Prisons

President Roosevelt writes Attorney General Bonaparte regarding the federal prison employment situation of Joseph L. Merrell. Merrell was the Sheriff of Carroll County, Georgia in 1901 when he stopped a white mob from lynching a black prisoner, and subsequently lost his reelection bid as a result. Georgia Representative Charles William Adamson brought the situation to Roosevelt’s attention. Roosevelt secured Merrell a position for “$1200 a year as custodian of the grounds of the Federal Prison at Atlanta,” and hopes to get him a raise if he has done well at his job.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-17

Prisoners engage in various recreations while incarcerated at Sing Sing for white collar crime. Caption: For the benefit of our grafting financiers whose health breaks down from exposure.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by J. S. Pughe was not inspired by the coddling of prisoners, a putative situation that is charged, or confirmed, in cycles. Sing Sing Prison was a periodic site that, perhaps due to its 40-mile proximity up the Hudson River from the media center New York City, was alternately scorned or praised by reformers for its conditions.

President Roosevelt sends Attorney General Moody a newspaper clipping about two incarcerated Native American children, and asks him to make an investigation into the matter and offer a report. Roosevelt does not think their sentences are just.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-25

O. F. Lewis, General Secretary of the Prison Association of New York, confirms receipt of the letter from Theodore Roosevelt regarding his proposed tour of European prisons, and thanks him for it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-03

Samuel McCune Lindsay tells Theodore Roosevelt of the upcoming trip of O. F. Lewis, Secretary of the New York Prison Association, to Europe in order to attend the International Prison Congress and visit foreign prisons. He asks if Roosevelt would be willing to write a letter of introduction for him to help him during his travels. Lewis has already received some other letters from officials, but would appreciate any assistance Roosevelt is able to give.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-28

Samuel McCune Lindsay has enclosed a letter to Theodore Roosevelt containing facts he may want to know if he is able to accede to Lindsay’s request and write a letter to C. T. Lewis expressing his interest in Lewis’s investigation of prisons in Europe. Lindsay tells Frank Harper that if he will send him Roosevelt’s letter, he will make sure Lewis receives it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-28

Secret Service Chief Wilkie sends a report written by Secret Service Agent Thomas I. Porter about the prison where an informant named Knight is confined. Wilkie is suspicious of Knight’s story.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-01

Operative Thomas I. Porter reports on his investigation into conditions at the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Chester, Illinois. With help from Warden J. B. Smith and Deputy Warden W. C. Dowell he concludes that the inmate who was concerned that other inmates were conspiring to kill him had either been lying about it or had been wrong.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-26

J. Taylor Hamilton received Peter C. Frick’s letter recommending H. N. Newlin for appointment as Warden of the Anamosa Penitentiary. Hamilton says the Board of of Control of State Institutions has not yet acted on the matter of a successor for William A. Hunter, but the matter was virtually decided prior to receiving Newlin’s application. Hamilton has no doubts about the integrity or competence of Newlin.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-15

William H. H. Llewellyn writes to William Loeb regarding an investigation of the management of the penitentiary in New Mexico by Holm Olaf Bursum. While Llewellyn does not want to defend Bursum from any actual wrongdoing, he has known Bursum for twenty-five years, and he does not believe that he has any personal dishonesty, especially with regards to his finances. Llewellyn believes Bursum can disprove the charges against him. He believes that Governor Herbert J. Hagerman is stirring up trouble.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-08

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

Unknown

Language

English

Postcard showing an illustrated a two-panel cartoon, the first is two soldiers drinking at a bar under the heading “Saturday Night” the second panel shows them in handcuffs and neck chains with bruised eyes under the heading “Sunday Night.” Charles C. Myers notes that this is how Englishmen, and others, view sailors of battleships.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “An Englishmans [sic] idea of a sailor on Sat night and Sun. Morning.

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

This postcard shows the gate of Portland Prison with a number of drawn prisoners filing out from the gate accompanied by guards. The walls of the prison are covered with ivy, while barred windows. Charles C. Myers adds, in a handwritten note, that the prison is situated on top of the high hill near Portland Harbor, and is said to contain one thousand convicts.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “This view is taken within the prison gates.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

This postcard shows the village of Portland. Above the village, on top of a large hill, sits the largest prison in England.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “The main part of this narrow strip of land is called Portland Isle and the village of Portland is only a small place while above the city on top of the hill is the largest prison in England, several thousand prisoners being confined there.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Scenes of Hastings H. Hart, penologist, consultant in delinquency and penology for the Russell Sage Foundation, and recipient of the 1930 Roosevelt Medal for Distinguished Service for the promotion of social justice. Opening scene of Hart greeting two guard officers at what appears to be a prison building in New York State; long shot of Hart posing with group of inmates and guards; and medium view of Hart talking with an unidentified inmate in a jail cell.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1930

David B. Hill labeled “Hill-ism,” Richard Croker as the Tammany Tiger labeled “Croker-ism,” and Roswell P. Flower, wearing a tall stove-pipe hat, labeled “Flower-ism,” stand on “Condemned Row” in the “Prison of Public Condemnation.” They are watching a group of men, on the left, construct a guillotine labeled “Reform Movement.” Puck is standing on the left with “Parkhurst, Grace, Lexow, Godkin, Ottendorfer, [and] Goff,” who is posting a notice on the wall of the prison that states, “Notice! On Election Day, Nov. 6th 1894. Execution of Hill-ism, Croker-ism, and Flower-ism. By Order of the People.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-13

A large arm labeled “Justice” reaches down from above to grab Matthew S. Quay as he tries to make his way from the “Penitentiary” on the left to the “United States Senate” on the right.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-01-25

A well-dressed union representative labeled “Walking Delegate” stands outside a prison cell, holding a paper that states “Law to Prohibit Convict Labor in State Prisons.” A dejected prisoner sits in the cell. Caption: But idleness, misery and insanity for the unfortunate convict.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10.

Criminals on the left enter a prison labeled “Penitentiary” with a statue of “Justice.” On the right, they leave the prison after serving their sentences and are given papers labeled “Freedom,” where they are confronted by a large hand above a city with a wall labeled “Ex-Convicts Not Wanted.” Includes text about the failure of the Penal System.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-10-20

Print shows Charles Stewart Parnell, a prisoner in the “Kilmainham Kaboose”, directing a pack of small dogs labeled “Healy, Kettle, Egan, O’Connor, Dillon, Davitt, Sexton, [and] Brennan” to attack the British Lion, instead they scatter in all directions. Caption: Mr. Parnell in his great feat of letting loose the dogs of war.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1881-10-26