Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1913 — SAYS CONVICTS RUN PRISONS [ARTICLE]

SAYS CONVICTS RUN PRISONS

Strikes and Fights Are Very Common, Released Clinton Man Asserts—Discipline Bad. Poughkeepsie, N. Y.—That wonderful system in state prisons by which prisoners manage to keep one another posted on the news of the day despite intervening bars, bolts, and corridors, is illustrated by an ex-convict’s statement giving the up-to-date news in three JJew YorE prisons. The statement was made by James Ryan, alias James Root, on his release from Clinton prison, and is as follows: "During Blake’s investigation of the prisons there were numerous fights and dangerous assaults on both convicts and officials. Since the appointment of John B. Riley as prison superintendent the prison discipline has been destroyed and there is trouble everywhere. "The Clinton county officials and convicts from Clinton county have the run of Clinton prison. The officers from Clinton county call the out-of-town officers ‘carpet-baggers,* which is the gause of numerous fights between" them. “In the tin shop at Clinton prison, during the latter part of May, ope man named Rooney threw a fivepound weight in a young man’s face, with the result that, he is disfigured ’or life. “On another occasion, in the early part of June, a man named Smith —a colored man—tried to kill an officer named Von Gorder. In all the Clinton shops the men are constantly fighting and discipline is a joke. “I forgot to mention that Smith, the negro who ran amuck at Clinton, caught Von Gorder around the neck and' slashed him several times while the officer was opening his cell in the morning. “At Sing Sing prison not long ago the Inmates in the knitting shop sent word to Warden Kennedy that unless he removed an officer named Hill they would not work. Warden Kennedy yielded and put Hill on night duty. It is a common occurrence for the prisoners to send word to Warden Kennedy demanding the removal and shifting of officers. “In Auburn. prison there have already been three strikes among the prisoners in the weaving mills. "A man named Driscoll had some trouble with a keeper in Clinton prison, and as the warden and deputy were away at the time the Clinton county officers pulled him into the