The Warden Fights Back: Prison Labor, Jute Sacks and a Seattle Newspaper Scandal

To the Editor of the Seattle Telegraph: In the Telegraph of today nearly five columns of matter, under the caption of “A Penitentiary Scandal,” are published, purporting to be a recitation of facts condemnatory of the present management of the Walla Walla institution. As the warden thereof, accused of a multiplicity of offenses against the law, the state, morality and religion, I request that you give to this reply the same prominence accorded the indictment you have drawn through the medium of your correspondent.

You make these accusations: (1) That through my connivance “middlemen, speculators, dishonest officials and politicians are robbing the wheat and grain producers” in the sales of the sacks manufactured at the jute mill; that I am guilty of flagrant violation of law, “if not of theft;” (2) that brutality in the treatment of the prisoners and disregard of religious and moral sensibilities mark the administration of the establishment; and (3) that the Walla Walla penitentiary is grossly mismanaged.

THE SALE OF SACKS. The law quoted at length by the Telegraph has governed my every action in the matter of the disposal of the products of the penitentiary. If I have violated any provision of that law it is the one requiring that sales be made “for cash to actual consumers who are residents of the state of Washington.” It is not within the province of any man who might be placed at the head of the Walla Walla penitentiary to determine precisely whether or not the citizen who applies for sacks is in fact a resident of the state. The burden of proof as to the applicant’s residence must necessarily rest upon the personal acquaintance of the warden, the testimony of mutual acquaintances, or the certification as to the fact made by the applicant himself.

Given this fact, no sacks have been sold to any applicant during the present year who has not made full certification as to his residence and his needs as a farmer. Every sack sold to date during my term of office is accounted for by applications on file now at the penitentiary, properly certified.

The Telegraph must be fully aware of the distress existing among the farmers of Eastern Washington. This year more than any other have they been made to feel the want of money. Few of them but are embarrassed. It became a problem, therefore, how under the law the farmers could secure the sacks which are sold by the state at 6½ cents each. One of two things could be done: Either the farmers must find cash or deposit with the state its equivalent in the form of a check or certificate of deposit. The cash being unobtainable by the large majority of them, I agreed to accept a certificate of deposit on any and every application made. I hope I shall not be accused of being a partner in all the banking institutions of Eastern Washington because of this action. It was certainly the only feasible method presented of issuing to those who stood in need of them the sacks we had on hand.

When I assumed the position of warden the jute mill was producing about 700,000 sacks a year. With the same convict labor at command, and with the same materials, I have increased that yield to 2,000,000 sacks. When the jute bag trust or syndicate made its apportionment of sacks to the several farming sections of the Pacific Northwest, it calculated that the productive capacity of the Walla Walla jute mill would not exceed 700,000 sacks. The consequence has been that, owing to the increased product of 1,300,000 sacks, the syndicate overloaded the market, and the effect of the increased industry at the jute mill under the present administration has been to reduce the price of sacks to cost. The Washington sacks are superior, of course, being of better fiber and containing one ounce more material.

THE PRISONERS. Second—When a citizen, whether in private or public life, is open to the charge of flagrant violation of law and theft, it becomes some one’s duty to prosecute him. I challenge the Telegraph—which as a newspaper has a great, and I regret to think, irresponsible advantage in assailing the character of an individual—either through any reputable attorney it may engage, through its editor or its correspondent, to visit the penitentiary and investigate the management of that institution, with any other disinterested person in the state as a companion.

Respecting the treatment of prisoners, I think the prisoners themselves, as well as every person familiar with their previous condition, will testify that they have never been so well treated as now. When I took charge there was an absolute want of discipline about the institution. Only the vestige of decorum and obedience was discoverable among the guards; responsibility was distributed and ineffective; authority was in contempt, and the prisoners were in patched and ragged clothes. The system had to be changed, but the transformation could not be made with a fairy’s wand or a homily on good manners. The severity of military discipline had to be invoked. I make no apology for this, save to refer any fair-minded citizen of the state of Washington to the alteration made in the moral and physical condition of the convicts, the enlarged productive capacity of the institution, and its betterment in all particulars.

The internal control of the institution has been left entirely to Deputy Warden John A. Cameron, a conscientious and fearless young man, who was born and reared in Walla Walla county, and who has been connected with the institution ten years. While he has acted under my general instructions, I know nothing of the Greene case, related to the Telegraph correspondent by Thomas Dorricott. I am quite satisfied, however, that whatever Mr. Cameron did was done deservedly, and for necessary effect. As the story runs, Greene was taken out of the tank and tied in the prison yard. While not familiar with the facts, I can surmise the cause of this severity, as similar treatment has been administered more than once in penitentiaries. Undoubtedly Greene was mutinous, and for that reason confined in his cell. Previously ugly convicts were put in the “black hole.” No man has been so punished during my term. He is simply shut up in his part of the tank, as was done with half the convicts previously. Undoubtedly he yelled and carried on, and while the other convicts should have been allowed to sleep to prepare for their next day’s work he was hammering on the iron partition of the tank so as to keep up a disturbance during the night. To give his vocal propensities full play and at the same time enable his fellow prisoners to enjoy their rest he must have been taken out into the yard. I venture to say that Mr. Dorricott will not testify to a repetition either of Greene’s offense or punishment.

On Sundays neither religious exercises nor opportunities for recreation were afforded the convicts. One of the first steps I took was to provide for chapel services, the Episcopal church of Walla Walla volunteering every assistance in its power. To this end I paid $100 out of my own pocket—a fact I assert in no vainglorious sense. Rev. Mr. Law took the matter in hand; an organ was placed in the dining room, and there every Sunday since services have been held.

After dinner time on Mondays all tractable convicts are allowed to go out into the large area named in the additional stockade and engage in athletic exercises. Football is one of these. Boxing gloves are allowed to those who wish to engage in sparring. But the turnkey and guards are always present, to interfere if any of the men should lose temper in these contests of skill and strength. Those who have no inclination toward these diversions sit around on the ground in groups and chat, walk about, or amuse themselves with a sportive black bear that is their pet. The more meditative among them gather around a cage of imported monkeys to reflect on the verisimilitude of fate. This is all new to the convicts of the Walla Walla penitentiary. If it is wrong then I am censurable.

It is not true that on any Sunday, or any other day, prizefighting ever occurred within the penitentiary walls; nor is it true that on any Sunday was there ever given an entertainment to visitors a feature of which was boxing. On other days and evenings, yes. A number of the convicts of aptitude for minstrelsy, others of gymnastic training, and a few colored prisoners who were born and raised at the South, and who know many of the Southern camp meeting hymns, have been organized and trained by a couple of intelligent “trusties” in the clerical department of the penitentiary, so as to give an interesting entertainment.

THE PRISON NOT MISMANAGED. Fourth—As to the charge that I have been guilty of gross mismanagement, a fit answer would require more space for statistical and other information than the Telegraph would care to give. The prisoners are now well and cleanly clothed. Their fare was bad and dear; it is now good and cheap. It is greater in amount, better in quality and costs less per day. All meat is now bought on the hoof and killed and dressed by convict labor. All the pork the penitentiary uses is raised there. All the necessaries formerly purchased from neighboring farms are also provided from the dairy, the barnyard and the garden. A large orchard has been planted.

Excepting the sick, all convicts work. Every desperate criminal, formerly locked up, is now employed in the jute mill. The milder class of convicts are employed at outdoor pursuits. A photograph gallery, a shoe shop, a tailor shop and a number of mechanical industries have been established. Within a year, under the training of an exceedingly competent convict artisan named Hinchley, nearly a hundred skillful brick and stonemasons have been graduated. A well, capable of supplying an institution of twice the needs, has been dug, and a steel tank of 100,000 gallons capacity has been reared. Every bolt in this was driven by convicts and not a leakage discovered when the test was made. The brickyard has been overstocked. A new stockade has been completed, and a fine hospital erected within it. Both are lit by an incandescent electric light plant, run by convicts. Landscape gardening has been started over a large area fronting the institution; and a house for the warden for at least half a century to come is nearly completed, at a cost which will surprise those who take the pains to investigate. All this and much more has been done without external expense or aid, except in the employment of three overseers. When the last legislature met there was a deficiency; when the next meets there will be none. All these improvements have been made out of the labor of the convicts.

The good cheer with which this work has been done, and the effectiveness attained from assigning them severally to appropriate labor, are due, on the one hand, to the discipline exercised, and, on the other, to the rewards unexpectedly conferred upon them for extra effort. Each man is carefully watched, and when found zealous at his work, as well as prudent in his conduct, he receives, without intimation, some exceptional morsel of food, such as chicken, for example, and, if he craves it, a little tobacco. Throughout all this, such is the system of espionage among the convicts, of which they are unaware, that no mutinous murmurings or prison-breaking suggestions escape discovery. Perhaps this system of treatment may be described as coming under the head of “gross mismanagement.”

As to another phase of the management, which includes the guards and their service, I have been subjected to a great deal of criticism because of intolerance for disregard of duty or for indifference to responsibility. I have not allowed partisanship or the indorsement of political friends to affect, warp or soften my judgment toward such of these men as have transgressed their orders or violated them. Only ten of the original corps of guards remain; and of the thirty and odd others appointed since I took the wardenship many have been replaced time and again, until now I believe there are few of them who do not realize fully the sincerity of my purpose to carry on such an administration of the penitentiary as will be creditable alike to the humanity and honesty of the present state administration. Every one of the guards dismissed has naturally become a personal enemy, hostile to myself and my methods. One guard who has been industriously maligning me in King county for weeks past, a gentleman who formerly occupied a place of trust on the Seattle police force, was discharged by the directors because of having fallen asleep while on duty—a more grievous offense than which every one will agree it is impossible for a guard to commit.

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I sincerely invite the editor of the Telegraph to make it a visit and investigate for his own satisfaction. He will find that I hold no orgies in my home, which is two miles distant, and whither I go only two or three times a week. In the officers’ quarters where I live he will be given a bed, not very soft, to be sure, but very inviting and refreshing after the day he shall have spent in making favorable discoveries of the present administration. He will dine with the officers’ mess, supplied cheaper than any similar table in the West. If he enjoys a glass of beer, or if a glass of whisky will not inflame him beyond self-control, he may have it at my expense, but not at that of the state. All the necessaries of hospitality I have been accustomed to during my life, and I am not aware that the position of warden of the penitentiary of Washington should deprive me of them.

J. H. Coblentz.