“It is a well-known fact that no convict ever has escaped from Portland, but, in spite of this, the Home Office has threatened to confiscate the entire film, which has cost a good deal to produce, unless the greater portion of it is cut out.
“It is stated at the office of the British board of film censors that all houses, other than government property, in the neighborhood of Portland prison and quarries are to be cleared away, and the wall surrounding the quarries to be raised twenty feet, the authorities being apparently under the impression that the film was taken with the aid of a telephoto lens.”
Shackles in Tennessee.—A Nashville newspaper states that, “as a result of revolting conditions said to have been found on the county roads in a tour of inspection, a majority of the members of the workhouse board has declared that use of shackles on prisoners must be abolished.
“According to the statement of one of the members who inspected the camps, the use of shackles on human beings is barbarous, and the suffering and inconvenience caused the prisoners by being forced to wear the irons could only be realized by seeing a prisoner who wore chains which reached from knee to ankle and a cross chain connecting each leg.
“Squire Allen, in speaking of the conditions which he found to be caused from the use of shackles, said that several of the prisoners’ legs were almost decayed under the clamps which held the chains. Squire Allen said that especially in the cases of long-term men—those who were sent up for eleven months and twenty-nine days—the wearing of the chains was a horrible thing to think about. He said abolishing the custom of wearing the irons would be a great reform in the modern method of caring for the county prisoners.
“The shackles are riveted on the legs of the prisoners the day they are received at the camps, and the irons are never removed for any purpose until the day the prisoner is given his liberty. The prisoner is forced to sleep in the chains, it is said, and it is impossible to remove the shackles without the aid of a skillful blacksmith.”
Moyamensing Prison Investigation.—Philadelphia’s old prison is now being investigated. The January grand jury made, among other statements, the following: