THE STATE PRISONS.
Mr. WADGE introduced a joint resolution [S. 20] directing the Wardens of the State Prisons to set apart the fund known as the Visitor's Fund for the purpose of replenishing the libraries of the prisons, not to publish the names of the convicts hearafter, to discontinue the use of the whip or cat as a method of punishment, substituting therefor such other punishment as will conduce to the good discipline of the prisoner; to see that the prisoners are provided with a suit of clean clothing every Saturday afternoon and facilities for bathing once a week; to see that no convict, under any contract, shall be worked more than twelve hours in any one day, and no convict is overworked, and to see that the Chaplain reside in the immediate vicinity of the prisons and devote their entire time to the moral and religous training of the convicts The Governor shall appoint one person from each Congressional District selecting from both political parties, to constitute a Commission on Prison Reform to report to the next General Assembly but the Commissioners shall receive no compensation for their services.
Mr. HALL moved to amend the resolution by strikiug out the words "known as Visitor's Fund," and inserting "all moneys received from visitors. Also by adding after the words "whip or cat" the words "or any substitute therefor."
Mr. WADGE accepted the amendments.
Mr. DITTEMORE thought the latter part of the resolution relating to the management of the Prisons was out of order and should be left to the directors. As to the abolishment of the cat he thought it would be unfair and unjust to the State and to contracting parties.
Mr. ORR believed that instead of beating the bad out of a man with the cat you beat the bad in.
Mr. WINTERBOTHAM had been a contrrctor for years and knows that showering bucking and gaging etc., disables and incapacitates the convict from work for days. It is better to leave these things to directors.
page: 567[View Page 567]Mr. HALL, too, has been a contractor and had witnessed whippings until there was not a particle of manhood left in the convict. The man that lays hand on another with the whip brutalizes himself and the convict. The reason contractors oppose abolishing the whip is because the other means usually resorted to incapacitates the sufferer from work for several days. He asked Senators to accept and profit by the experience of Ohio where this thing was abolished ten years ago, and of Pennsylvania where it was abolished fifteen years since, and those States have never gone back to this unhuman, brutalizing thing of butchering men alive. He besought Senators to listen to the cry of mercy especially when it is so well known and so ferquently demonstrated that convicts can be governed better in other ways than by butchering.
On motion of Mr. SLATER, the resolution and amendment was referred to the Committee on Judiciary, with instructions to report to-morrow morning at 9:30.
