USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
The prison yard is spacious-six hundred feet long and four hun- dred feet wide-and is surrounded by a wall twenty feet high. With- in this enclosure are the workshops, boiler-house, kitchen, messroom, hospital, etc.
A large double dwelling-house, outside the wall, but connected by a corridor with the guard room of the prison proper, constructed of the same materials and harmonious in style, is provided for the Warden and Deputy Warden with their respective families.
The whole was completed in the autumn of 1878, and on the twenty- sixth of November was transferred by the Prison Commission to the Board of State Charities and Correction. Later in the same month the inmates of the old prison in Providence were removed to their new quarters. A large number of convicts of every grade and dye were to
471
THE POOR, THE DEFECTIVE AND THE CRIMINAL.
be conveyed eight or more miles in the open, and any mistake or slight inattention might be attended with serious results ; but such were the skill and the care exercised by Warden Viall and his officers that the affair was accomplished without difficulty or accident of any sort.
A new era was entered upon. Under greatly improved conditions the health and the conduct of the prisoners were at once greatly improved. Discipline has at the same time been strict and wisely humane. It has not been forgotten that even a convicted criminal is still a man, entitled to be treated as a man, and having rights which other men ought to respect. His moral and intellectual well-being have been kept in view. Punishments have been in the form of deprivations, and not of a character to degrade the offender in his own eyes or in the esteem of his fellows. Corporal punishment of every sort has been unknown. Many concessions have been made to men whose good conduct entitled them to special consideration. The best things have been always for the best behaved men. A copy of the following code of rules is framed and hung on the wall of each cell.
"RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR PRISONERS.
1. When the corridor bells first ring in the morning, each prisoner shall rise, dress, make up his bed, put his cell in order, and be ready to leave the cell at the sound of the signal bell. Upon returning to his cell, he is required to close the door, and stand at it until counted.
2. No prisoner shall have in his cell any pen, ink, pencil, or writ- ing material, or tools of any kind, without the permission of the warden.
3. Prisoners shall not write or draw upon, or in any way deface their cells. They shall keep their persons, cells and everything per- taining thereto perfectly neat and clean. They shall not make over, alter, or destroy their clothing. Before leaving their cells at any time they shall first put them in good order.
4. Every prisoner is forbidden to read aloud, talk, sing, or make any unnecessary noise whatever at any time, either in his cell or else- where. At half-past eight o'clock in the evening, each and every prisoner shall go to bed and shall not get up therefrom until the ringing of the morning bell, unless compelled to do so by necessity. They shall not put food, clothing, or reading matter in the slop bucket.
5. Prisoners will approach the officers in a respectful manner, and all communications between them and the officers must be as brief as possible.
6. They shall not converse or communicate in any way with one another, nor shall they without the permission of the Warden, upon any pretense whatsoever, speak to or communicate with any person not connected with the institution. In the Sunday School, however, they may converse with their teachers upon religious subjects only ; and on one Sunday in each month they may speak in free religious
472
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
conference. Those whose behavior is unexceptionable, may, by per- mission of the Warden, talk with one another at table in the mess room.
7. They shall not leave their work or place where they may be stationed, without permission of the offiecr having them in charge, nor shall they gaze at visitors, offieers, or other persons. Their attention shall be given wholly to their work.
8. They shall work diligently and in silenee on week days; they shall pay respectful attention whenever religious services are held, and when entertainments are given for their instruetion or amusement; and they shall not defaee or in any way injure books or papers which may be given to them to read.
9. The elergy of the Protestant churches and of the Roman Cath- olie church, have the privilege of imparting religious instruction and of administering their rites and sacraments on Sundays, and the attendanee of the inmates at the services to be in no ease compulsory.
10. Inmates of the jail may be visited by their relatives and friends onee in four weeks, and inmates of the prison onee in three months. Visits must be made by the relatives and friends of any one prisoner at the same time. Under special circumstances visits may be made oftener by permission of the Warden. The law relative to the state prison contains this elause, "No eonviet shall receive anything but the prison allowanee, unless by order of the physician."
11. These rules do not apply to persons imprisoned for debt, or awaiting trial, or held as witnesses. The eonduet of such persons, however, must be quiet and orderly ; they must do nothing to interfere with the diseipline of the institution, and must keep their persons and eells always elean and neat.
12. The behavior of every person must always be orderly, quiet, and in strict conformity with the rules of the institution.
13. Every violation of the foregoing rules, and every aet detri- mental to the maintenance of good order and discipline will be con- sidered a reason for punishment.
14. Prisoners who choose to labor, although not required by law to do so, must when at work, obey the foregoing rules.
Publie Statutes, Chapter 254 .- Sec. 28. The Warden of the State Prison shall keep a reeord of the eonduet of each eonviet, and for each month that a convict, not under sentenee to imprisonment for life, appears to have observed all the rules and requirements of the prison and not to have been subjected to punishment, there shall with the eonsent of the governor, upon recommendation to him of a majority of the Board, be deducted from the term or terms of sentence of such eonviet the same number of days that there are years in the said term of his sentence. Provided, that when the sentenee is for a longer term than five years, only five days shall be deducted for one month's good behavior ; and provided, further, that for every day a conviet shall be shut up or otherwise punished for bad eonduet, there shall be deducted one day from the time he shall have gained for good conduct."
473
THE POOR, THE DEFECTIVE AND THE CRIMINAL.
A record of the conduct of each inmate is made in the office of the Warden at the close of each day, and the men are graded into five classes, viz .: Excellent, good, tolerably good, unsatisfactory, and bad.
Located on a farm of seventy-five acres of good, tillable land, which can be worked by short term jail prisoners, only such crops being cultivated as can be used in the prison, it becomes easy to provide a bill of fare far more varied and extended than would be possible under different conditions. A specimen bill of fare extending over one weck is as follows :
"Sunday-Breakfast : Pork and beans, white bread, brown bread, and coffee. Dinner : Mackerel, potatoes, pickled beets, rice and gravy, and coffee.
Monday : Breakfast: Boiled codfish, white bread, brown bread, and coffee. Dinner : Corned beef and vegetables, white bread, and brown bread. Supper: Bread and tea, or mush and molasses.
Tuesday-Breakfast : Cold corned beef, potatoes, bread and coffee, Dinner : Beef soup with vegetables, white bread and brown bread. Supper : Bread and tea, or mush and molasses.
Wednesday-Breakfast: Beef stew, bread and coffee. Dinner : Corned beef and vegetables, white bread and brown bread. Supper : Bread and tea, or mush and molasses.
Thursday-Breakfast: Meat hash, bread and coffee. Dinner : Pea soup with vegetables, white bread and brown bread. Supper : Bread and tea, or mush and molasses.
Friday-Breakfast : Stewed beans, white bread, brown bread, and coffee. Dinner: Fish hash, with vegetables, white bread and brown bread. Supper: Bread and tea, or mush and molasses.
Saturday-Breakfast: Cold corned beef, white bread, brown bread, coffee. Dinner : Beef soup, vegetables, white bread and brown bread. Supper : Bread and tea, or mush and molasses."
Vegetables include potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, cab- bage, green corn, squash, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, and whatever else is commonly produced on a New England vegetable farm. Fre- quent changes are made in the bill of fare, but always there is an abundance of good and wholesome food. Breakfast and dinner are eaten in the mess roon, when the men are permitted to converse freely among themselves; supper is eaten in the cells. Special bills of fare are provided on Christmas, Fourth of July, and other holidays.
In its location, its buildings and its administration, the Rhode Island state prison is a model.
In the year 1877 "the custody and charge of the state prison and Providence county jail, with all the property appertaining thereto" was transferred to the Board of State Charities and Corrections. Im- mediately thereafter the Board of Prison Inspectors went out of exist- ence. It will not be amiss at this point to speak particularly of the
474
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
retiring board. The office of prison inspeetor never was one to be sought by the inere politician. It earried with it not a dollar of pecun- iary reward. It did not lift the incumbent into a conspicuous plaee. It presented no temptation to cupidity or ambition. It could not be used as a reward for partisan serviee rendered. It was always free from political influenees. At the same time it ealled for qualifications of a high order in the man who should assume its duties. For the wise and faithful discharge of these, there must be a wide acquaintanee with men and affairs, a sincere and conscientious regard for the inter- ests of the state, never failing tact, and a strong desire to promote the well being and improvement of criminal and unfortunate men. There must in any case be more than a warm and sympathetic heart; with this must be joined a judicial and well-balanced mind. The best thought of the highest order of intellect is ehallenged by the philos- ophy of crime and the problems connected with the proper treatment of eriminals. The composition of the Board of Prison Inspectors seems always to have been regarded by the appointing power as a matter of importanee, and appointments were made with a view to the profit of the state and the people. The list of those who filled this offiee during a period of thirty-eight years includes not a few who were eminent in the different professions and callings-clergymen, lawyers, physicians, manufacturers, and merchants. One was Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Rhode Island; two filled the office of President of Brown University ; two were Judges of the Supreme Court; two were Governors; three were Mayors of the eity of Provi- denee ; and one represented the state in the National Congress. With few exceptions they were othewise aetive participants in the affairs of the chief city and of the state. The office of prison inspector was an honorable offiee, laborious and involving grave responsibilities; and it was uniformly filled by men who served with credit to themselves, though often with small praise from their constituents.1
It is not an exaggeration to say that no single cause exerted so great an influenee in opposition to the early reformatory efforts of our prison authorities as the county jails of the state. No means were provided and no effort was made to reform or otherwise benefit jail conviets. In the administration of the jail, any attempt at classifica- tion of the inmates was made impossible by the plan upon which all jails were then constructed. In only one of these was labor required. In all others, eriminals of every grade and of all ages were left to brood together over the wrongs, real or faneied, which had been inflicted upon them, and to plan new villainies to be executed upon
1The writer here acknowledges his very large indebtedness to the Reports of this body in the preparation of this section of this work relating to the Old State Prison, and specially to its last Report. the work of Augustus Woodbury, D.D., for many years Chairman of the Board.
475
THE POOR, THE DEFECTIVE AND THE CRIMINAL.
society when they should be released from confinement. No dis- crimination was made, and communication was free between the gray-haired veteran in crime and the youth who had been committed for the first time, and for what was, perhaps, at its worst, but a boyish indiscretion. The jail was a school of crime to which persons sus- pected of having violated the law were sent to await trial, unless friends could be found willing to become surety for their good behav- iour and for their appearance in court when they should be wanted; and, when discharged, whether because of failure on the part of the prosecution to make cases against them, or at the expiration of sen- tence imposed on their conviction, they went forth well instructed in the worst sorts of knowledge and in the surest method of evading pun- ishment for future offenses. He was a dull scholar who could not, in a term of four weeks, learn more of iniquitous ways than might be learned elsewhere in a full year.
The majority of those sent to the Providence county jail were under thirty years of age, and a very large part of these were under twenty years of age. Of 2,312 persons, male and female, committed in the five years ending October 1st, 1852, not less than 503 had not yet reached the age of twenty years, while 13 were less than 10 years of age. All these were thrown into a nursery of crime and educated at the expense of the state treasury to fill places in the state prison. Having been confined on brief sentences in the county jail for trifling breaches of peace or for petty thefts, they went out into society strongly impressed by their older associates that they had been the victims of a wicked injustice, and fully determined to avenge them- selves by the perpetration of other unlawful deeds. A second convic- tion followed and, perhaps, a third; and at the expiration of each sentence they were worse than they had been at its beginning.
Then they went to thestate's prison, and then the state first bethought itself that something should be done for their reformation. Then the heart of the Christian and of the philanthropist began to yearn over them. And then it was with most of them too late. It would ill become us to speak lightly of any movement looking to the good of any class of convicts, but certainly prevention is better than attempts to cure a disease neglected till it has already become mortal. The twig is easily held in place; the sapling is easily made straight; but to straighten the trunk of a white oak tree that has been growing in a crooked way for half a century would be an impossible task. When a man has reached the age of twenty-five or more years, his habit of life and con- duct is pretty firmly established, and he is likely to travel to its end the road over which he has come thus far. It would be more reasonable to expend a larger effort upon the boy ; a fact which at last began to be realized in a practical way.
At about the same time, thoughtful and broad-spirited men per-
476
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
ceived that many offenders against the criminal laws were, in a large measure, ignorant of the requirement of these laws and of their own duties as members of organized society. It was also noticed that the ignorance of these was not usually the result of choice or of negligence on their own part, but was rather the almost unavoidable conse- quence of their environment in childhood and in youth. The condi- tions in which they had been reared were more responsible than they for their lack of knowledge and their lack of purpose to do only right things. They were untaught and without moral culture. The re- straints of home had been, with them, few and slight. Of religious training they had none. Their vicious parents had praised them when they developed some adroitness in small pilferings, and when, in a fight, they had by fair or by foul blows got the best of their youthful associates. It began to be suspected that for the criminal acts of such boys and girls, even when grown to be men and women, a society which permitted them to grow up neglected and unshielded might be itself, to a considerable degree, responsible. Ought not society to educate before it punishes ? If there were more of education and this of a better sort, would not less of punishment suffice ? Had the state and the towns in the state done all they should do ? There were good free schools and there were competent teachers, butthe young people in question had little to do with either. And, even if they sometimes went to school, the best that the teachers could do was insufficient to overcome the vicious home conditions to which they must return at the close of each day. Again, the education offered by the free school was not all that the case required. A knowledge of writing, reading, arithmetic, geog- raphy and grammar only, must be fatally deficient. Moral and relig- ious training, more systematic and constant than could be given by the free school was essential, and so, too, was a habit of industry. A inan whose head is improved while his heart is neglected, whose under- standing is enlightened and his passions left free of restraint, may easily be a moral monster and guilty of every crime named in the code. Intellectual culture, with an absence of respect for moral sanction, will make a rogue worse than can be tolerated in civilized society.
It began to be seen that there were and must be children not a few whose hope of becoming law-abiding and useful citizens was very small. No opportunity was given them by the conditions in which they lived to become such. And there were those who asked whether the wrong done by these should be punished as that of others who had sinned against brighter light; whether an enlightened humanity could permit these, for slight offenses, to be placed in the county jail, where they, in a little time, would almost certainly be qualified for nothing better than a cell in the state prison. At the same time, it was clear to all that they should not be allowed to go freely from slight misde-
477
THE POOR, THE DEFECTIVE AND THE CRIMINAL.
meanor to capital crime till they became the pest and the scourge of the community.
A school of reform for juvenile offenders was suggested. It should be designed for youths of both sexes who might escape the control of their parents or become amenable to the criminal law and liable to imprisonment in the county jail or in the state prison. They should be separated from their old life with all the vicious associations of the same, with no frequent returning at stated times to homes whose char -. acter was well fitted to efface from their minds the best instruction of their teachers, and to parents whose examples were all on the side of wrong-doing. Labor, study and recreation should be judiciously min- gled under the supervision and in the constant presence of competent officers and instructors.
In May, 1847, the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manu- facturers petitioned the city council of Providence for the establish- ment of such an institution. This association deserves more than a passing mention. It had at different times shown itself to be animated by an enlightened and generous spirit with respect to the well-being and improvement of the rising generation. The public school act passed by the general assembly in the year 1800 originated in this body ; and when this act was repealed three years later by its influence a system of public schools was established and sustained in the city of Providence. The memorial asking for a Reform School was favorably received by the city government, and at once a movement was made toward the desired result. Steps were first taken to secure needed information as to the system to be adopted and the regulations which should be necessary to make this successful for the end sought. The General Assembly of 1850 passed an act authorizing the city of Provi- dence to establish a Reform School for the "confinement, instruction and reformation of juvenile offenders and of young persons of idle, vicious or vagrant habits, to be under the direction of seven trustees of whom the Mayor is always one and the remaining six are chosen annually by the City Council." The general control of the school and the appointment of all necessary officers were vested in this board of trustees. By this act and by amendments subsequently made, the trustees were empowered to receive into the school all young people less than eighteen years of age who should be convicted in any court or before any magistrate in the state of criminal acts, and also of such as should in Providence or any town of the state be found to be vagrant or disorderly persons; and in addition to these they might receive any child more than five years of age at the request of its parent or guardian. Such young persons as were admitted to the school should remain subject to its discipline and instruction until they were reformed and discharged, or bound out by the trustees, or found incorrigible ; in the latter case, they might be transferred to the county
478
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
jail or state prison, according to the alternative of the sentence im- posed by the magistrate in whose court the ease was heard. No person could be sentenced to the school for a period of less than two years or for a term extending beyond his arrival at majority. His discharge at the expiration of his sentence or on being reformed, or as having reached the age of twenty-one years, released him from all disability under the sentence that had been imposed upon him. In- mates of the school might be bound out as servants or as ap- prentiees to persons who would instruet them in morality and in such branches of useful knowledge as were adapted to their age and capac- ity. The cost of maintaining those sent to the school for erimes of any
-
TOCHWOTTON HOUSE, PROVIDENCE.
Formerly standing on the land now occupied by Tochwotton Park. It was a oele- brated hotel and was subsequently used as the State Reform School.
sort was to be paid out of the general treasury, and all other expenses, including the cost of grounds, buildings, salaries, etc., were to be paid by the eity of Providenee.
The Toehwotton House, situated on a hill of the same name in the southeast part of the city and overlooking the harbor, was purchased and fitted up; and in the month of October, 1850, the Provi- denee Reform School was formally deelared established and opened for the work for which it was designed. From November 1st, 1850, to October 31st, 1851, forty-eight boys and three girls were received, of whom six were discharged, leaving forty-five in all at the close of the year. During the following year sixty-five were received, and thirty-
479
THE POOR, THE DEFECTIVE AND THE CRIMINAL.
one discharged, leaving in the school seventy-nine with which to begin a third year. In this year, ninety-one were received, fifty-five were discharged, and three escaped, ninety boys and eleven girls, one hun- dred and one in all remaining at its close. The time of the inmates was divided and spent as follows: Seven and one-half hours in labor, five hours in school, two and one-half hours at meals and recreation, one hour in religious exercises and eight hours in sleep.
Such an order of daily life could not fail to benefit those who must otherwise grow up without care or training to lead in maturity a vic- ions and criminal life, becoming a menace and a disgrace to the society which produced them. They were separated from corrupting influences. Industry was substituted for idleness, regular habits for intemperance and folly, religious and moral training for profanity, intelligence for ignorance, and protection for exposure. The deficiencies of their carlier years were in a measure supplied, and as was said by the asso- ciation which first memorialized the city council in the matter, they had given them "the benefit of good example and wholesome instruction, the means of improvement in virtue and knowledge, and the opportun- ity of becoming intelligent, moral and useful members of society."
The Providence Reform School had been established in the face of strong opposition on the part of some who urged that such an institu- tion was not properly within the functions of a municipal government. The responsibilities of the trustees were new to them, and the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.