Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota

by William Casper Heilbron

Inmates in the third grade wear black and white striped suits. They are denied tobacco, writing and visiting privileges and their meals are served in their cells, which are located in one portion of the cellhouse. In none of the grades are prisoners required to march with the “lock-step,” and excepting those in the third grade, all are permitted to wear their hair long enough to comb during good behavior. The prisoner, after his bath, is again brought into the cellhouse and the captain has one of the inmate barbers clip his hair and shave him. If the new arrival belongs to the respectable class, wearing a mustache and dressed well he will hardly recognize himself if he should chance to look into a mirror. In a few moments the proud American citizen has been supplanted by the convict. Those who belong to the so-called “criminal” class are not affected upon donning the prison uniform, but it is different with the first offender. If he is a proud, sensitive man the change is great enough to almost wrench his heart strings asunder. Many a new arrival, spending his first night in his cell, with its iron bed, whitewashed walls, scant furnishings, iron floor and the dimensions of the room only five by seven feet, has been known to break down completely. After such an ordeal (not your make-believe imprisonment, where some author has himself locked up for an hour or so to gain local coloring for a novel) one gets a clear idea of what prison life really is and places a higher valuation on the liberty that he so recklessly trampled under foot in his mad rush for riches, position and fame.

After the tonsorial artist has completed his task the prisoner is conducted to the deputy warden's office, where he is weighed, asked innumerable questions, etc., instructed as to the rules of the institution, measured according [pg 12] to the Bertillon system, which is the standard adopted in this country and throughout Europe.

BERTILLON MEASUREMENTS

To Dr. Alphonse Bertillon, the celebrated French anthropologist, the world is indebted for the knowledge of the scientifically demonstrated fact that no two persons are exactly alike in physical measurements. In fact any single individual can be identified from thousands of others by this cleverly thought-out system, which was first adopted in this country in 1887. The accompanying illustrations are self-explanatory.

The system embraces three distinct parts: First, the measurement of certain unchangeable “bony lengths” of the body; second, a careful description of the features of the face; third, a careful localization of all scars and marks on the body. While the face may change, be even mutilated beyond recognition; while the scars and other marks may be removed, the “bony lengths” of the body remain unchangeable in adults. The parts measured of the bony lengths of the body are the length and width of the head, the cheek width, length of foot, the middle and little finger and the cubit, i. e., from the elbow to the tip of the little finger; the height standing, the height seated, the reach of outstretched arms, right ear length (which most authorities assert remains the same through life), the median line in front from the fork or hollow below the “Adam's apple” down, and, in the rear, the spinal column from the seventh vertebra to the base of the spine, are the anatomical or “guiding [pg 13] points” from which all descriptions of the body are recorded; in the fingers, the joints and flanges,—the flanges being the portions of the fingers between the joints. The calipers for measuring the head are provided with a graduated arch and are similar to a compass. In taking the length of the head the left point of the caliper is held at the root of the nose and the right point is brought against the occipital bone in the back of the head; the thumb screw is then tightened and the measurement checked by passing the instrument again over the head. The width of the head over the cheeks is taken in the same way. The measurement of the foot is taken with a caliper rule similar to that used by a shoemaker; the prisoner is posed standing on his left foot and steadying himself as shown in the illustration. The graduate stem is placed against the inside of the foot with the fixed arm in contact with the heel and the sliding arm then brought in tightly against the toe. In measuring the left middle [pg 14] and little finger the back of the caliper rule is used, two small projections being provided on the fixed and sliding arms. The finger is bent at right angles to the back of the hand and the measurement taken from the tip of the finger to the knuckle.

Head Length Measurements.

The registering and record made of the foregoing, together with an accurate description of the face and all marks on the body, constitute the third and complete part of this system. To illustrate this part briefly,— measurements are all based on the French metric system, viz: Height, 1 metre, 71 centimetres, 3 millimitres; [pg 15] width, 14 centimetres, 5 millimetres; length of right ear, 6 centimeters, 3 millimetres; length of foot, 2.62; length of middle finger, 11.7; length of little finger, 7.1; length of forearm, 46.3. A metre is 39 inches, a centimetre about 3/8ths of an inch and a millimetre, 1-25th of an inch.

Measurements of Outstretched Arms and Left Foot.