A prison is not an admirable place for those disinclined to work. A man
occasionally succeeds in hoodwinking the authorities for a time, but this
rarely occurs. Whenever there is a reasonable doubt the prisoner is given
the benefit of it. A case in particular is that of one Mr. B., who
complained that the entire lower part of his body was paralyzed and that
he was unable to walk. He was given a pair of crutches and put in the
hospital ward, where he lived well, his wants supplied by the attendants
and where he had absolutely nothing to do. The doctors suspected that he
was faking and secretly applied tests to verify their belief. Evidently
the man was on his guard and fully acquainted with the various modes of
procedure in such cases, for he stood the tests unflinchingly.
Finally Warden Wolfer took his case under personal charge and evolved a
plan that the clever prisoner had not figured on as one of the
possibilities of detection. The strategy was this: A newly‐appointed guard
was dressed in a third‐grade suit of convict clothes on the day when the
prisoners in the crank department were given their weekly shave. Mr. B.
was sitting on the bench waiting to be shaved. The deputy warden stepped
into the room with the alleged third‐grade prisoner and gruffly ordered
him to be seated, then turned to the barber and told him to shave the
third‐grade man next, as he was in a hurry. Not an inkling of suspicion
flashed across Mr. B.’s brain. In the door leading into this ward a small
peep‐hole is arranged, enabling the guard to look into the room without
entering. The warden was stationed behind this door to observe the results
of this scheme. As the third‐grade “prisoner” sat down to be shaved he
suddenly seized one of the barber’s razors, and, with a whoop, jumped out
of the chair and made for the “helpless” Mr. B., who immediately cast
aside his crutches and rushed down the corridor to escape from the
supposed demented “prisoner.” The fact that his legs were paralyzed and
that he was acting a part was entirely forgotten.
At this stage of the proceedings the warden entered the room and informed
the crestfallen Mr. B. that the comedy was over. At first he was inclined
to continue the paralytic roll, but when informed that he had the option
of going to work or taking an indefinite stay on a bread‐and‐water diet he
wisely chose the first alternative, and for the remainder of his term gave
no more trouble.
Another case of shirking is that of Mr. M., who is a life prisoner and who
has spent over a quarter of a century behind the bars of Minnesota’s
famous penal institution. He insisted that something was wrong with his
limbs and that he could not walk; that he needed the assistance of
crutches, but one night one of the nurses observed him walking back and
forth in his cell, evidently taking a needed constitutional. He was sent
to work in a few days and is today walking as successfully as ever. He
employed this deception for many years.