DEAD SOULS

In Devonshire there stands the grey walls of the most hated building in England. Sprawled along a bleak headland Dartmoor rises out of the wildest and most desolate stretch of land in all the British Isles. The original buildings were erected in 1809 to confine the French prisoners from the Emperor's army. Later some of the Americans in the war of 1812 found there way to its barren courtyard. At that time Dartmoor established a reputation for cruelty and discomfort which is now almost legendary in its fame. In 1850 the building assumed its present status of a convict prison. With true British love for tradition it has sturdily maintained its original character.

A few days ago a revolt broke out at Dartmoor in which several men were killed and more than a few seriously injured. The immediate cause given for the uprising was the fact that the inmates had found their porridge unpalatable when served without sugar. Though it is to be admitted that prison porridge devoid of the usual appurtenances is probably not an appealing dish when served up, this, as a primary cause, does not sound convincing. Epicurean affrontry must only have been the under that set off a conflagration which was long in building.

Dartmoor itself does not yield the influences which are calculated to soften and better mankind. In the immediate vicinity there is no house, no civilization apparent, to make the convicts remember that they are human. There is a wierd quiet that hangs over the place which is augmented only by the wierder call of the Tern. This is not an environment which lends itself to character building. The prison is of ancient design with all the discomfort and severity of the early Victorian period. Nothing is done to ease the burden of the penal existence.

If the world is to escape prison riots, convict massacres, and open revolt it must revise its methods of confinement. Prisons must be equipped with the essentials of living, and the environment must be made more congenial. The era when severe physical ordeals were considered the only method by which a convict could "be made a man again" are past. Modern pyschology has found how greatly environment affects character, but these findings accomplish little if not put to some tangible use. America has been troubled by many uprisings of this sort and while they continue the penal system of the nation appears as much a blemish upon the banishers as upon the bannished.