Within Prison Walls: being a narrative during a week of voluntary confinement in the state prison at Auburn, New YorkOsborne, Thomas Mott
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Within Prison Walls: being a narrative during a week of voluntary confinement in the state prison at Auburn, New York
Osborne, Thomas Mott
Auburn Prison; Prisoners -- New York (State); Prisons -- New York (State)
[2] Mine was one of the larger cells. Many of them are only three and a
half feet wide.
[3] It is perhaps needless to point out how much inaccuracy there must be
in any statistics made up from records taken in such a manner. The
prisoner gives such answers as he pleases. If he is found out in a lie he
is punished--but how often is he found out?
[4] The writer is mistaken, for as a matter of fact the state was not so
generous; the handkerchief was my own--as was also my toothbrush.--T. M.
O.
[5] For fear that I may be condemned upon purely circumstantial evidence,
I hasten to state that neither of these suppositions is correct.--T. M. O.
[6] I have since learned that I committed a breach of the rules every
morning; one which laid me open to punishment. Men who awake before
six-thirty must stay in bed until the bell rings.
[7] Jack Murphy gives me the following information: When a new man arrives
in prison and is assigned to a shop the waiter or captain puts his name on
a requisition letter list. If this inmate's surname begins with A, he gets
his monthly letter on the first Sunday of each month; if his name begins
with some other letter, he gets his monthly letter on some other Sunday.
If, upon A's arrival, his Sunday has just passed, he has to wait until the
first Sunday of the next month comes around; unless some one puts him wise
on how to write to the warden for an extra or special letter.
[8] On this point Jack Murphy writes: "We are allowed one box of matches a
month. The men split each match into two parts, so as to make this one box
last as long as possible. Each box contains 62 matches. After they are
split up into two the prisoner has 124 matches. These will last him about
10 days; then he must use his flint and steel. This is the most
intelligent thing the convicts are taught, for it teaches them the art of
economy, which, if lived up to, will help them to overcome their
extravagance when freed." I believe our friend B. intimated that Jack is
something of a joker.
Since my week in prison the inmates are allowed to buy a dozen boxes of
matches a month. Why they should not always have been allowed to do so is
beyond my comprehension.
[9] This, of course, is the same incident that has already been given in
the supplementary pages of the previous chapter, but I insert it again as
a part of my journal. It illustrates the way news circulates about the
prison.
[10] There were some small inaccuracies in Jack's tale, especially this
account of the trusty and the P. K. The facts are as stated in the last
chapter. I have let this passage remain, however, as it represents what I
heard and understood at the time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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