xt70p26q2c5s https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70p26q2c5s/data/mets.xml  Kentucky  1963 newsletters  English Eddyville, Ky.: Kentucky State Penitentiary  This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Physical rights are retained by the owning repository. Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Please go to https://exploreuk.uky.edu for more information. Castle on the Cumberland Kentucky State Penitentiary -- Periodicals Journalism, Prison -- Kentucky Castle on the Cumberland, June 1963 text Kentucky State Penitentiary v.: ill. 28 cm. Call Numbers HV8301 .C37 and 17-C817 20:C279 Castle on the Cumberland, June 1963 1963 1963 2021 true xt70p26q2c5s section xt70p26q2c5s   

 

 

 

 

  

Volume II, Number XII

June 15, 1965

 

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

 

ADMI NIS TRAT IO N

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

The Honorable Bert T. Combs, Governor
Wilson'W. Wyatt, Lt. Governor

Marshall Swain, welfare Commissioner

Dr. Harold Black, Director of Corrections

We Z. Carter, Director of Education

BOARD OF PARDONS & PAROLES

 

Dr. Fred Moffatt, Executive Director
Walter Ferguson, Chairman
Simeon Willis, Member

Ernest Thompson, Member

PENITENTIARY ADMINISTRATION

 

Luther Thomas, warden
Lloyd Armstrong, Deputy warden

W. T. Baxter, Captain of the Guard

Reverend Paul Jaggers, Chaplain

Henry E. Cowan, Supervisor of Education

William Egbert, Vocational Instructor

 

Castle News

Editorial

NO IOCKS IN THIS PRISON
MANUEL ORTEGA

I SAW 300 DIE

WHY DO WE COME BACK?
Exchange Page

Tall Tales

Department Reports
Nightkeeper's Report, 1886
Crossword

Statistics & Movies

The CASTLE Laughs
CASTLE STAFF

lawrence Snow, Editor

Harold Arnold, Associate Editor
James Fe McKinney, Art Editor
John Busby, Multilith Operator

Ted Lewis, Silk Screen Department

11
15
16
18
19
2o

23

2h

 

 

The Castle on the Cumberland is published on the 15th of each month by the inmates

of the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville.

Subscriptions, one dollar a year.

Opinions eXpressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the admini-

stratione Permission to reproduce any part of this magazine is granted,

credit is given to author and source. Marked copies appreciatedo

provided

 

 

 

 

 600 BOOKS DONATED TO KSP IlBRARY--
PART OF DECEASED ATTORNEY'S ESTATE

 

A complete set of the Harvard Classics,
two encyClopedia, more than 50 volumes
of world and American history and a 12-
volume set of the works of convict
writer O'Henry were among the 600 books
received here last month from the son of
a deceased attorney.

The books, which represent probably the
largest single donation received by the
prison, were part of the library left to
the attorney's son. They are all in ex-
cellent condition and well bound.

Among the volumes that have been placed
on the library's shelves to date are a
5-volume MacCauley‘s History of England,
the h—volume Outline of History, 30 vol-
umes of world classics, 15 volumes of
Balzac, 16 of Dumas, 17 of Stevenson, 10
of Twain, and an 8-volume set of the
works of Kipling. -

Also included were the complete Works of
James Whitcomb Riley and still another
27-volume literature series.

For Dickens fans, there is
set of the works of the
author, and

wit and humor.

a complete
famous English
another set of the world's

The Greek and Roman classics are in-
cluded in the library, as are volumes
and sets on philosophy and drama.

The donation filled half a truck, and
room has yet to be found for an approxi-

mately equal number of books awaiting
classification.
EXPLODING TRACTOR KILIS FARM TRUHTY

WED EARNED PAROLE WITHIN MONTH OF DEATH

 

Morris Edward Taylor, 28, died May 5
from burns received when the tractor he
was driving burst into flames and ex—
ploded the day before.

Taylor was assigned to
as a trusty when the
He was immediately
world hospital, where

2

the prison farm
explosion occured.
rushed to a free-
doctors gave him

little chance to survive severe burns
over most of his body. Had he not died,
it was said, the burns would have made
him a Semi-invalid for a period of
years. ‘

Serving a two-year sentence for cutting
and wounding, Taylor had been granted a
parole shortly before the accident oc-
cured. He was waiting for his release
papers when he died.

FIVE YEAR STUDY OF CHE/IE ROOTS WILL EM-
PLOY IBM COMPUTER, 30 YEARS OF RESEARCH

Thirty years of exhaustive research into
the motivations of criminal behavior and
Harvard Law School's new IBM’ 7090 Com-
puter will get together in an intensive,
5-year research effort to discover why
men go wrong, according to an article in
the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR.

The research will be conducted by
Harvard's Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck,
the husband-anddwife team that gathered
the data. Also included in the study
will be data collected in Japan and
Europe.

From their study the Gluecks hope to
provide the beginnings for a new type of
comparative criminology. If the study
can determine Why teenagers and adults
turn to crime, appropriate treatment
methods can be developed, according to
the MONITOR.

"There is evidence that among delin-
quents, as among ordinary persons,“ said
Dr° Glueck, "there are wide variations
in personality and temperament. During
our many years of research in the
Harvard Law School, we have accumulated
a unique mine of material which we now
propose to subject to computer analysis
in order to ascertain whether they will
inductively yield several ‘more or less
distinct types of delinquents from the
points of view of etiology, recidivism,
and preventive efforts."

LOS ANGELES NO LONGER LARGEST CITY

 

Oklahoma City is now the country's larg-
est city in terms of area.

 

 

 

  

—F\—pv ___'—._. ~_- —_"—’\A—.‘

 

 

INMATE DIES FROM BIUDGEONING WOUNDS

Robert Lewis Gay, 19, died in a Madison-
ville hospital on May 31,‘ apparently as
a result of a blow or blows struck by
another inmate earlier in the month.

According to information gathered on the
yard, the youthful Gay sustained severe
skull fractures when he was struck with
a length of 2x6 lumber wielded by a fel-
low prisoner early on the morning of May
25. Gay was taken to the prison hospi-
tal for emergency treatment. In a coma
from which he apparently never awoke, he
was later transported to the Madison-
ville hospital, where surgery failed to
save his life.

Gay, a resident of Fayette County,
Kentucky, was serving a four-year sen-
tence for storehouse breaking.

HOODLUM PRIEST SPEAKS IN IOUISVILLE

 

Father Dismas Clark, famous "Hoodlum
Priest," spoke last month to a group of
citizens assembled in Louisville's Brown
Hotel. His subject, according to the
LOUISVILLE TIMES, was prisons.

He told the assembly that supervision
under parole is more beneficial than in»
oarceration in a prison, and noted that
what he calls "accidental" criminals do
not belong in prison at all.

Don Congrwn, an ex-convict and presently
a resident of Dismas House (a “halfway
house" where newly-released prisoners
without home or family connections can
get a fresh start), spoke on the same
program, He said that no prison, state
or federal, has ever made a better man
of anyone. But the state prisons are
worse, he said, for, "a young kid comes
in and he's either going to be a killer
or a homosexual."

He advocated spending more on more and
better trained parole officers.

Father Clark is the founder of the St.
Louis, Missouri Dismas House, a project
that has been widely cepied, often with
astonishing results.

THE CASTLE GOES TO COLOR

For two years now, the CASTLE ON'THE
CUMBERLAND has been prepared for you
with little more than a typewriter, a
ruler and a ball—point pen.

The plates, typed and hand drawn, have
been (and will continue to be) run on
the Multilith press in the Deputy War—
den‘s office, John Busby, the Deputy
warden's secretary, is our Multilith
man. ‘With this single exception, how-
ever, all the rest of the work -- news-
gathering, editing, layout, collation,
stapling, addressing, and the hundred
and one other tasks that go into even a
simple magazine such as ours -- has been
performed in the little office under the
cookshack.

But, with this or the next month's issue
-- we can't know until presstime -- the
front cover and, later, much of the in-
terior illustration and lettering, will
be printed in color by a silk screen
process. We hope this will improve the
appearance of the magazine to a con-
siderable extent, and perhaps get it to
you sooner.

This is something we have been wanting
to do for some time, but it took the co-
operation of two individuals -- one an
official, the other an inmate -- to get
it for USo

Education Supervisor Henry Cowan, who
recently took over the cabinet shop as
part of the vocational training program
now underway in Eddyville Prison, de-
serves our gratitude for approving our
plan and doing everything possible to
see that the materials we needed got
here on time. Ted Lewis, the sign
painter for the cabinet shop and a fine
artist to boot, deserves recognition for
his wholehearted cooperation and advice.
Ted will be helping us make the first
color run and overseeing the operation
thereafter.

Also, 'thanks are due to Jim McKinney,
who has been doing our art work for us
in his spare time and who designed our
cover for the montho

5

 CHAPLAIN JAGG’ERS‘9 PREACHING EVERY SUNDAY
FOR FORTY YEARS, MISSES FIRST SERVICE

 

An inflamed bursa and other complica»
tions involving the hip and leg forced
KSP‘S Chaplain Paul Jaggers into the

hOSpital for erays and tests last month
and necessitated his missing worship
services in the chapelc

It was the first time in be years that
illness had kept Jaggers from being in a
pulpit on Sunday°

Chaplain Jaggers, 6h, preached in LouiSm
ville churches for 30 years before
coming to the prison to serve as minisQ
ter and counselor toua congregation of
1200 meno He retired from other church
work this year to devote all his energy
to the "inside" congregations

Before checking into the hOSpita19 Chap=
lain Jaggers arranged for the Reverend
Calvin Wilkinss Pastor of the Baptist
Church at Kuttawa, and Reverend R9 Ge
Shelton‘9 Pastor of the First Baptist
Church in Eddyvilleg to alternate in the
prison pulpit during his absence. Both
ministers have preached in the church
here beforeo

It was learned late last month that the

Chaplain may have to undergo an operas
tion for his ailmento

SECOND GED EXAMINAJHDNS GIVEN HERE

 

Officials
Mr. Chester

of Murray State College and

Eshams Director of Adult
Educationg were here last month to eXe
amine candidates for the equivalency
high school diploma awarded by the cola
legs to qualified inmateso It was the
second time such testing has been cone
ducted here, the first tests resulting
in diplomas for all lb of the men who
tried for theme

The cOOperation of Dean Jo Matt Sparkman

and other Murray officials made the test~
ing program possible some months ages A

fee for the examination and 'diploma is

also paid for by the colleges

h

GET APPLICATION IN NOW RDR DIPLOMA

If you're interested in getting a high
school diploma -- and if you're over 21
and have finished at least the 10th
grade in school -w you still have time
to join the current GED class, according
to Mrs Henry Cowang Educational Super-
visor for the prison. But you'll have
to hurry ~~ the class will close shortly
after this magazine goes to press.

The GED class is a brush-up, cram course
intended to prepare applicants for the
equivalency high school diploma examina-
tion‘9 given here once each semester by
Murray State College. Instruction in-
cludes mathematics, grammar, and social
studies, and classes are held every
weekday afternoono

Anyone who is interested is urged to see
Mrs Cowan at the school without delay.

1’le NVS SWIMMING POOL OPENS

 

The reservoirwturnedwswimming pool on
the KS? compound has been Opened for the
summer season, providing a welcome di-
version for hundreds of inmates.

A large volunteer crew labored all one
day last month to scrub the pool"s walls
and sidess clearing away the scum and
plant life that had accumulated during
the wintero When the fresh water came
pouring ins large numbers of inmates
changed to trunks and plunged in.

As far as is knowg the pool is the only
one in a maximum security prison in this
countryo A few medium and minimum-
security prisons also have pools.

ROMAN CATHOLIC LARGEST DENOMINATION

 

The Christian religion is the world“s
largest with 90h million members, in-
cluding 550 million Roman Catholics.
Second is the Moslem religions with ABE
million and third, ’the Hindu, with 535
million memberso

 

 HONOR BAIL SYSTEM CITED

 

A new Chicago Municipal Court procedure
which will release approximately 1,000
persons per day from jail to await trial
in freedom was cited recently by Windy
City penologistso

Attorney Morris J. wexler, president of
the John Howard Assne, a penal welfare
group, when commenting on the long over-
due plan said, "This is tremendous prog-
ress. It will assist in both reducing
jail congestion and costs."

Also commenting on the plan was Chief
Justice Augustine J. Bowe of the Chicago
Municipal Court, who said the program
would enable qualified persons accused
of misdemeanors such as disorderly con-
duct to be released on their own in-
dividual recognition bond rather than
putting up a cash bondo -

"The Cook County Jail and the House of
Correction are jammed these days by in-
dividuals who do not have money to post
bond-or to pay bondsmen.

"Under this plan," the judge continued,
"When a man appears before one of our
judges or referees he'll first be inter-

viewed by an assistant public defender
orva volunteer law student."
Justice Bowe further stated, "The pur-

pose will be to determine if the accused
is stable enough to keep a promise and
return to court."

In summing up, the magistrate pointed
out, "Court cases are continued for many
reasons, and this program will help many
unfortunate people.

"Suggested by the Vera Foundation in New
York City, this program has been in
operation in that ‘state for the past
year. I have been informed by Jack
Johnson, Warden of Cook County Jail,
that it presently costs $28¢00 to pro-
cess one inmate through the jail for one
night; in all cases this need not be."

COURT OF APPEALS UPDATES INSANITY LAW

 

The Kentucky Court of Appeals last month
revised the traditional test for legal
insanity in criminal cases, according to
an AP story in the IOUISVILIE TIMES.

The old ruling -- that a
be acquitted if judged incapable of
knowing right from wrong -- has been
challenged repeatedly in recent years by
legal authorities.

defe ndant may

The new test specifies that a defendant
may be acquitted as insane if, because
of mental disease or defect, he was
unable to appreciate the criminal nature
of his act or, appreciating its criminal
nature, he did not have the capacity to
"conform his conduct to the requirements
of the law" at the time the criminal act

was committed .

Two of the court's seven judges pro-
tested the decision, said the TIMES
story.

PARDON FOR TRUSTY'WHO HALTED ESCAPE

George Collins, a trusty who was "work-
ing off" a $5000 fine in the McCracken
County (Paducah) jail, was pardoned by
Governor Bert Combs after he broke up an
attempted jailbreak last month.

Collins had already served four years in
the jail and would not have been eligi-
ble for release until 1967.

The trusty broke up the escape attempt
by grabbing a pistol from an office desk
and forcing nine prisoners back into
their cells.

Just a year before, Collins was credited
with persuading another group of es-
capees to spare a jailor's life.

 

Half the things that people do not suc-
ceed in are through fear of making the
attempt.

(James Northcot)

5

 NEW ERA DAWNING IN PRISON EDUCATION

 

By W. Z. Carter, Director of Education,
Department of welfare

A new era is dawning for the educational
program at the Kentucky State Peniten-
tiary. There is being launched a cor-
rectional and rehabilitation program for
the inmates, the like of which has never
been tried in this institution.

The reason for the project is to trans-
form the Castle on the Cumberland from a
mere detention place for men whose peers
have condemned to confinement as retri-
bution for crimes against society into a
real correctional institution. Such a
program has the approval of all the
officials of the Department and the ad-
ministration. It will involve partici-
pation of the Warden, Deputy 'Warden,
Chaplains, the school people, the parole
officers, and above all the residents of
the penitentiary. With that team, most
anything can be accomplished.

The school program is being expanded
and, as in the free world, is of greater
importance than ever before. It has be-
come mandatory for citizens now to have
more academic and technical training in
order to secure Jobs. Gainful employ-
ment is necessary to provide the finan-
cial security required for a full life
with social well being and fit-in-ness.

Our educational expansion to fit in this
overall program consists of a woodwork
and upholstering shop where more empha-
sis is being placed on training and the
development of skills rather than on
production. Mr. Hillyard not only acts
as a security official but also as fore-
man. The barber school we hope will
soon be recognized by outside accredit-
ing agencies as a training school for
accomplished tradesmen in that field.
One school completely new in the peni-
tentiary is that of structural masonry,
under the direct supervision of Mr.
William Egbert, the vocational instruc-
tor. The laboratory for this is a cone
crete slab recently poured between the
academic educational building and the
canning factory, where walls and corners

6

1

are being built and torn down, only to
have better ones built the following
day. It is also anticipated that other
trade schools will be opened under the
direction of Mr. Cowan as facilities are
made available and the overall rehabili-
tation program demands.

NOBODY WANTS
PENITENTIARY

ONE ENDURANCE RECORD
-- SIXTY TWO YEARS IN
In a recent news item, the OP NEWS of
the Ohio Prison at Columbus stated that
Lorenzo Roach, an inmate there, could
probably claim the record for length of
time served without a break. Roach has
been in the Ohio Penitentiary for 50
years. :

Then another Ohio institution challenged
Roach’s claim with the case of Martin
Dalton, who has been, confined for 62
consecutive years. Dalton, said that
institution's magazine, went 21 years
without receiving a letter, 61 years
without a visit.

Ironically, the name of the prison of
which Dalton is an inmate is 'the Marion
Correctional Institution.

HIGH TENSION'WIRE STRUNG ATOP.CELLHDUSE

Cellhouse Three, an old hewn—stone
building more than four stories high, is
getting an unusual addition to its upper
levels. The addition is more practical
than decorative, however -- it concists
of several strands of electric wire.

The wire is to prevent further escape

attempts at that point. In recent
months Cellhouse Three has been scaled
twice, once by two convicts who used a

home-made rope and grappel to climb the
building and make their getaway, and
again by an inmate who scaled the sheer
walls in broad daylight with only his
hands and feet. He was captured on the
other side. I

The cellhouse, which was recently com-
pletely-rebuilt on the inside, is used
as a quarantine and isolation unit.

 

  

 

# EDI TORI A l

 

MEN WITH THE NAME PLAY THE GAME

Once upon a time, in the segregation cellblock of one of the countryVS oldest and
"hardest" prisons9 there lived a group of men who had the reputation of being in-
corrigible; hardened criminalso Most of them were there because they had taken
part in a vicious riot a few years beforeo Some of them had mutilated themselves
by cutting the large Achilles tendon that runs down the leg to the heelo All of
themg since being placed in the "lockup," had taken part in disturbances, hunger
strikesg and other forms of protesto

Then a new prison was built and a new warden spoke to the incorrigibles on the week
before they were to be transferred preparatory to tearing the old institution dmwno
Every man in the segregation unite he saidg would be given a chance to begin anew
in the new prison, they were to be placed on the yard with the other inmates“9 and
they were to grow up and act like meno

Oddly enough,9 that"s just what happenedo Given a new image of themselves» given
trustp this ”hard core“ of ringleaders assumed the reSponsibility for their own bee
havior and proved to be generally better behaved than the rest of the inmate pepue
lation over the years that followed. Some of them went to the prisonls honor farm»
Two of them were eventually named "Prisoner of the Yearo" Only one or two had fine
ally to be locked up again.

Our lead article this monthg which starts on the following page9 tells of another
prison in which convicts were given a new reputation to live up tog and how the exfl
periment has succeeded. The moral is that humans generally behave as they are
expected to behaves and prisoners are no exceptions Perhaps this is one reason why
the typical American prisons which provides a readyemadeg romanticeifmsordid
picture of the convict to which he feels he must live up» has failed»

 NO [OCKS IN THIS msou!

By ALBERT Q. MAI-sEL

Forty miles from Los Angeles a dusty
country road winds through a tall gate
toward a three acre greensward. This

billard table of a lawn is shown in none
of the guidebooksg yet at sunrise every
Saturday in the year a mile—long cavalm
cade of cars begins to line up outside
the gate. The magnet that draws each of
the hundreds in these cars is the chance
to have a family picnic with a man who
has worked another week off his sentence
in Chinos one of the most unusual priSm
one in the countryo

At 11 o'clock the gate is Opened and the
public address system calls the men in
every dormitory: "Visitors for Mro Jack
Joneso" "Mro Jim Smithg your wife is
heres with the babyo" When.Mra Jones or
Mro Smith appears in the unbarred recepw
tion hall, he may be dressed in blue
jeans or a well=tailored sack suit° One
thing is certains he woth be 'wearing
prison garto Off the family goes toward
the picnic groveo

If it hangt been for Superintendent
Kenyon Jo Scudders the California Instia
tution for Men at Chinomma pendtentiary
without stone wallsg guns or iron haremu
would have been as grim as our older
jailsg filled with embittered convicts.
The legislature had ordered Chino built
as a ufarmetype institution for prisone
are capable of moral rehabilitationg"
but the State Board instead began to use
its appropriations to construct another
bastille with a ten=foot walls tall gun
towers and a three=tiered cellblocke

Then a riot occured at San Quentino An
investigation revealed a reign of terror

. hundreds of prisonerso He

Condensed From The

CHRISTIAN'HERALD

and a state penal system
rotten with graft? sadism and abuse,
second from the bottom in the national
ratings Governor Culbert Olsen appointed
a new Prison Board to clean housea head—

in the prisons

ed by Judge Isaac Pachte And Judge
Pacht late in l9h0 turned to Ken Scud-
der, who had served California for 26

years as a vocational director and re-
form school superintendent.

Most of Scudder9s previous attempts to
introduce new methods had been blocked
by prejudice or politics, and-he had ac-
cepted the coveted job of warden at the
new Federal Reformatory in Chillicothe,
Ohioo To get him to take over at Chino,
the judge promised to back him in build-
ing a prison where coercion would be at
a minimum and where convicts would be
rehabilitated as well as punishedo

Neither man had any illus iODSo If the
scheme worked” it would shatter all
traditionso If it failedg both men

would go under along with their dream of
a new type of prisono

For his staffs Soudder would have none
of the oldwtime "bullsg" He fought for
higher pay to attract men who could
teach prisoners as well as guard them.
To bympase political patronage he talked
the State Personnel Board into runs
ning a competitive examination a» for
which he wrote most of the questions
himself. Of the 50 supervisors he fi~
nally aocepteda all but five had had two
years or more of college training.

interviewed
didnft care

Up at San Quentina Scudder

 

 

  

 

. _. ~___/\V v..___..-»

l;Qne
' passenger bus

_for a break,

A_What crimes they had been convicted of.
{ffie tagged those who seemed to sense the
:POpportunity the new institution offered
lithem to win back self-reSpect.

July morning in l9hl an ordinary
drove into the outer yard
at San Quentin. Behind the big gates 3h
prisoners huddled: burglars, sex crimiu
nals, assault cases, forgers and two
murderers. The guards at San Quentin
sneered at the bus's unbarred windows.
When they found that Scudder had brought
no handcuffs or guns, one guard said,
"I'll bet you'll lose the whole load."

But on that 500umile trip nobody made
the slightest move toward a break. When
they stepped for gas, Scudder let the
convicts out four at a time to go to the
lavatory. He let them out again to pick
up box lunches and pop. When the bus
reached Chino, all 3h passengers were on
board. The men had proved -- as nearly
12,000 more have proved since -~ that
Scudder was right when he insisted:
"Prisoners are people; and most of than
will earn your trust."

The men were told that at Chino the dis~
grace of conviction and incarceration
were considered to be punishment enough,
and that each one was to be given ever=
increasing responsibility until he led
earned freedom.

Letting escape remain easy is a key
policy. As new drafts come in, Scudder
often points out the barbed wire on the
fences "If you try to bang out of here,
it will be a cinch. Just throw your
jacket over the barbs and you woth even
scratch yourself. I know that’s a temps
tation, but when you leave here a free
man youlre going to face a lot of temps
tationSa Unless you keep in practice
now, youlll give in. And then you'll be
in stir again.

In most prisons, officials cultivate
stool pigeons to bring in news of plans
but Scudder discarded such
"we don't like squealers," he
"If you think a man

just work on
him that he'll

tactics.
tells his charges.
may be planning to escape,
hhn yourself. Convince

betray your interests as well as his

own. 1'

Eighty percent of all men sent to prison
have no skills they can offer an employh
er. When they go on parole they are
condemned to the poorest jobs, and thus
are tenptcd to revert to crime. At
Chino, for four hours each day, men
without skills are taught plastering,
bricklaying, welding, farming or their
choice of 30 other trades. So long as
the men make steady progress, these
classes count as half their regular h0—
hour—a-week prison jobs.

A month before each prisoner goes on paw
role he enters Redwood Hall, another
Scudder innovation. Here he learns to

live and act like a free man. In the
evenings he meets with policemen,
sheriffs and parole officers in long

talk sessions, to break down his resent-
ment against them. He has sessions with
a woman psychologist in the reactions to
be expected from his wife and children
in the first weeks at home--children who
may regard him as an intruding stranger.
After having eaten for years from a
steel tray he might be ashamed to enter'
a decent restaurant, and might drift in-
to the first bar where his manners
wouldn't be questioned. So, for his
last three evening meals at Chino he is
invited to the staff dining room. At
the first dinner, he will stare wide-
eyed at tablecloths, polished silver,
glasses and napkins. The second night
he will be more relaxed. By the third
night the strangeness will be gone coma
pletely.

Today, nearly 12 years after Ken Scudder
threw away the rule book, Chino stands
out as an unqualified success. Even
Scudder did not believe that more than
six percent of the convicts in Califora
nia‘s prisons would be eligible for his
wallmless institution. But today one»
third qualify for minimumasecurity cus=
tody. Chino has never had a riot. From
19141 to 19h5, it lost a little over four
percent of its population through es-
capes. In recent years runaways have
averaged less than two percent. One
fifth of the men released from tradi-

- 9

 tional prisons have to be jailed again
for parole violations. At Chino the re»
turn rate is less than half the average
elsewhere.

California applied the idea of a walls
less prison at its Institution for Women
at Tehachapi; so has the Federal Bureau
of Prisons at its new Correctional
Institution at Seagoville,-Texas; and so
has New York State, at ‘Wallkill. But
most of AmericaVs 200,000 convicts mw
first offenders as well as hardened rem
peaters -— are still behind bars in high
walled, gunaguarded bastilles.

effective of ScudderVS
maverick ideas remain unique to Chino.
Nowhere else in the united States do
convicts mingle as freely with their
families on visiting days. The usual
practice elsewhere is to restrict visits
to one or two halfwhour sessions a
month; screens separate the convicts
from their wives; children are often not
admittedo '

And the most

In his first year at Chino, even Scudder
hesitated at breaking with this tradi=
tion. ‘Yet as he studied the families
Who came to visit he was impressed. And
prisoners who had visitors, he noted,
behaved better than those who didnflto
So he got a gang of prisoner volunteers,
working after hours, to plant a lawn at
the end of the administration buildingo
Around its sunebaked edges they erected
a shady pergola, with picnic tables and
chairs. They set up a canteen, and a
hobby shop to sell inmates8 handicrafts
And they built ChinoVs only bars mm the
bars in gaily colored playpens for
visiting babieso

When wives and children flocked in,
there ‘were misgivings even among
Scuddeer supporters. The slightest unw
toward incident would endanger the one
tire Chino eXperiment. But 12 years of
exPerience and half a million individual
visits have dispelled the dreado The
visits have become the most important
rehabilitation feature of Scudder“s pro=
gram. 'Typical were the words of a con=
vict who had served six years at San
Quentin‘before his transfer. "I“ve been

10

here five months,“ he said, “and I've
already seen my wife more than I would
have in 17 years at Quentin. I'd never
seen my kid before, and he's nearly six.
My wife had to drag him gere the first
time, but now he calls me ‘Pop’ and

talks about 9when you come home.?"

“Donlt let anyone kid you," said
another. "It”s punishment stillo But a
man can take it, a week at a time. It's

the long stretch that makes you want to
kill a guard. They‘ll never have a riot
here me unless they try to cut out those
weekend visitae"

more important than its
effect on the prisoners is the meaning
of the picnic grounds to those who come
from outside. "I got s: I could hardly

Possibly even

force myself to go to Quentin,§ one
young wife told me. "All Harry would
say was "Divorce me, Inn no good.‘ But

since heVs been here, it9s a different
world. He makes plans and 19m in them."

"Our prisoners will
the communities from
which they came. If We treat them the
old way, they”ll return embittered
against anciety. If we trust them, teach
them and preserve their family ties, no
man need ever be given up as losto

As Scudder puts its
someday return to

we Via THE HARBINGER

 

BIGGER AND BETTER an OR JUST OVERCROWDED?

 

According to world education statistics
the United States has 7,592,100 more
students than the UoSnSoR09 but the

Soviet Union has 8h more colleges and
universities and 117,835 more schools
than the U080 .

CRIMINALS

 

A person with predatory instincts who
has not sufficient capital to form a
corporationo ’

 

 

  

Manuel Ortega had never seen. Matamoros,
Mexico. He had never set foot in
Juarez, Mexicali or Tijuana, either. In
his entire life, he had not once been
more than a mile or two from the city of
his birth, which was called San Miguel
pand which was, like those other bust-
ling, hustling border towns, situated
only a peso's toss from the United
. States of America. Yet 'if you were to
whisk.Manuel from the streets of San
Miguel and set hhn down again in any one
of the places I have named, he would
have been thoroughly at home. For
Manuel was as expert a thief, beggar and
pimp as any boy of ten could be expected
to beg.

Like most other street urchins, Manuel
had another important talent. Almost by
instinct, he knew everything he needed
to know about you. He knew if you were
a thief, a hustler, a phony.; or just
another avacho from north of the
border, come to find release from the
morality of his own civic mi