THE DUNGEON.
This is the dreaded place of all prisons and in many places resorted to oftener than necessary. Many prisoners who work in the mines have had to go to the dungeon without their supper after laboring hard all day, because ungodly and wicked guards reported a shortage in the proper amount of coal mined, when the facts of the case were that the guards had stolen or removed a portion of the coal from the car after it left the prisoner, because of their dislike for the prisoner and by so doing could have him punished. It also too often happens that prisoners refuse to work as they should, and deserve the punishment. It is not necessary to here describe the filthy, stifling, odorous dungeons of war times or of some of the worst prisonsof the day, but a description of the dungeon of one of the best prisons in our land will be sufficient. The following is a description given by one who served a term in prison. In describing the punishment to secure good discipline, he said:
“To me these contingency dungeons are, as their name implies, dark, with similarity to an ordinary cell with the exception of a door which in the common cell contains open spaces for the admission of light, but the dark cell admits no light, and not a sufficient quantity of air. There is no furniture in this dark cell. While undergoing punishment if a prisoner desires to rest he can do so by reclining on the stone floor. No refractory prisoner ever grows corpulent while confined in these dark cells, as he receives only one meal of bread and water in twenty-four hours. The prisoner is often kept in one of these cells from eight to ten days. Sleep is almost impossible. When a prisoner enters the dungeon he is required to leave behind him his coat, cap, and shoes. During the winter months it is often very cold in these cells, requiring the prisoner to walk up and down the dungeon in his stocking feet to prevent his freezing, and this for a period of ten days in nearly every instance compels submission. After the dark cells thaw out in the summer months they are excessively hot. Sometimes in winter the temperature is below zero, and in summer it often rises to 100 degrees. They are then veritable furnaces. Generally after the prisoner undergoesa freezing or baking process for eight or ten days, he is willing to behave himself in the future. They are sometimes so reduced and weakened that when brought out of the dark cell they can scarcely walk without aid. I have seen them reel to and fro like drunken men. They are often as pale as death. In many cases the prisoner contracts cold which later on terminates fatally, and this is one of the principal objections to this mode of punishment. If the prisoner in the mine does not get out his regular weekly task of coal, on Saturday he is reported to the deputy sheriff by the officer in charge and is sent to the blind cell before supper and kept there until the following Monday morning, when he is taken out and sent to his work in the mines. While in there he gets only bread and water once in twenty-four hours. This is a great inducement to work, which certainly prevents criminals from shirking their labor, and soon converts the lazy tramp into a hustling coal miner. If being in this dark cell ten days and nights is insufficient to subdue a rebellious spirit of the convict he is taken out and placed in the solitary cell. This is similar to the ordinary cell with the exception that it contains no furniture. Here the convict remains on bread and water until he is starved almost to death or until he is willing to submit and do his work as ordered.”