PRISON METHODS IN SPAIN

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 27 June 1912, Page 2

PRISON METHODS IN SPAIN

Spanish prisons (says the Madrid correspondent of .the Standard) have at nil times had an unsavoury reputation, and the name of Montjuich has to this aay a sinister sound. From time to time tae Spanish Press has dilated upon the atrocities practised in the prisons of this country, and has called vigorously for their suppression and for the punishment of the offenders. A few days ago a. representative of the Madrid uewspaper Heraldo paid a visit to the prison of Figueras, in Catalonia, and the facts to which he has given publicity show the urgent need for reform. In the prison infirmary he found a man of herculean build, whose head and arms were swathed in bandages. This man, Santiagon by name, had been a soldier, and had fought m the Cuban war with such bravery that he won the Cross of Honor of San Fernando. On his release from service in 1895 he returned to his native place, only to find that his wife had been seduced. Santiagon killed the man, and was condemned to death, but in view of his honorable record as a soldier the sentence was commuted to one of hard labor.

Interrogated on the subject of his bandages, the ex-holdier said he had attacked a warder, who had then tired upon him. Thb son of the director of the prison was present during the interview, and the convict was silent as to the real cause of his injuries. From other prisoners,, however, the representative of the Heraldo gathered that Santiagon had tried to defend himself from the warder, who had maltreated him, upon which he was seized, half choked, and brutally flogged. Then the warder fired ax hiiu with his revolver, with the idea of permanently disabling him.

The convicts also asserted that on entering the prison all their money and every object ot value is taken from thorn and nothing is returned to them. For the slightest misdemeanour the prisoners were flogged unmercifully. The Heraldo's correspondent himself saw several prisoners who bore scars and other marks of ill-treatment.

"Ask what Moreno died of," whispered one of them in his ear. The question was put, and the son of the prison superintendent replied: "Moreno was a, wild beast. He killed a warder with a knife. What did he die of? Oh, the prison doctor diagnosed it as organic debility." From another prisoner the Heraldo's representative learned that Moreno had first been scourged till his back was cut into ribbons, and was then thrown into a subterraneon dungeon without food or drink, where he died of slow starvation.

Oases demanding "severe" punishment are consigned to a cell known amongst the prisoners as "Siberia." This is a subterranean dungeon, nauseous in atmosphere, with walls running; with moisture, with an opening about 2 feet in height, and scarcely wider than a handbreath for the admission of light and air. When the Heraldo's representative entered it he saw stretched round the walls 19 half-naked, emaciated men "chained like dogs," to use the description in the Heraldo. Skeietonlike m aspect, the eyes of the unhappy prisoners seemed" to be fixed m an expression of absolute despair. They knew only to well that "Siberia" was for them, the ante-room to the tomb.' They would never see again the sunshine, or breathe a pure air; they would die one after the other a lingering death in that dark and pestilential atmosphere. Their only food was a little mouldy grain and putrid water. Even speech was denied them, for on© unhappy prisoner who ventured to expostulate received 200 blows—that is, he was beaten to death. Since June last year, 23 men had been consigned to "Siberia" of whom four had died. "Siberia" was the ingenious idea of fche director of the prison, and Dr Pla, the medical man in charge of the establishment, at first ventured to hint that the place did not fulfil sanitary requirements, but met with the brutal reply: "So much the better; we shall be the more quickly rid of these vagabonds." The director attempted to justify his methods to the representative of the Heraldo by saying that for the surveillance of the 800 prisoners consigned to his charge he was only allowed five warders, and that-severe "measures were absolutely necessary for the maintenance of discipline. "Once they were relaxed," he added, "the prisoners would be masters of the situation." The revelations of the Heraldo have made a painful impresion, and at a recent Cabinet Council it was decided to send a high Government official from the I)e----nrirtment of Justice to open an inquiry. The Liberal adjures the Government x,o make a prompt and thorough investigation, and not to stifle the scandal, as is too often, it avers, the custom in Spain.