The Portland Gazette

THE STATE PRISON

In a recent tour through the Eastern part of this State, we found an opportunity of visiting the State Prison at Thomaston, concerning the plan and construction of which some discussion has been had in our public prints. It is not our intention at present to give a minute description of the prison or of its police and internal regulation, but to correct erroneous impressions that have gone forth, giving it the character of an abode for spirits of darkness, beyond the reach of hope, rather than of a humane, though sure and safe penitentiary. Represented as it has been, an assemblage of cells, worse than the most terrific of inquisitorial dungeons, we confess we were not a little disappointed in finding it as well provided with every reasonable accommodation which a proper regard to the health and comfort of the convicts would require consistently with their safety and the certainty of their punishment, that the most humane legislation could be expected to authorize.

The cells are ten feet high, nine feet long, and four and a half feet wide inside;—having an aperture, above the second layer of stone from the floor, of eight by two inches to admit the air; another on the top, two feet square, to admit the convict, and aid in the circulation of air &c.; the last secured by a strong iron grating. The floor of the cells is above the common level of the adjacent ground, and we are confident there can be no reason to apprehend any danger from moisture, since there will be a constant current of air passing by circulation up or down through the apertures we have described. The cells are heated by two furnaces in the centre of the building, having pipes to convey the heated air to the flooring of each cell, the second layer of which is pine plank between two and three inches thick, the upper layer being of granite, through which one or two small drill holes are made for the admission of warm air into the cells. The principal difficulty in the management of the prisoners, we apprehend, will be in compelling refractory convicts to take their places in their cells, which, it seems, can only be done, in case of obstinate resistance, by forcing them down feet or head first. Over the cells are large rooms on each wing, secured by iron gratings, and doors, nearly the whole length, which can be opened or closed at pleasure, where the convicts are fed and allowed to attend public worship on the sabbath. The prison guard patrols here by day and night.

The Hospital is in the centre of the building, and fitted up with every reasonable regard to the comfort and safety of the sick prisoner.

The quarry of Limestone, on which it is intended to employ the prisoners, (more than two acres of which is included in the prison yard, extends through the whole lot purchased by the State, amounting to ten acres, bordered by navigable waters. The quarry appears to be inexhaustible, the bed of the river, one hundred and fifty feet below, being a ledge of limestone, and the price for which it was purchased by the government, $3000, is considered by competent judges as very reasonable. In working the quarry a cavity has been opened, which has offered a descent, already explored, of more than forty feet, and on throwing stones into this fissure sounds can be heard reverberated for some seconds. This cavity serves to convey from the prison limits the accumulating water, which it would otherwise be necessary to drain away by artificial means. On the border of the quarry is a natural spring of good water, sufficient to supply the laborers and entirely free from the very unpleasant qualities it might be supposed to derive from its vicinity to the limestone.

To Doctor Rose, the Superintendent and Warden, to whose ingenuity and invention the public are indebted for the original plan and whatever success may attend its faithful execution, we presume no one will be disposed to deny the praise which is due to a faithful and assiduous devotion of time and talents to a new, difficult and arduous undertaking.