xt7jq23qzk05 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jq23qzk05/data/mets.xml  Kentucky  1962 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, December 1962 text Kentucky State Penitentiary v.: ill. 28 cm. Call Numbers HV8301 .C37 and 17-C817 20:C279 Castle on the Cumberland, December 1962 1962 1962 2021 true xt7jq23qzk05 section xt7jq23qzk05 VI ’
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gfl A Penal Presso- Publication
3 E m

December 15, 1962

umEerafifi

Volume II Number VI

 

IN THIS MONTHWS CASTIE:

Deputy Warden's Page
Castle News

The Editorial Side:
A Christmas Message

Dilemma of the
Prison Administrator

The FiveaDollar Bill
Letter to a Reader
The Exchange Page‘.

Tall Tales

Eepartment Reports

Nightkeeper's
Report, 1886

Late News Section
Statistics & Movies

The Last Word

 

 

  

  

 

.1 1“ new-v

 

 

 

Volume II, Number VI December 15, 1962

 

CASSTIE ON THE CUMBERLAND

 

_‘ J'

7 r w.
p

ADMINISTRATION
The Honorable Bert T. Combs, Governor
Wilson W. Wyatt, Lt. Governor W. C. Oakley, Welfare Commissioner
Marshall Swain, Deputy Welfare Commiss ioner
Dr. Harold Black, Director {.of Corrections

PRISON ADMINISTRATION

 

Luther Thomas, Warden Lloyd T. Armstrong, Daputy Warden
Kathlyn 0rdway, Business Manager W. T. Baxter, Guard Captain
Reverend Paul Jagger's, Chaplain
Henry E. Cowan, Educational Supervisor
William Egbert, Vocational Instructor

BOARD OF PARIDNS 8c PAROLES:

 

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

CASTLE STAFF

Lawrence Snow, Editor Leonard Rule, Associate Editor

Stanley Brawner, Lithographer

 

 

The CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND is published monthly by the inmates of the Kentucky
State Penitentiary at Eddy-ville. Subscriptions, one dollar a year, payable by
money order at: CASTLE ON THE CUMBERIAN}, Subscriptions Dept., Kentucky State
Penitentiary, Eddyville, Kentucky, and by inmates at the Chief Clerk's Office.
Articles are solicited, but the CASTLE reserves the right to reject, edit, or
revise any material submitted. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not nec-
essarily reflect those of the adninistration. Permission is hereby granted to
reproduce any part of this magazine, provided proper credit is given. Where
possible, a marked copy of the quoting publication is requested.

 

 

  

 

Ems assaying [mes

 

By Deputy Warden Lloyd T. Armstrong

 

This is in reference to children of the

20th century.

I hear lots of criticism of our children
of all ages, particularly teenagers. I
want to say very frankly that I do not
agree with most of the adults' criticism
of our children. Of course, I am an aw
dult, but I was also a child once and I
think all adults should understand the
problems that children have. In fact, I
think the children are the only pure
people that we have left, because they
have not reached the age to become a
phony.

I do not think that children should be
turned loose and allowed to run wild.
However, I do think they are due what
credit they deserve. For No.-One thing,

children did not ask to be born. 'We aw
dults are responsible for children, so
why not give them the same kind of

chance that we asked for?

I hear adults criticising teenagers and
teenage gangs. I Want to ask this ques=
tions was Roger Toughy's gang, Al
Capone‘s gang, or John Dillenger“s gang
children? N01 They were adults. 30 I
don't think any of us adults can point a
finger at a few teenage gangs and say
that they are ruining the world. More»
over, I would say that in most cases,
teenage gangs are due to a few delin=
quent children who have been allowed to
run wild by their parents.

Most correctional institutions today are
practically filled with boys and girls
from broken homes. Now, I want to ask
you, how can the children be held re=
sponsible for something their mother or
father did? Moreover, children that are
raised by normal parents, whether you
believe it or not, keep a pretty close
eye on their mother and father. Boys

mainly keep an eye on the dad and girls
mainly keep an eye on their mother. If
this boy finds his dad to be a phony, in
short a "wolf in sheep's clothing,“ how
is this going to affect the boy when he
grows up to be an adult? Or if the girl
finds her mother to be some type of un»
desirable type of mother, how is this
going to affect her when she grows up to
be an adult?

I would like to ask flue adults another
question: How would you like to be in a
predicament where you had to beg your
parents for a little money to go to a
picture show, skating rink, beg for the
car to drive on Saturday night, beg for
a new pair of slippers, a dress, or a
garment of any kind and probably get
slapped in the mouth because you asked
for them, or be told by your mom or dad,
“well, what did you do with that dollar
I gave you a month ago?“

I know that most adults will not agree
with me because I take the side of the
children, because I can see their prob-
lems. There is also one other viewpoint
I can see about children: Usually, if
you ask a child his or her Opinion on
something, they will tell you the truth
and not a bunch of phony statements that
most adults give.

I think it is time for us adults to wake
up and take some advice from our childa
ren, instead of being a big dictator and
putting on a phony show of some type.
Some adults go to church on Sundays and
sleep halfway through the sermon and
then go home and complain about the
preacher”s preaching too long. Or they
will get up in church and pray a phony
prayer that just suits the entire cone
gregation == and I am wondering who
hears that prayer outside the church.
(Please turn to Page 20?

 

Page 1

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

 

  

 

f (€538 3725 £13 £27.29

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS FIND CURIOUS FOSSIL

MISSOURI NURSES CONTRIBUTE BOOKS TO KSP

 

Inmate workers digging in the northeast

sector of the penitentiary last month
unearthed several large pieces of fossil-
bearing limestone that had apparently
been blasted loose by the dynamite
charges necessary to excavation.

Among the pieces was a rock containing
what appeared to be part of a fossilized
human or ape hand or foot.

Several of the pieces were brought to
the CASTLE office, where they were
cleaned. A sketch drawn from the one
bearing the humannlike “bones" was pre-
pared and sent to the University of Ken—
tucky for an opinion. Chaplain Paul
Jaggers, who has had some training in
the man sciences, also examined the
fossils. His opinion that the "bones“
were actually'made by colonies of small
animals similar to the ones that form
coral reefs was substantiated by Dr.
Lois Jeannette Campbell of the geology
department of the University of Kentucky
after she examined the drawing.

Dr. Campbell asked, however, that the
specimen be sent to the University,
where an analysis of the bonelike mater-
ial will settle any remaining doubts.

"LIFE" TO FEATURE PRISON PUZZEEMAKERS

 

(Condensed from the OP NEWS, Ohio)

[JFE Magazine is planning a story on the
crossword puzzle makers of Ohio Peni-
tentiary, whence come most of the puz-
zles eagerly sought after by addicts of
the crossword pastime.

It was a prisoner, Victor Orvill, who
invented crossword puzzles, and today
from 60 to 85 percent of all crosswords

originate in prison -— most of them in

the Ohio Penitentiary.

 

When life hands you a lemon, make lemon-
ade, says Ann Ianders.

Nurses working at the Skaggs Community
Hospital in Branson, Missouri, last
month collected and contributed to the
prison library almost a hundred books.

The books were brought to the prison by
Nurse Billye Maddox, a former resident
of Paducah, Kentucky, and a reader of
the CASTLE. She made the trip from
Missouri by car.

All of the books seemed to be in excel=
lent condition. Most were novels or
collections of short stories. A few
physiology texts and other nonwfiction
works were also included. All were
books of a sort that should bring hours
of reading pleasure to users of the
library, and many of them were recent
novels that many inmates have been lookm
ing for for some time.

Our sincere thanks to the girls at
Skaggs Hospital for their generosity,,
and to Miss Maddox for taking the
trouble and eXpenSe to bring them to us.

THE COUNTRY WITH NO PRISONS

 

(Via the MENTOR)

There are no prisons in Greenland mm and
the island colony is getting along quite
well without them.

Whenever there is an infraction of the
law committed, the Greenland legal
system provides punishment of an entiren
ly different nature from that of this
country: the defendant, upon being
found guilty, is sentenced to "educaw
tion."

Of course, this system has not survived
without criticism. It was established
in l95h, and for the specific reason of
criticism, a social research team has
been appointed by the Danish government
to examine this island's laws.

‘ (Please turn to next page)

 

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

Page 2

  

The first report by this
vestigators indicated that Denmark's
criminal code should - gradually be
brought to coincide with that of the
Greenland system.

group of inn

Henning Broendsted, deparhmantal head in
the Danish Government's Ministry for
Greenland affairs, says that even in the
distant past, "emphasis was put on indie
vidual treatment, to discover the CAUSE
of the crime and to try'to remove it."

“It is a curious fact," states the
gentleman, u"that the l95h legislation,
which rests on ancient Greenland prac=

tice, is in agreement 'with modern
thought on penology, which emphasizes
rehabilitation.“

In effect, sentences are executed this
ways

A young juvenile delinquent, recently
convicted of theft in Godthaab, Green=
land‘s largest community, was sentenced
by the court to become a carpenter.

Another aspect of sentencing felons is
that of boarding them out. Eight pere
sons were boarded out to a sheep farmer,
who was allowed a sufficient allotment
for their living exPenses.

Greenland, with its immense Eskimo popue
lation, the report pointed out, has an
entirely different social atmosPhere
from that of Denmark. But changes have
been securing constantly since 1950,
when the "Eskimo Reserve" was thrown
open to the world.

Thus began largeascale industry, trade,
and commerce in Greenland, but the
change also brought crime.

For generations in Greenland, the empha=
sis in the law has been on the criminal
rather than simple punishment, long
before this became popular in .more
"civilized" countries.

EX=CRIMINALS HELP REFORM FELONS

 

(Taken from INSIDE BORDENTOWN; Origin
nally published in the NEW YORK TIMES)

Les ANGELEs ma mCriminal Therapy" -- the
use of echriminals to treat criminals
mm is a major breakthrough in crimino-
logy, according to Dr. Lewis Yablonsky,
criminologist at UCLA.

In an article in the September issue of
FEDERAL PROBATION, a leading criminology
publication of the Federal Government,

Dr. Yablonsky described the important
new treatment for criminals.
The technique originated, he pointed

out, at Synanon House in Santa Monica,
California, a unique self—help community
for the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Over the past year, several "graduates"
of Synanon have effectively introduced
”criminal therapy" at the Federal Prison
at Terminal Island, California.

Dr. Yablonsky, who is also Synanon re»
search director, saids ”We have found
that former addicts with long criminal
backgrounds and prison experience often
make the most effective therapists for
younger addicts and delinquents who have
embarked on similar criminal careers.
The excoriminal therapist has vmade the
scene9 himself. He cannot be ”conned"
or outmaneuvered by his patient. He
quickly gains the grudging respect of
his patient and there is rapport. The
result is a communication that penolo-
gists and others in authority find
difficult to establish with those who,
by their criminal background, are defi—
ant of authority.w

In this new approach, "being clean" (of'

drugs, crime and violence) becomes the
status symbol, a reverse of the criminal
code appears, and any slip back into
criminality means great loss of face in
the group.

 

 

Hear CLOSED WORLD onfiWCBL, 1h90, Bentonl

Page 5

Defeat isn9t bitter if you don't swallow
itl

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

__‘

  

 

 

CALIFORNIA PRISON ASKS PAROLEES
TO RETURN -- TO GIVE LECTURES

 

(From the PENDLETON REFLECTOR)

A man going out of prison is just like a
diver coming out from the Vocean ~—
you've got to decompress him gradually
or he gets the bends.

That“s how a prisoner -- a wiry crewcut
young man with hornrimmed glasses who
edits the Folsom Prison paper -- graphi~
cally'describes the
prison to a life of freedom.

California prison officials, searching
for better ways to ease prison inmates
who have served their terms back into
the mainstream of life, are experiment"
ing with a new "decompression" technique
at Folsom.

They are bringing back former prisoners

who are making good outside to talk to
men about to be released.

warden Robert A. Heinze of the State
Prison at Folsom says: nMost people
don't realize what a shock it is for a
man to leave prison. He is suddenly

faced with a hundred decisions that
someone else has been making for him.
You would be surprised how tough it is
for someone who has Spent years in pri=
son to go into a restaurant and order
.a meal."

The authorities try to ease the pressure
graduallys starting while the man is
still behind bars. They let him earn
extra privileges and more independence
by showing good behavior. The last de=
compression stage is parole, which gives
the authorities a chance to see if their
man is ready for freedom.

Brining successful _parolees back to
lecture at the prison is the 'latest
wrinkle in the training program that has
develOped in California prisons over a
decade.

shift from life in

"If we tried something like this 12
years ago, everybody would have thought
we were off base," says Heinze. "The
old idea was to keep the parolees and
the inmates apart."

Associate warden Bill Lawson explained
the value of having fonner inmates talk
to prisoners. "You've got to remember
that the only direct information the
prisoners used to get about parole," he
said, "was from the man who failed ~-
the parole violators who were returned
to prison. Every one of these men had a
goat to blame for the fact he was back.
And nine times out of ten, he would put
the blame on the parole officer.

"Bringing back the successful paroles
tends to counteract that bad propaganda
and show the men that it can be done.

tell the men the

"The parolees Same

things we’ve been telling them for
months, but the difference is that the
inmates listen."

Warden Heinze emphasizes that the
paroleenlecturers get no beforehand
coaching. ”If we told one of these felw

lows what to say; the word would be all
over the prison in five minutes and the
program would be dead."

However, men who return are carefully
screened to be sure they are not potenm
tially dangerous to the security of the
prison and to make certain they are men
the prisoners can trust.

 

Two buddies in the state penitentiary
heard that research doctors needed pris~
oners to act as hunan guinea pigs.~ Rea
porting to the infirmary, they were told
the exPeriment was highly dangerous.

"Count me out," said one, and then
turned to shake his buddy's hand.

"Don't ever Speak to me again," his buds
dy said. You're a disgrace to the uni-
form!"

 

 

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

Page h

 Sports News
FOOTBALLERS SHOW SPIRIT AND INTEREST THIS SEASON: PROTECTIVE GEAR PROVIDED BY KSP

Four spirited football teams, each one taking first place in the prison league at
least once this season, have provided KSP fans with an exciting season of ball.

Currently, lyons' team is in first place with a win-lose percentage of .565, Brown
and.Robinson are tied at .500 each, and Brook's team is traiiing with a .h58 aver-
age. It should be noted that only one and a quarter games separate the first and
fourth place teams this season.

Although all of the players have shown a high standard of Sportsmanship and drive,
Sports fans point to such players as hS-year-old Dean, McCutchen, Hoffman, Manning,
McHenry, Horton, Mitchell, Terry, Nix, and Honbarger as outstanding during the
season. Brent, another old-timer at ho, also did a fine job.

Thanks are due to Warden Luther Thomas and Recreation Director Everett Cherry for
providing protective helmets for the teams this year. Previously the players had
no equipment at all. The teams hepe to be provided with more safety equipment for
future seasons.

A complete roster of all players this season follows:

No. I =- Lyons, Manager; Brent, Coach

 

Reno Wilson Buster Dean Jared R. Clymore
Gene Lynch W. Mitchell Bill Palmer E. Wiley
Everett Ford A. Wilson J. Foster Joe White
Ernest Davis J. Stiles Mooney J. Fox

No. II == Brown, Manager; Herring, Coach

 

Terry ' J. Smith Price Jordon
Broghs Mays McCarley Arnett
Satterfield Hampton W. Martin Lamarr
McHenry Baldwin Manning Cole
Albritten

No. III a- Robinson, Manager; McCutchen, Coach

 

Hollowell Morris _Jackson Moss
McClure Green Allen Evans
Anderson Hoffman ' Nelson Page

No. TV -- Brock, Manager; Nix, Coach

 

Underwood Lewis Taylor workman
Houtchins Rido Johnson Montgomery
Houseman Wilson Honbarger Bynum
Hbrton Payne Marthell McClure
Leads

 

Page 5 CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

  

 

 
 
  
 

 

 

 
    

 

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This is the Christmas issue of our magazine, yet there will be little mention of
Christmas in these pages.

To a prisoner, Christmas means getting and giving cards and small gifts. It means
a good -- but not home—cooked -- meal, served cafeteria style in a dining room
planned to seat the largest number of men in the smallest space, eaten in company
with other men wearing the same uniform, the same stigma. It means packages from
home, an official gift from the state, carols on the radio, and a deep sense of
loneliness in the heart.

But prisoners know, as only prisoners and soldiers and vagabonds can know, that it
is not gifts and cards and food and music that make Christmas. If it were, Christa
mas inside prison walls would be as meaningful as Christmas anywhere. And it is
not.

For Christmas is more than anything else the warmth and cheer that comes of sharing
a special day'with special pe0ple, with family and friends. It is a time for the
forgetting of the little irritations and quarrels and differences that make up our
family and social life during the other days of the year, a time ‘when all men
strive to be at peace with others, and with themselves. It is the‘wann handclasP
of friends, the joy on the faces of little children, the radiance shining from the
faces of men and women who have rediscovered, for one day in the year, the age old
truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

What, then, can Christmas mean to prisoners? Perhaps not much. Perhaps only a day
that marks the nearing of the end of another futile, wasted year, a gday spent in
self-pity and resentment, a day in which the loneliness of prison is heightened and
made more poignant by the thought of the warmth outside these walls. But it can
also be a day of evaluation, a day when we decide what is worthwhile and meaningful
in life, and what is not; a day in which we make those quiet little inner changes
that mean more than a host‘of hollow New Year's resolutions.

And it is a time for all of us to wish all of you the very'merriest of Christmases:

 

3%

 

 

 

 

 wt
Iii!

 

By James V. Bennet, Director

 

DILEMMA OF THE PRISON ADMINISTRATOR

Federal Bureau of Prisons

 

 

A prison administrator is repeatedly
raninded how widely our citizens disa-
gree as to the fundamental purposes of a
prison. On the one hand, there are
those who accuse him of running country
clubs, coddling prisoners, and otherwise
removing the sting from the punishment
meted out to those miscreants who have
at great expense been caught and con-
victed.

On the other hand are the arm-chair psy-
chologists and amateur criminologists
who tell the administrator that the
total effect of a prison is to brutalize
those persons unfortunate enough to land
in one. They say that only the ignorant
and untalented would work in a prison,
and that behind its walls brutality,
apathy, and worse are rampant.

Both charges may be made although the
persons making them may never have
stepped foot inside a prison. In.my
thirty years with the Bureau of Prisons,
I have learned that a prison administram
tor does not lack for suggestions on.how
to run his prison.

Actually, at least as far as many Ameri~
can prisons are concerned, both View»
points are wrong. The day when brutali=
ty was common has long since gone, and
the inherent nature of a prison prevents
it from becoming a country club.

Make no mistake about it, a prison sen~
tence is tough medicine. It imposes a
stigma that will linger with the offen-
der long after he has served his time.
It takes a man away from his loved ones
for what is noW' becoming a longer and
longer period. Inevitably it enforces
monotonously regular hours on him. It
confines him to a few acres of land
during that period. It clothes him in a

cheap uniform completely lacking in any
sartorial elegance. And it deprives him
of any normal sex outleto For most, the
latter is more refined torture than the
cruelest of corporal punishment.

During the thirty years of my associa-
tion with prison work I have known of
only two men who wanted to be in prison.
One was an old man, 83 years of age,
friendless, arthritic and crippled, who
had been in prison so long that he had
lost contact with all friends and rela-
tives. Another was a middle—aged mental
incompetent who was so homesick for the
Medical Center for Federal Prisoners
where he had served two previous sen-
tences that he arranged his recommitment
to that institution by the desperate
expedient of sending a crude bomb
through the mail to a Bureau of Prisons
official&

The prison administrator walks the
tightrope between softness and harshness
by making a prison purposeful and by
providing a program of training and con—
structive work. He can do this only if
he can keep the numerical population of
the prison within managerable limits and
he is not frustrated by short-sighted
laws. The prisoner is there to learn
the moral values of society and the
skills to make him a productive citizen.
His mere presence in the prison is pun-
ishment enough. The regime he follows
there has the higher purpose of salvag—
ing his social usefulness.

To relieve the hardships of a prison
which would otherwise become inhuman the
prisoner is accorded such privileges as
correspondence and visits with his fami~
ly, weekly movies, a recreation program.
Religious instruction is made available
and as attractive as possible so that

 

Page 7

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND;

  

those inner changes so essential to true
reform occur. Then, to appeal to his
legitimate aspirations and talents there
are the talent shows, the educational
and vocational training programs, the
prison neWSpaper, and human relations
groups. And modestly paid jobs and pro-
ductive work are furnished in order to
give the prisoner a basis for self~
reSpect, without which rehabilitation
programs would founder.

It is not coddling to make a socialized
human being out of a criminal. A delibe
erately punitive prison program would
have vastly destructive results on the
public welfare. For with the exception
of the three or four out of a hundred
who die in prison, the rest all come out
some day. They come right back into the
community, and it is to make this a day
filled with hOpe, not hate, that prison
programs should point.

The recognition of this principle does
not solve the prison administrator's
dilemma. The society he serves, or at
least the representatives of that sociew
ty, do not yet give full support to that
principle.

I read in the newsPapers the other day
that a judge had given a tax accountant
a term of 31 years and 31 days on tax
fraud charges. As I read the itan I
wondered what the judge expects us to do
with this man when he reaches one of our
institutions. His crime, as crimes go
in this country, does not warrant a puns
ishment which exceeds that usually given
to armed bank robbers. He is educated
and has employable skills. ‘He raised a
family and kept out of trouble for most
of his life, his offense apparently
stemming from a temporary lapse in his
sens e of values .

How, I asked myself, can We be expected
to keep hope, drive, and ambition alive
in this prisoner over the long years of
his sentence? How can we prevent him
from hating and attempting to get even
with a society that permits such a thing?

Not long ago we had to release a prisona
or who had received a term of 98 days
for armed bank robbery and he is now on
probation. When he left us he was about
as unskilled, emotionally unstable, and
lacking in social values as when he one
tered. I sincerely hope that he manages
to keep out of trouble; but if he fails,
the whole machinery of justice 9. the
courts and the prisons -- will stand in-
dicted for his failure. As for the
prison warden Who released this man, I
know that he has already experienced a
deep sense of frustration. The younge
ster might have been straightened out
more enduringly before he was exposed to
further serious temptation. Whether the
judge's leniency has truly served the
welfare of both this youngster and so-
ciety remains for the ‘future to deter-
mine.

The warden does his best to deal with
the problems the individual prisoner
poses, even within the limitations of
such capricious sentences. But in the
meantime he must tend to his knitting.
He has to find housing and work for the
prisoners who crowd in on him from the
courts. He has a plant worth many mil~
lions of dollars to run. He has to run
a large prison industry, and perhaps an
agricultural program that would rank
among the largest in Iowa or Kansas.
And he must be quick to answer the phone
__ it might be a disturbance, an escape,
anything.

He really cannot solve his dilemma. So—
ciety must do it for him. Society must
decide what kind of individual it wants
to come out of prison. An unreconw
structed rebel, ready to rob another
bank? Or a trained mechanic who wants a
job in a garage? There is, obviously,
but one choice.

-- Via the Penal Press

 

If at first you don't

running about average:
* a * *

Wise men know more than they tell.

Fools tell more than they know.

succeed —- you're

 

 

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

Page 8

  

A Short Story By

 

THE FIVE DOLLAR BILL

Wayne Stephenson

 

Standing before a window of
runwdown hotel was a thin-faced,
figured man of middle age,
dusty drab-colored suit.
ragged and scarred, and there was a cut
soar in livid white across one cheek.
He was of medium height, neither tall
nor short, neither stout nor thin. His
complexion was not excessively fair. He
had a broad chest, a small waist, and
feet of medium size. 'When he walked it
was with a slight stoop. As he stood
looking down at the milling crowd below,
he seemed generally to be absorbed in
thought.

a cheap,
spare—
dressed in a

His hands were

'Or was it the shadow of loneliness and

despair?

John had checked in at the hotel three
days before, after being discharged from
the state penitentiary. Now, three days
before Christmas, he had fiftyvfive
cents to his name. The people below
were hurrying to and fro having a grand
time buying presents for their loved
ones, but he, he had walked the streets
trying to find a job, anything that
would hold body and soul together until
he could find a better job. But his
search had been fruitless. Nobody
wanted to hire an unskilled man. Then
again, every place he had asked for a

job required references from the last
job he had held.

u'John, if you can give me references
from your last job, I believe we can

find something for you to do."

"Write the warden of the
tiary. I've worked for
eight years."

state penitenn
him these past

“IVm sorry, John. we'll let you know if
anything is open in file next week."

It would go that way, and John would re-
turn to his room, trying to collect his
wits.about hhn and figure out his next
move. He knew he was going to have to
do something, for his room rent was up
and he had no money except the fifty-
five cents left from the five-dollar
bill given him when he left prison.

large snowflakes were falling now, danc-
ing about the window. It was a time to
be happy and enjoy the occasion, to
celebrate the birth of Christ. But
there was no joy in John's heart.

Standing there, he let his mind go back
to the past. He was selling papers on
the corner of 15th and Greenup Avenue,
hurrying home to a warm fire in the
fireplace and a loving mother and father
who would encourage him in his ambi-
tions. How many times he had said to
his parents, "I'm going to save my money

and go to college and be a doctori"

They believed in him and prayed for his
dreams to become reality. His mind
toyed with all the different jobs and
the money he had saved all through high
school ... the bank account ... how
proud he was when he finished his last
year of high school with enough money to
pay his way through four years of medi-
cal school.

Then one night, a wreck, a man killed, a
judge sentencing him to ten years in
prison. It all seemed like a dream, a
horrible nightmare. John, who had never
hurt anyone, a man who had dedicated his
life to helping others, now stood con-
demned, all for one night of carousing
and what he thought was a good time.

His mother died soon afterwards, and his
father, two years later.
(Please turn to page 12)

 

Page 9

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

 

  

727 era's: we a:

Eddyville Prison
December 15, 1962

Dear Friend,

Recently a friend of mine, a fellow who had served a long term in the institution,
left the prison at the expiration of his sentence. I said goodbye to him with the
usual mixed feelings -- the sense of loss that everyone, regardless of his situa~
tion, feels when he loses a close friend for good, a sort of vicarious happiness
that he was returning to freedom and all that it means, and the more selfish emo~
tion of wishing it had been me.

And I wondered if and when he'd be back°

That I wondered about it at all was a judgement in his favor. Most prisoners with
any prison experience at all behind them can predict with remarkable accuracy
whether or not a given fellow prisoner will stay "on the streets“ or return to pri-
son, and they can tell, with a little less accuracy, approximately how long the men
marked for failure will remain free. But my friend was a borderline case. It was
not that he had joined any of the discussion groups, or attended school, or taken
advantage of any of the other activities we and they are few enough -- that it is ‘
possible to offer in a maximum-security institution. He had simply passed his time
as most other long-term prisoners do, working at a regular job, eating at speci-_
fied times, spending his free time in his cell or with a small group of people with
whom he felt close enough to talk freely. It was just that he had already served
several prison terms, and he was past middle age, a time when the prospect of
another long stretch behind bars is most unattractive. He left with no boasts,
with little ambition, with nothing, in fact, but a quiet determination to remain
free, to live out his remaining years as far away from civilization an which to hhn
by this time meant police and jails and courts and high stone walls -- as he could
get and still earn a modest living. In other words, he had had it.

So he has a slightly better than even chance of staying free.

The man who consciously wants to be in prison is rare; yet once a man is locked up,
the odds are he'll keep coming back until he reaches the stage this fellow had
reached, as I said in my last letter. There are a number of theories about why
this is so, and I suppose I've,heard them all at one time or other. Probably
there's an element of truth in most of them. But I'wonder if it isn't basically a
matter of conditioning. From the time we make our first response in life, the re-
sponse of an