Mcallen Daily Press

British Felons Harass Warders

PRINCETOWN, Devon, Eng. Oct. 15 --(UP)-- "Strong arm" squads among convicts at Dartmoor prison in Devon, who prey on the younger and less experienced warders, have gone too far. Latest victim of these prison gangs was a prison officer who was assaulted by three convicts as he went to lock them in their cells for the night. He was struck on the head and knocked unconscious. The men who are the real cause of the trouble, the warders complained, cannot be pinned down. They use "fronts," or weaker members of the gang, who could not receive corporal punishment. Warders charge that money-lending is at the root of it all. "Loan sharks," they say, who control a small capital, get other convicts into their power by making small loans to them at exorbitant interest. If a convict borrows a shilling from the money-lenders to buy cigarettes or tobacco, he has to pay his 4 pence a week spending money, as interest to the gangsters. Once in their power he is ordered to perform various tasks for his "creditors." They may include beating a prison officer who has done something which the gang didn't like. Warders at Dartmoor have met officials of the Prison Officers' Association and demanded suppression of the gangs. They want assailants to be tried in a police court, where magistrates have power to inflict additional heavy sentences, and not by visiting justices, whose powers are limited.