Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1913 — SPIES INSIDE PRISON [ARTICLE]

SPIES INSIDE PRISON

How Plots Among Prisoners Are Discovered by Agents. Sleuth In Convict’s Garb—“ Green Hand” Is Appointed by English Prison Commissioners, and Does Effective Work.

New York. —More roguery goes on behind the walls of a convict prison than most persons imagine. Instead of blunting a man’s mental faculties and deadening his wits, incarceration in one of the frowning fortresses with the gray, grim exterior often has the reverse effect. Solitude makes a man more cunning than ever. Plots are hatched, future crimes planned, and the whereabouts of stolen property divulged to a convict about to return to the world, and cases are not infrequent where warders who are in league with their charges supply them with food, tobacco, snuff, communications from the outside world and other little comforts for handsome money considerations.

On the governor in English prisons, of course, devolves the duty of ruling, says a writer in the New York Telegraph. The discipline to the untrained eye may appear perfect, the code of rules seemingly all that can be desired, and the staff beyond reproach. But appearances are deceptive, and the governor is sometimes brought face to face with cases which baffle all his powers of discernment. ,It is on these occasions that the services of the secret staff, of which I was for some years a member, are enlisted. It is an organization of which little is heard. Composed of a number of officers holding the rank and receiving the pay of principal ward» era, the duty of these men is to assume for the time being the role of convict in any prison where the authorities are baffled by some mystery. This is how I joined the secret service staff: After leaving the army with a good character, I applied for a post as assistant prison warder, filled up a form answering a lot of questions and inclosed copies of my testimonials. As I only received a formal acknowledgment I called at the office of the prison commissioners, and, being told that I would be written to when my services were required, I was retiring very unhappily. Just then, however, a keen faced man, with a bundle of papers in his hands, recalled me into a private room, and asked me if 1 would undertake the duties of one of the secret service staff for a time. Having been idle for months, 1 agreed gladly. And then the official told me something of the arduous, dangerous and difficult work which was to fall to my lot In accordance with his first instructions, 1 reported myself on the followJng day at 5. a. m. at a certain convict prison, prepared for a three weeks’ stay. I was ushered into a, private room, my clothes were taken away, my hair cropped, and a convict's suit was given to me. A few moments later I stood in the presence of the governor, and only then was the exact nature of my mission detailed to me. The story was that the officials had been baffled by an extensive secrej correspondence which had been carried on. The secret service staff, had been sent down twice, and on each occasion their efforts had failed to detect 1 the offenders. It was accordingly resolved to employ a perfectly green band.' Hence my selection. The governor gave me an address

in Stepney where my . supposed friends werb residing, my number which would at any time disclose my identity, and some good advice. Then, touching a bell, he summoned a warmer, who conducted me through a long passage, opened a cell door and motioned me to enter. I tried to speak, but he angrily forbade me to do so.

The next day I commenced my campaign by sounding the warder who had charge of me to see if he were “amenable to reason." A Stern reproof. was my only reward. A day or two afterward, while on the work outside, I got reported for attempting to enter into "familiar conversation” and received a caution from the deputy governor. Later on, when a principal warder remarked on the blistered state of my hands, I replied that I had plenty of money outside to keep me from working, if I could get at it. He did not swallow the bait. Instead he “ran me in,” and I lost my supper.

For over a week I discovered nothing, but by dint of patience and perseverence, and not a little deduction I found the warder who was willing for $25 to carry a message to my friends in Stepney. All the details were'arranged, and, securing leave, the man departed. But when he arrived at his destination he found the governor and other officials awaiting him, and, confessing that he was the man who had acted as intermediary in the case which had been puzzling the authorities, he was dismissed from the service.