such a character that they do not
degrade. Kansas, when she established her penitentiary, prohibited
corporal punishment. She is one of the few States that by law prohibits
the use of the whip and strap; taking the position that it is better to
use kindness than to resort to brutal measures. I have often been told,
and that, too, by old prison men, that it was impossible to run a
prison and have first-class discipline without the whip. Such is not
my experience. We have had within our walls perhaps as desperate men as
ever received a sentence. We have controlled them, and have maintained
a discipline second to none in the country, How did we accomplish this?
Our answer is, by being kind but firm; treating a man, although he may
be a prisoner, as a man. If he violates rules, lock him up. Give him
an opportunity to commune with himself and his Maker; also give him to
understand that he is the executioner of his own sentence, and when he
concludes that he can do right, release him. It matters not how vicious,
how stubborn, or what kind of a temper he may have, when left with no
one to talk to, and an opportunity to cool down, and with a knowledge
that when he comes to the conclusion that he will do better he can be
released, he leaves the cell feeling much different than the prisoner
who leaves the whipping-post, after having received any number of
lashes that a brutal officer may desire to inflict. One goes to his
work cheerful, and determined to behave himself; the other dogged,
revengeful, completely humiliated, and only lives in hope that he may at
some time take his revenge upon the person that ordered or inflicted
the punishment, and upon the State or country that would, by its laws,
tolerate such a brutal or slavish practice."
CHAPTER V. SUNDAY IN THE PRISON
A prisoner is always thankful for the Sabbath. He has been working hard
all week, and Sunday affords the opportunity of resting. On the Sabbath
morning, the bell for rising rings at eight o'clock. At its ringing
each person must rise and dress; he is not permitted to do so before
it rings. If he gets tired of remaining in his bunk so late as eight
o'clock, and should wish to get up and dress, it would do him no good;
it would be a violation of rules and result in punishment. After the
prisoner is up and dressed, he washes and marches out in ranks to
breakfast. It is hash, hash, hash, for Sunday breakfast, the same as any
other day, except once a month it is codfish hash instead of beef hash.
After breakfast, instead of going from the dining-room to work, the
prisoners are marched back into their cells where they remain until time
for chapel exercises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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