That occurrence is one of General Castillo’s pet anecdotes and he tells it with much enthusiasm and never fails to impress one that it is the only case on record in Cuba that an escaped convict begged to be readmitted to jail.
“General Castillo,” “gobernador del presido de la republica de Cuba,” is a noted soldier of the Cuban war of independence, and one of the island’s foremost men of affairs. He was educated in the United States and later graduated with high honors from the Royal French School of Engineers and he is what might be termed thoroughly “Americanized” from a modern business point of view. He has made a special study of foreign prisoners and is perhaps as thoroughly conversant with prison conditions as any official in the world.
He arose to the rank of general, commanding a division during the war of independence and took part as such in the Santiago campaign. After the surrender he was selected by General Brook as the civil governor of Santiago. He was appointed to his present position by Governor Magoon. His son, Demetrio, Jr., is a graduate of the United States Military Academy.
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Garzon is also a veteran in the war of independence and commanded a regiment of regular troops. He keeps in close touch with prison affairs and makes a personal study of each convict. He goes through the prison at all hours unarmed, and some two years ago disarmed a coterie of prisoners who were planning trouble by walking into the casemate where they were confined and ordering them to turn over their crude weapons. That was the first and only time anything that savored of an insurrection has ever occurred.
THE PRISON OF THE FUTURE.
By William H. Venn, Detroit, Mich.
[Detroit Journal, March 2nd, 1914.]
The prisons of the future will be vastly smaller than the larger ones of the present time. Not alone because of the fact that better results can be achieved by the penologist who is at the head of the institution where fewer men are confined, but also because of the added reason that various other institutions will be in vogue to care for many unfortunates (not criminals) who are now sent to our penitentiaries.
The feeble-minded class in our prisons in the United States is said to number between 25,000 and 35,000 individuals, or about one-fourth of the prison population. These will be cared for in other institutions than prisons, confinement in which is a greater crime upon the part of society towards these poor unfortunates than were the offenses for commission of which these feebleminded individuals were sent to prison. According to the general statistics, the farm for epileptics in Michigan should care for about 200 persons now confined in the prisons of this state.