This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII "PRISONERS SHALL NOT COMMUNICATE" ""DRISONERS shall not communicate, or attempt to do so, with one another." Such is the first rule of prison life. It is the outcome of years of experience, yet it belongs to a period bespeaking conditions almost totally different from our own. With the advent of ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII "PRISONERS SHALL NOT COMMUNICATE" ""DRISONERS shall not communicate, or attempt to do so, with one another." Such is the first rule of prison life. It is the outcome of years of experience, yet it belongs to a period bespeaking conditions almost totally different from our own. With the advent of popular education, crime assumes a new aspect. It is less brutal, more refined. Animalism is decreasing, and the keen wit and intelligence are taking the place of the bludgeon and the jemmy. Those answerable for prison rules and discipline appear to be unconscious of these changes, and 96 V A they still deal with the men in their charge, as though they constantly feared an cmeute among them. Wild animals and dangerous lunatics are not more watched and spied upon than are the inhabitants of our prisons. A look, a word passing from one to another is a punishable offence. It is very conceivable that grave social evils would be engendered if liberty of speech were indiscriminately allowed to the baser elements, but these are easily distinguishable from those of a gentler kind, and if some system of classification were adopted, it would not be difficult to arrange conditions under which healthy intercourse could be carried on between (at least) these latter prisoners. Man is a social animal, and his natural instincts will and do manifest themselves in spite of all rules and regulations to the G contrary. It is a well-known fact that the prisoners do "communicate" with one another, notwithstanding the most careful vigilance of the officials and warders. The methods adopted to effect this breach of the rules are considerablyvaried. Messages are written on W.C. walls, or conveyed by a code of signals. In the exercise yard, for example, you may at...
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