Malcolm Tipler
Mr. Beasley
English 1010E
24 March 17
Prison Stories
Locked up for no reason! Imagine being thrown in jail for no reason at all, just because you don’t have a home or much money. In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America, there are several stories about the prison system and how inmates were treated in the prisons.
Algren, Booth, and London argue against the mistreatment of prisoners, lack of sanitation in prisons, and inability of the poor to fight this system.
London shows us how the poor are unable to fight the system by telling us the story “Pinched”: Prison Experience. He argues that because he thinks that is wrong because as a citizen they should have a right to have a trial and be able to plead guilty or not guilty. London explains how his ancestors have fought and died for the right of trial by jury, ” But my American blood was up. Behind me were the many generations of my American ancestry. One of the kinds of liberty those ancestors of mine had fought and died for was a right of trial by jury (p. 40).” He also argued about the mistreatment in the prison. He talked about all that gave they gave them to eat was bread and water. They was put on a bread-and-water diet. London explains what they fed the inmates, ” Bread and water, that was all that was given to us (p. 49).” They gave them plenty of water but not enough the bread, “While we got plenty of water but didn’t get enough bread. The bread was the size of one’s two fist and three rations a day were given to each prisoner.”
There was a lot of people who lived in poverty back then so you can only imagine how many people got thrown in jail because of that. The authors are trying to get the reader to see how bad the conditions was in these prisons and the mistreatment of the prisoners. The Jack London is a perfect example of how they mistreated these people by not giving them a right to have trial by jury and the right to plead guilty or not guilty. Yeah, they don’t have a house or car but that doesn’t make them not an American. They say America is the best but is it really? I couldn’t imagine living through all of that. If you didn’t do what the guards say they’ll beat you to death or they’ll get some inmates to come beat you to death. The guards didn’t care about the inmates at all. They would only feed them bread and water. They used to buy extra bread from the cooks and hide it in there cell. They start traded cigarettes for bread etc.
Algren gives examples of how the inmates are punished and they have certain rules to follow or they will get punished. These are the rules that you had to follow or you would be punished, “Every man must wash his face and hands before handling food. Any man found guilty of spitting in ash tub or through window will be give twenty licks (p. 134).” ” Any man caught stealing from inmate of this tank gets 500 belt-buckle licks (p. 134).” These rules are of the kangaroo court. The sheriff shot Portillo in the stomach and didn’t take him to the hospital. The sheriff is saying the reason he shot him because Portillo went crazy, “Shouldn’t have turned a rabbit, boy (p. 139).” The doctor didn’t want to treat the inmate, “Should’ve took him to the hospital ‘stead of up here (p. 139).”
In the story of Booth there was a lot of husband and wives in that prison. They wasn’t allowed to communicate with each other. When visitation they wasn’t allowed to make contact with each other. Booth explains what it looks like in the visitation room so the inmate and the visitor won’t make contact, ” In the middle of the table was an upright twelve-inch board which prevented visitors from holding hands (p. 114).” They executed Carl for no reason. He didn’t murder anybody. He was thrown in prison by association. They executed him where everybody can see it. The women department was a low, two-storied building. They had certain jobs for the inmates. They had a locksmith in the story he breaks up a huge fight that breaks out in the women dorm. If anything breaks in the prison they assigned inmates to fix it so that gives you an idea of how the prison looked. You have women doing men jobs.
The stories explains the conditions of the prisons in the past. These three stories compare how bad the prisoners were treated. The correctional officers didn’t care about the inmates. The jails wasn’t sanitary at all. They fed them horrible food. They sometimes didn’t even feed the inmates. Prison was tough. It wasn’t a place you wanted to be at. They treated the inmates like dirt. These prisons was strict. Some prisons if you didn’t follow by the rules you would be punished. The prison life was horrible. They didn’t care about the inmates and the up keep of the prisons. You had numerous of innocent people in jail just for hobo. The authors express there opinions and feelings about the situation and tell stories about the prison. Algren, Booth, and London argue against the mistreatment of prisoners, lack of sanitation in prisons, and inability of the poor to fight this system.
