Behind the prison bars

by E. E. Byrum

Prior to the incumbency of Warden Hawk the West Virginia penitentiary had for years been running behind the legislative appropriation many thousand dollars annually, and not much, if any, success was made in the reformation of the prisoners. Altogether the prison was in bad order when he took hold as warden, he not only introduced reformatory treatment with respect to the prisoners, but he has made the institution bring to the state an actual profit over and above all expenses for maintenance. Warden Hawk took hold of the penitentiary management May 1, 1897. He discovered that his predecessor’s method of punishment was principally solitary confinement. Twenty-seven or more prisoners were undergoing the punishment on bread and water, and they presented a pitiable condition. Their labor was lost to the state; their mental, moral, and physical health undermined; hope seemingly was blasted, and they were strangers to God. The warden turned the key and liberated these men and put them to work, which they gladly expressed a willingness to do.

He adopted the new and advanced method of prison management in line with up-to-date penalogists; viz., The grade system, plain clothing in lieu of stripes, more and better food, first-class medical attendance, every prisoner at work, more personal liberty and exercise granted; he made himself approachable to those prisoners having a grievance, and in so far as he could within the bounds of true discipline, rectified them. Religious worship was fostered and encouraged; punishment for willful infractions of the rules and regulations governing the prison, sure and certain, by black-listing from special privileges, for a period of thirty days or more; the lock-step, by carrying on the yard an iron weight during working hours, and in extreme cases of fighting and other reprehensible misconduct, corporal punishment with a leather strap was inflicted, or by buck-and-gag. Other changes of a minor but not less ameliorative nature were made conducive to the moral welfare of the inmates.

To bring about these humane changes many and substantial improvements were made in the way of buildings and additions without cost to the taxpayers, for the prison was more than self-sustaining, and a handsome sum of money was on hand for this purpose.

PRISON LIBRARY.

January 1, 1900, Warden S. A. Hawk completed the erection of a two-story brick addition to the prison dining-hall. The second story room, 40×40 feet, was dedicated by him to the use of a library and school. The fixtures were placed in the room but there were only a few mutilated books at hand to begin with. E. E. Byrum, President of the Gospel Trumpet Publishing Company of Moundsville, hearing of the situation, offered his gratuitous service to the warden to aid him to build up the library to a respectable proportion. Upon the assurance given him that there was no available appropriation to purchase books for the library, Mr. Byrum called the attention of the members of his company to this state of affairs, and upon their advice and with their consent, a splendid lot of artistically bound religious and other suitable books valued at $1,000 was placed at the disposal of the warden for the use of the prison inmates. So grateful were the prisoners, the warden, and prison employees at the generous gift that it was

Resolved, That the prisoners of the West Virginia penitentiary, through Warden S. A. Hawk, tender their grateful thanks to E. E. Byrum and to the Gospel Trumpet Publishing Company, Moundsville, W. Va., for the very welcome gift of books placed in the prison library for their use.

This fine gift of standard literature, including 500 song-books, was a nucleus for the building up of an excellent library, few equaling it in the state.

Thousands of circular letters were mailed by the warden to the leading citizens of West Virginia and leading publishing houses of the country asking for donations of literature. The responses were generous—donors sending from one book to cases containing hundreds of books. One year after the opening of the library twelve thousand standard religious and secular books and magazines were donated. It is true many of them were second-hand and worn, except those received from the publishing firms—such as the people of the state could afford to give.

The library represents to every inmate the warden’s desire that every one of them should feel that an opportunity for newness of life to them is open, and in such opportunity may be found an ample encouragement of good purposes and well-meant efforts. Better life, better men, hence a hope for the prevalence of improvement.

A night school from 5.30 to 7.30 p. m., for two hundred and more illiterate white and colored inmates, ranging from seventeen to seventy-two years of age, was begun in the library at its opening, without intermission during every week-day of the year. The good result has been more satisfactory in the teaching of spelling, reading, arithmetic, geography, and writing than the most sanguine could have anticipated. Every one of the illiterate prisoners at the end of the year can read. The attendance of the pupils, thirty-two white and forty colored, being voluntary on their part, alternate nights. The prisoners are visited at their cells every Saturday evening by assistant librarians (who are employed in shops during the day), with slips in hand, and their order taken for whatever book or magazine they may ask for. The magazines are securely bound, three in one volume, minus the advertisements. The number of the cell is taken down with the prisoner’s serial number. The literature is carefully selected by the librarian and made ready for his assistants to place in the inmates’ cells, and each book is charged to the prisoner by his serial number, to be kept for one week. If, however, the book is one that can not be read during the regular period of time, upon application, a further period of a week is allowed. The books issued the previous week are collected and returned to the library, there to be carefully examined, for intentional mutilation the culprit being black-listed and deprived of the use of books, at the pleasure of the warden. At the first and several issues thereafter illiterate and mischievous prisoners marked their books, but by judicious use of the black-list and reprimand the practice on the part of these culprits ceased, and they cheerfully refrained from committing themselves again, and they are now most careful of their literary treasures. For a period of seven months of the year no reports for mutilation of books have been made.