“Brutality, violation of the law, waste and general incompetency” have
been found in the New York state prison at Auburn by a special
investigator appointed by Governor Sulzer. The investigator, George W.
Blake, urges that the warden, George F. Benham, be removed as quickly as
possible. Equally serious are his accusations against the prison
physician, Dr. John Gerin, whom he describes as an autocrat. “Abundance
of evidence,” says the report, “shows that he is brutal in his treatment
of the sick, neglectful of their needs, and that he flagrantly violates
that section of the prison law which defines his duties.” Refractory
prisoners, the report goes on to say, have only two gills of water every
twenty-four hours. The doctor is said to have declared that this was
sufficient to maintain life. The punishment cells are described as being
perfectly dark and having four rows of iron rivet heads on the floor so
that it is impossible to lie down.
When Joseph H. Scott, former superintendent of the state prison
department, was recently removed under charges by Governor Sulzer, he
asserted that his dismissal was in reality a piece of vengeance because
he would not change the Auburn wardenship at the governor’s dictation.
So frequent have been the charges and counter-charges in the
administration of New York prisons recently, and so often is it asserted
that politics lies at their bottom that social workers are more and more
becoming loathe to pass judgment on the basis of one-man investigations.