HOW PRISONERS COMMUNICATE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2675, 21 July 1913, Page 7

HOW PRISONERS COMMUNICATE.

Toward the end of last year four . prisoners confined, in Usk Gaul plotted to gain their freedom. Their idea was to attack the first warder who entered one of their cells with a leg of the cell table, capture his ward keys, then that the escaping prisoner should liberate His comrades. The warder in the gate lodge was next to be overpowered, and after that the governor wag to be chained to the inside of the gate. The whole plot, with the date for its accomplishment, was actually in writing ; and as Usk Prison is a very small one, and as three of the men were desperate characters, it would probably have succeeded, had not one of the conspirators hung back at the verylast moment, and proceeded to give the whole affair away. The very first thing that will occur to the reader is, how on ear:h did these convicts manage to plot together? As every one knows, talking is strictly prohibited in any prison, while the possession of pen or pencil, or any writing materials except a slate, is looked upon as a most serious offence, says an English periodical. Ye: here we have four men in separate cells ail in constant communication one with another, and with the details of their plot actually written out in full. How did they work it? Three of the men were actually appealing against their sentences, and were given pen and ink to write their appeals. Although the writing materials were taken away at once, yet one of the lags had already made an ink- ! pot out of cobbler’s wax used in making mail bags, and hidden some ink in it. A pen was easily made of a feather, and blank sheets extracted from library books and such like were the paper. The “stiffs,” or messages, were exchanged in chapel, hidden inside hymn books. There is no form of communication against which prison officers have to be more carefully on their guard than the “stiff,” or secret letter, and any man in whose cell such a letter is found is certain to be punished. Any morsel_ of paper is used, and, in spite of the vigilance of warders, scraps of paper are always to be had by any man who wants them. The outside public have an idea that prisoners communicate with one another by codes of knocks on the walls of their cells. The old French convicts used to do something of this .sort, and, according to Prince Krapotkin, modern Russian prisoners immured in fortresses have such methods of communication. But in British prisons knockinss are out of date, and if anyone were foolish enough to try the Morse code he would very scon he found out. It is -at work and a: exorcise that the men talk to one another. Debtors and first-class prisoners are allowed to converse at exercise, and so are convicts who reach the highest stages; but the ordinary lag is, by prison rule, forbidden to do so. This rule, however, is, to all intents and purposes, a dead letter. Who:her in the “shops” or at outdoor labor, it is impossible to enforce it. The first accomplishment which a man learns in prison is to speak without moving his lips. News travels through a prison as quickly as in the free world. A prison doctor’s wife, for example, was taken ill one evening. Next morning the doctor visited a cell, the occupant of which, being unwell, had not •’been out of his cel! the previous day. The very first thing the man said was; “I hope Mrs M is better to-day, sir.” They say that when Jabez Balfour was let out of Parkhurst he did not know that Mr Churchill was in Parliament. The story : doubtful. _ All prisoners who care to know what is ing on can easily find out. Bits of newspapers are picked up outside and smuggled in. and passed from hand to hand; parties road-clearing get a sight of contents-bills of newspapers outside shops, and every newcomer tells others all be knows of what is goimr on. It is a point of honor for a convict alwavs to pass new? on. He seldom, if over, faffs to do so.