Politics and the Prisons
I hope the time is not far distant when the prisons of greater New York will be conducted by the State authorities, as is the case in nearly all other countries. They are the proper custodians of the prisoner. It seems to me that this is the only cure for the rank abuses that have existed in these prisons for half a century. Under Tammany as everybody knows, the warden or other official could get as drunk as a lord, abuse everybody in sight and yet be considered a hero! Some men have been suspended for a few days but when the district leader took a hand in the matter that ended it.
Last election day, November, 1908, two members of the State Prison Commission visited Hart’s Island and found it deserted. The keepers and orderlies were scattered all over greater New York trying to pile up Tammany votes. For more than two years the Workhouse end of the Island has been in a state of pandemonium. Under Tammany Hall, politics always cuts a wide swath in prison matters. A keeper who refuses to work for votes on election day is considered “no good” and is recommended by the district leader for dismissal. If this cannot be done, “fake” charges are presented against him and unless he repents and returns to the “fold” he is bounced. One of the most intelligent keepers the Tombs ever had was Frank Smith. He knew his business so well that he was an authority on the various kinds of commitments. When Flynn became warden he was sent to Blackwell’s Island. If Frank told all he knew about the Tombs’ grafters there would have been a sensation! The old Book says “resist the devil and he will flee from you, but resist the Tammany grafters and they will fly at you!” As soon as any one tries to reform such a place he gets mud and filth thrown at him!
When W. R. Hearst ran for Mayor of New York, he had several warm friends among the keepers. At first they were not afraid to speak in his favor, but this was soon changed. Spies were sent to the prisons and the unlucky wights that favored him were given to understand that if they deserted Tammany they would lose their jobs, and the civil service law would not save them. Notwithstanding this “scare” a large number of the most intelligent keepers voted the Independence League ticket, but kept it to themselves. I have nothing but kind words for the rank and file of the keepers in the Tombs and the other New York prisons. I believe most of them try to do their duty faithfully.
After the scandalous sale or “give away” of Kings County Penitentiary, for one-sixth of its real value, the grafters said that it was done for economy’s sake, which is untrue, for soon after—from sixty to seventy keepers were transferred to the District Prisons of New York and Blackwell’s Island, where was an over supply already. The result was that ever since there have been two Wardens and two deputy Wardens in the New York Penitentiary, besides a superfluous number of keepers and orderlies in all penal institutions of greater New York.
At one time Hart’s Island had something like sixty extra men who were classed as stablemen and orderlies. They had absolutely nothing to do except to draw their pay and help the district leaders. Bitter complaints were made from time to time against a brother of the deputy who ran things with a high hand. If anybody complained against these scandalous conditions he would soon be “fired.” Tammany has no use for reformers. I do not think it possible to paint the New York prisons as black as they have been until recently. If a day of judgment ever comes when all the scandalous conditions shall be exposed to public view the people will be astonished.
CHAPTER II
AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS PRISON
For more than two centuries after the arrival of the early Dutch settlers on Manhattan Island the land for a considerable distance on all sides of the present Tombs prison was a fresh water lake known to the people of that day as the “Kalchhook” or Collect Pond.
It seems almost incredible that less than a century ago the visitor to Manhattan Island could have stood at the juncture of Park Row and Centre Street, and looking north might behold a beautiful fresh water pond hidden between the hills. This lake had been a favorite resort of the Indians for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Henry Hudson and the Half Moon in September, 1609, or even before the discovery of America. On the Broadway side was an Indian settlement where the red man pitched his wigwam and when not hunting or fishing smoked his pipe of peace.
The name given to this pond had a curious history. It seems that the Indians had been in the habit of carrying oysters from the North River in their canoes; afterwards they dumped the shells in heaps at the side of the pond. What name the Indians gave to this sheet of water before the coming of the white man we have never been able to learn. The Dutch settlers called it “Kalchhook” or the Shell Point, from a large deposit of shells found along its western shores.
After the erection of the original Tombs Prison, the authorities experienced great trouble with water flooding the cellars, which clearly proved that there were springs underneath the main building.
With the aid of some old maps now in possession of the Lenox Library, the exact location of the Collect Pond can be readily described. It was bounded by Pearl Street on the south, half way between White and Walker Streets on the north, Elm Street on the west and Mulberry Street on the east. Centre street as now laid out ran directly through the pond. It had a navigable outlet to the North River, through Canal Street.
It is said that William IV, who was then the Duke of Clarence, came to New York during the Revolution and was in charge of Admiral Digbie on whose ship he was an officer. He was fond of skating on the Collect Pond when off duty, and would have drowned there on one occasion, having broken through the ice, were it not for the quick action of Gulian C. Verplanck, one of New York’s distinguished citizens. Mr. Verplanck was afterwards President of the Bank of New York, which position he filled for twenty years. He died in 1799.
In 1805 the City Council gave orders that the Collect Pond should be filled in with clean dirt from the hills that surrounded it, as it had become a menace to the health of the city because of the filth that had been dumped into it for several years. But little had been done towards carrying this order into effect.
The winter of 1807-8 was one of great distress and poverty in this city. To add to the misery of the poor, business was at a standstill and hundreds of men were out of employment. In January, 1808, the unemployed made a demonstration in front of the City Hall and called upon the Mayor and Common Council to give them bread for themselves and their families who were then in a starving condition. After a thorough discussion of the situation money was appropriated and several hundred men put to work to fill in the Collect Pond as a public improvement. After many months the work was completed.
In the year 1830 the Common Council again took up the matter of erecting a new prison. The population of the city had increased by this time to over 200,000. The old Bridewell which had been erected before the Revolution, situated west of the City Hall, had become a nuisance and was unfit any longer for use as a prison. For several years the agitation was kept up without any definite results. At last in 1835 the erection of the Tombs Prison on a part of the old Collect Pond was decided upon and work begun.
For over a year the construction of the new building was slow, as the filling in of the pond had not been properly done. The ground was so wet and “springy” that the foundation of the new prison had to be laid on pine logs fastened to the ground by spiles.
The old Tombs was said to contain the purest specimen of Coptic architecture outside of Egypt and was admired as a splendid work of art.
The style of this prison was decided on soon after the publication of a new book of travels by John L. Stevens, of Hoboken. Mr. Stevens had just returned from a visit to Egypt and the Holy Land and had given to the public the result of his impressions abroad in a handsome volume. As the author was well known in New York, his book became widely popular. On the front page was a picture of an Egyptian Tomb. Some suggested that the new city prison be built after this design. The Common Council accepted the suggestion. Ever since the city prison has been called “The Tombs.”
Strange to say, this new prison was erected in the midst of a neighborhood that has ever since run riot in every form of crime and wickedness. For over sixty years some of the blackest and bloodiest murders, robberies, assaults, hold-ups and other deeds of darkness were committed in this neighborhood or within a stone’s throw of the prison.
In early days that part of the old Tombs building fronting Centre Street was known as the Halls of Justice, as it contained the Court of Special Sessions and the First District Police Court. For several years after the Tombs was opened the Sheriff of the County had charge of the building and all of the prisoners from the time of their committal till they were safely landed in the Penitentiary or State Prison.
The old Tombs Prison was an oblong building 142x48 and contained four tiers, having one hundred and forty-eight double cells. As far as safety and economy were concerned, it was one of the best in the country. It was so constructed that one man on the fourth tier and one man at the desk could see everything going on in the building.
Forty years ago there was a stone building at the corner of Franklin and Centre Streets which for years was known as “Bummers’ Hall.” It was used principally for drunk, disorderly and crazy people. After a time it became dilapidated, filthy and overrun with rats. A young tough named Mahoney and some boys who were detained with him for some minor offence, made their escape from “Bummers’ Hall” through a window. After it was demolished, a brick building was erected known as the New Prison, which is now called the Annex. When the Tombs was first built it contained a cupola over the main entrance, which was burned on the day set for the execution of John C. Colt, November 18th, 1842. The original Tombs Prison was opened for business in the early part of 1838.