An Underground Prison (1807)

BY EDWARD AUGUSTUS KENDALL

THE state-prison . . . is situate on West Mountain. It is in the town of Granby, but its own name is Newgate. Granby adjoins Windsor on the west, and was once a part of Simsbury. . . .

. . . Undeceived as to the first idea which presented itself; that this Newgate must be in the midst of some populous neighbourhood, I was scarcely better pleased when I discovered, that it stood almost in a solitude of wood and mountains. . . .

Ascending, by a rocky road, the western side of the mountain, I discovered at length the walls of the prison, rising gray upon the brow. On the east, the road was skirted, at a small distance, by lofty and precipitous craggs, and on the west lay extensive valleys, with mountains in the distance. . . .

The prisoners in the gaol are kept to hard labour at smiths’ work, within the walls; and their task, which ends at four o’clock in the afternoon, commences at four o’clock in the morning. . . .

On being admitted into the gaol-yard, I found a sentry under arms within the gate, and eight soldiers drawn up in a line, in front of the gaoler’s house. A bell, summoning the prisoners to work, had already rung; and in a few moments they began to make their appearance.

They came in irregular numbers, sometimes two or three together, and sometimes a single one alone; but, whenever one or more were about to cross the yard to the smithy, the soldiers were ordered to present, in readiness to fire. The prisoners were heavily ironed, and secured both by hand-cuffs and fetters; and, being therefore unable to walk, could only make their way by a sort of jump or a hop. On entering the smithy, some went to the sides of the forges, where collars, dependent by iron chains from the roof, were fastened round their necks, and others were chained in pairs to wheelbarrows. The number of prisoners was about forty; and when they were all disposed of, in the manner described, sentries were placed within the building which contained them. After viewing thus far the economy of this prison, I left it, proposing to visit the cells at a later hour.

This establishment, as I have said, is designed to be, from all its arrangements, an object of terror; and every thing is accordingly contrived, to make the life endured in it as burdensome and miserable as possible.

In conformity with this idea, the place chosen for the prison is no other than the mouth of a forsaken copper-mine, of which the excavations are employed for cells. They are descended by a shaft, which is secured by a trap-door, within the prison-house, or gaoler’s house, which stands upon the mine.

The trap-door being lifted up, I went down an iron ladder, perpendicularly fixed, to the depth of about fifty feet. From the foot of the ladder, a rough, narrow and low passage descends still deeper, till it terminates at a well of clear water, over which is an air-shaft, seventy feet in height, and guarded at its mouth, which is within the gaol-yard, by a hatch of iron. The cells are near the well, but at different depths, beneath the surface, none perhaps exceeding sixty feet. They are small, rugged, and accommodated only with wooden births, and some straw.

The straw was wet, and there was much humidity in every part of this obscure region; but I was assured I ought to attribute this only to the remarkable wetness of the season; that the cells were in general dry, and that they were not found unfavourable to the health of the prisoners.

Into these cells the prisoners are dismissed at four o’clock in the afternoon, every day without exception, and at all seasons of the year. They descend in their fetters and hand-cuffs; and at four o’clock in the morning they ascend the iron ladder, climbing it as well [as]they can, by the aid of their fettered limbs. It is to be observed that no women are confined here; the law providing, that female convicts, guilty of crimes for which men are to be confined in Newgate-prison, are to be sent only to the county-gaols.

Going again into the workshop or smithy, I found the attendants of the prison delivering pickled pork for the dinner of the prisoners. Pieces were given separately to the parties at each forge. They were thrown upon the floor, and left to be washed and boiled in the water used for cooling the iron wrought at the forges. Meat had been distributed in like manner for breakfast. The food of the prison is regulated for each day in the week; and consists in an alternation of pork, beef, and peas, with which last no flesh meat is allowed.

Besides the caverns or excavations below, and the gaoler’s house above, there are other apartments prepared for the prisoners, and particularly a hospital, of which the neatness and airiness afford a strong contrast to the other parts of the prison. It was also satisfactory to find that in this hospital there were no sick.

Such is the seat and the scene of punishment, provided by Connecticut, for criminals, not guilty of murder, treason, or either of a few other capital offences. . . .

. . . As to the subterranean cells in this prison, they are rather adapted to convey horror to a transitory visitor, than to occasion any particular misery to those who become their inhabitants. A humane visitor will console himself with this reflection; but he will still call in question the rectitude of the persons by whom those inhabitants are placed there under a very different intention. . . .

Bug though no large addition may be made to the misery of the prisoner, it does not follow that nothing is added to his depravity. Prisoners in this gaol are treated precisely as tigers are treated in a menagerie; and if the minds of men are influenced by education, then the education of a tiger may be expected to make a tiger of the man. From all persons in and about the gaol, you hear of nothing but the ferocious disposition of the prisoners, and of the continual fear in which they keep their keepers. . . .

So strong is the fear entertained, of violence on the part of the prisoners or of their friends, that the overseers are invested by law with the extraordinary power of seizing and " confining in the caverns, till they can be otherwise disposed of according to law, spectators and others who shall be found lurking without the pickets." Pickets formerly supplied the place of the present walls. The military guard consists in ten privates and three officers. Their regimentals are blue; and they compose the whole of the regular army of Connecticut.

What is further enacted betrays some of the peculiarities of the legislation received in the United States: " Be it further enacted, That at the expiration of the term of confinement for which any prisoner is, or shall be sentenced to Newgate-prison, if it appear by the warrant of commitment, that he is ordered to stand committed until the cost be paid, and such prisoner shall not be able to pay the cost, or to secure the same, to the acceptance of the overseers of said prison, in such case, the overseers are hereby authorised and empowered to assign such prisoner in service, to some inhabitant of this state, or of any of the United States, for such term as they shall judge necessary, to pay such cost, taking reasonable security of such inhabitant to pay the same to the state; but if no suitable person appear to take in service such prisoner, the overseers may direct the master of the prison to hold him in service, within said prison, and for such term as may be limited by the overseers to pay such cost; who are directed to allow such prisoner, customary journeyman’s wages for like services; and the master of the prison shall have power to confine such prisoner at his labour, so far as the safe keeping of the prisoners in general may demand. But if such prisoner shall be unable to labour, the overseers, first taking the best security for the cost that may be obtained, shall order the master to discharge him. Be it further enacted, That if any prisoner shall make his escape from said prison and shall be retaken, and recommitted, the necessary expense of pursuit and recommitment, to be allowed by the overseers, shall be paid and satisfied by such prisoner, as is herein provided for the payment of original bills of cost, taxed by the court; and the overseers shall dispose of such prisoner accordingly."

Edward Augustus Kendall, (New York. 1809), I, 206–218 passim.