Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 162, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1912 — Prison Reform in the Philippines [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Prison Reform in the Philippines

IF YOU go sight-seeing in Manila the guides do not fail to show 70U the Carcel de Billbid. They do so with a great deal of pride. Once Billbid, within almost a stone’s throw of your hotel, was the most hated place in existence to the natives; now it holds no more terrors than the best of prisons in the states. Billbid, in fact, has been transformed from a house of torture to a model and sanitary prison wherein the convicts are not only kept in good physical, condition, but are required to labor at occupations'which, in their later life, often prove profitable. Why the original constructors of Billbid designed it on lines which suggested the most sanitary conditions and yet turned it into the filthiest of institutions is a circumstance which made the United States authorities ponder. In the midst of the old city, lying within a circle more than a mile in circumference, nineteen long low buildings converge on an open space surrounding a large circular building and from what is said to be the largest prison in the world. There Is plenty of air space between the buildings. Besides the 19 prison quarters which radiate outward from the circular guardhouse in the center there are five other buildings, composing the administration offices, the commissary and quartermaster’s storehouses, and the ice and electric plants, all within the* great circular area. Topping in height each of these buildings there are guard towers from which can be poured any number of steel death-dealing missiles within the great Inclosure and for a great radius Without. 'There is one large tower in the center above the main guardhouse, a score or more surround the inclosure at equal Intervals, and there is not a nook or corner in Billbid which does not come under the eye of the watchful sentinels. The long, low buildings of Bilibid comprise the prisoners’ quarters. Since the American occupation of the islands, the great prison has been.divided in two parts by a great stone wall. One-half is set apart for the American military and civilian prisoners, the remainder for the native Filipino and the Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and other prisoners of different nationalities. The great prison has heretofore been given two names; the former the Presidio de Manila, the latter the Carcel de Bilibid. The whole prison is under qnllitary command, but the native section is directly supervised by native officials. Clean and Ventilated. Since .October, 1898, when the American officials took charge of the prison, Billbid has undergone a most beneficial transformation. Those quarters known as the dormitories are not the congested cells of the old Spanish regime, but have been cleaned and ventilated until there is now a free circulation of air in each. Looking from one end of these buildings to the other you. can see long rows of oots behind sections barred off with thick bamboo rods, and neatness and order prevail -throughout. Twelve wide windows line each side of each building, and in the roofs of each there has been built a continuous line of suction ventilators. • The workshops, kitchens, lavatories and hospitals have been likewise improved, each being equipped with the ipost modem sanitary appliances. oalled the “House of Torture,” as named under the old Spanish rule, is being looked upon with a sort of pride by the native Filipino as one of the model institutions of its kind in the world. "'~F' “7 r ~~ “ Its reconstruction h&s. in fact, educated the Filipinos to a considerable degree, because while the discipline -of the American officiate is strict, the *t X <••• ? . .

method of treating and caring for the prisoners within its confines has done more to demonstrate that the American people are a humane race than all other means. Bilibid has a daily routine much like other prisons. The prisoners are roused in the morning by the call of the bugle at 5:46. Breakfast follows a certain amount of exercise, and after that the prisoners go to the workshops until the noon hour. Then comes a light lunch, a siesta for an hour, rftore work until 6:30 p. m., then dinner, and they are locked up for the night Twice a week the inmates are compelled to bathe, and twice a week they are given clean clothes, not always secured by many of them while’ on the outside. There are four classes of rations -issued to the prisoners, depending on their nationality. The Americans receive the ration of the regular army, which costs about 25 cents; the Europeans receive food at the rate of about 14 cents, and the Filipino eatsto the amount of 8 cents. Death Rate Low, The employment of the prisoners consists of laundering, manufacturing bamboo furniture, weaving baskets, curtains, screens and hammocks, making rope, engraving on wood, horn, shell and silver, making fancy and useful articles from horn and shell, and wrapping coach whips, and there are also carpenters, wood turners, blacksmiths, stone masons, bricklayers and tailors, and occasionally an artist or two is found among the number and given a canvas. The articles thus manufactured are placed on sale, and from the revenue thus derived the prison often accumulates a surplus for the year. The average amount of receipts from this means is about $12,000 a year. One of the greatest testimonials to the conduct of Bilibid is the low death rate since the beginning of the American administration. Undlr the Spanish rule it sometimes reached as high as one in five, while under the American direction it has never gone above one in sixty. Billbid has seen many exciting days, and, under the Spanish rule, has had its walls so crammed at times that it seemed as if no more could be foroed' in. Yet they were. Its capacity was originally designed to accommodate 2,000, but the records of its days when resolutions existed against the Spanish government show that as many as 2,600 prisoners were confined there at one time. The prison was, in fact, designed for this purpose more than a hundred years ago, and political prisoners have outnumbered the criminals each year since, according to the captured records of the prison. When Gen. F. A. Hughes took charge of the prison for the United States government in October, 1898, he found over 2,000 pyisoners confined there agajnst whom no formal charges had been recorded. "A great inany of them,” he said, “were, heavily ironed —most cruelly ironed. For instance, there would be a man chained to the wall of a stone cell in which there was no light except through two loop holes high up and about two inofaes wide and a foot long. We also found some with bars of iron about three feet long to which were attached two iron hoops that wet* fastened around their ankles, and they had to carry these bars every step they made. The flesh around their ankles was worn altogether to the bone in many cases.” in his report of that inspection General Hughes also said that two hours after the prison had been turned over to the American authorities the irons which had been knocked off the prisoner were piled np, and the resulting accumulation measured more than a cord and a half in size. , lf‘ v‘ .