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Griffin Daily News
Public Aoathy Helus Prisons Fail
PART 3
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This
is the last of three stories
about the state penitentiary
in Nebraska. Newspaper En
terprise Association corre
spondent Tom Tiede spent a
week behind bars to gather
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ECONOMIZE AT BUY-WISE
Through Monday. Aug. 10th ||Vi t“ Friday ’tn 7 p.m. |
2
Wednesday, August 5, 1970
his information.)
By TOM TIEDE
LINCOLN, Neb. —(NEA)
—lt makes old cons proud to
muse over the success sto
ries of penal reforms. Like
in 1848, in Ireland, when the
?,ueen commuted nine men
rom the death sentence,
then banished them to Aus
tralia. Before that nine died,
each had become a promi
nent, noble citizen—one the
prime minister of Australia,
one a general in the U.S.
Army and one the governor
of Montana.
Unfortunately, such re
construction is historically
rare.
Today, according to one
FBI study, 55 per cent of all
prisoners released to the
streets in 1963 were re
arrested within three years;
57 per cent of the offenders
released on Darole were re
arrested within 36 months.
Over-all, the guess is, as
many as six of 10 prisoners
currently serving have been
in some prison before.
And, in all honesty, walk
ing around the Nebraska
Penal and Correctional Com-
plex, it is easy to see why.
This place is clean, func
tional and humane . . .
But in the field of “correc
tions” it is a failure.
So, too, are most other
prisons in the land today.
Gary Hill, hyperactive, 30-
year-old front man for the
American Corrections Asso
ciation, sums it thus: “We
are still working on the
crime, rather than the crimi
nal, in our prisons. No, we’re
not flogging anybody any
more. And most convicts
eat pretty good. But we are
simply not rehabilitating
many people.”
He says a ton there. As
Nebraska’s prison amply il
lustrates.
The single most crucial
step in prisoner rehabilita
tion, redirection, reorganiza
tion (take your pick) is pro
viding a work skill. Warden
Maurice Sigler admits that
“90 per cent of the people
coming here haven’t got a
salable trade.” Yet the
only work available for in
mates here, largely, is hum
drum labor, such as making
license plates, making soap
or tending the grounds. And
as one con yells it: “The
only place I can get a license
plate job outta here is in an
other prison.”
There are some few ex-
THE DOCTOR SAYS
X Rays Are Great Aid
In Modern Medicine
By WAYNE G. BRANDSTADT, M.D.
It is 75 years since X rays
were discovered in
Germany. Shortly thereafter,
an American legislator intro
duced a bill prohibiting the
use of X rays in opera
glasses but the bill died in
committee. Gradually it was
learned what this “invisible
light” could and could not
do. Now we take this mod
ern miracle for granted.
The realization that X-ray
films could show us bones,
teeth and metals but not soft
tissues was an advantage in
that they aided in the diag
nosis of bone tumors, frac
tures, dental cavities and
metallic foreign bodies.
They could not, however, tell
us anything about the diges
tive tract, kidneys or blood
vessels until it was found
that they would give us the
outlines of these organs
when an opaque fluid was
introduced into them. Later,
some of the hollow organs
were caught on film when
air was used instead of an
opaque contrast medium.
When X rays had been
used for only a short time it
was found that they had
great powers for destroying
tissue. Although the early
consequences were tragic,
this, too, was turned to an
advantage in the treatment
of malignant tumors.
Today’s modern equip
ment is a vast improvement
over the crude units in use
50 years ago, both from the
standpoint of greater aid in
diagnosis and greater safety
for both patient and tech
nician. The latter has been
accomplished through better
screening and shortening of
the exposure time.
Q —Recently, my legs be
came covered with itching
blotches. A skin specialist
diagnosed this as Scham
berg’s disease. What causes
it and what treatment do
you recommend?
A—Schamberg’s disease
or progressive pigmentary
dermatosis is caused by
abnormal storage of iron in
the skin. Unlike hemosider
osis, no other tissues are in
volved and the disease is not
a threat to your health. It
may persist for several
years but usually clears up
spontaneously. The only
treatment is local applica
tions to allay the itching.
Q —My doctor has been
Sme Serax for five
s. Now when I stop
taking it I have an uncom
fortable feeling in my head.
Is this drug habit-forming?
What are the side effects?
A— Prolonged used of this
popular tranquilizer may
cause a dependence. Its
withdrawal must be gradual.
The
Fish House
1521 Old Atlanta Road
227-7744 days 228-1826
nights.
Specializing in fresh sea food
Lobster, shrimp, oysters, red
snapper, catfish, trout, mac
kerel, flounder, croaker,,
mullet. Also have frog legs,
fresh eggs and rabbit fryers.
Visit us for friendly and
efficient service.
ceptions t o the humdrum
work. Notably farming. The
inmates till 1,000 nearby
acres. Yet, by any realistic
measure, it’s also a waste
oi time. “At 30 cents a day,
I can’t buy a yard of soil for
myself,” says an assault
and battery inmate. “So
where am I? I mean, hell,
with my record, there ain’t
a farmer in the whole coun
try that’d trust me as his
hired hand.”
But critical as the prob
lem is, the inmates are con
vinced it’s not insolvable.
“Just bring in guys to teach
us the good jobs—or give us
the money so we can bring
them in ourselves.” Natu
rally, they blame prison au
thority for not doing either.
Yet their blame is mis
placed. The public is really
at fault.
Taxpayers are apathetic
about penal progress. The
majority does not want the
inmates suffering, yet nei
ther does it want them too
comfortable. A local haber
dasher, who is very familiar
with the Nebraska prison,
says it for many folks: “I
think maybe they got it too
easy now. I mean, those
people are thugs, you know.”
Thus do prison inmates
still stamp out license
plates.
And pull weeds.
And gain nothing.
There are 600 such at the
Nebraska complex alone.
Walking among them is a
trip to nowhere. A fellow in
The side effects include
sharp lowering of the blood
pressure, drowsiness, dizzi
nese and headache.
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
Please send your questions and
comments to Wayne G. Brandstadt,
M.D., in care of this paper. While
Dr. Brandstadt cannot answer indi
vidual letters, he will answer letters
of general interest in future columns.
Men’s Quality OUTLET
"Quality Is High And Prices Are Low”
1138 WEST TAYLOR STREET GRIFFIN, GEORGIA
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for forgery told me, smiling,
he thought I had a nice pair
of legs. A man who beats up
kids gets his confinement
kicks by torturing beetles. A
guy in for murder says
bluntly, “I’d do it agin’ if I
had to.”
In short, they are learning
zero good. Most will never
go straight.
And small wonder. One 22-
year-old first timer says the
only trade he’s learning here
“is how to be a better crook;
man, you can pick up every
thing from burglary to safe
cracking just by making
friends.” Another inmate, in
for forgery, says he spends
much of his idle time “prac
ticing up,” because he has
learned his lesson: “I’m
gonna get so good here
they’ll never catch me
again.” A third inmate, up
for small thefts, has gotten
religion, too: "I was just a
little fish. That don’t pay.
It’s the big-time crooks that
get away with it.”
And so the men go here,
too often, from bad to worse.
It’s monstrous.
Rehabilitation, certainly,
is one of the penal system’s
oldest goals. A National
Prison Association conven
tion in 1870 declared, “More
systematic and comprehen
sive methods should be
adopted to save prisoners,
by providing them with
work and encouraging them
to redeem their lost position
in society.”
Yet a century later, as
men walk on the moon, that
goal is no closer.
“I’ll tell you how bad it
is,” says one old man, who
has half-forgotten what he’s
in for. “A friend of mine was
released a couple of weeks
ago. He was happy as hell
about going. But he wasn’t
GRAND OPENING SALE
AnnfaWMk
AeMandd
H 9 S. Hill charge account
Griffin, Ga. fevited
kidding himself. He didn’t
have a job, he didn’t have a
trade, he didn’t have noth
ing. I remember when he
said good by he said he
wouldn’t make it—and we
look for him again when it
gets cold.”
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
(End of Series.)
IMPATIENT WITHDP.AWAL
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (UPI)—A
man placed a passbook into the
teller’s drawer Monday at the
Lindell Trust Co., a drive-in
bank, but the teller, Raymond
Peters, told him to wait his
turn because he was busy with
another customer.
The other customer was
George Weese, 45, an employe
of a check-cashing firm who
was cashing a check.
The impatient customer,
about 22, angrily took back the
passbook, and as Peters passed
a canvas bag containing 15,700
through the drawer to Weese,
the wrong man snatched the
bag and ran off.
FOOD TOWN
Lucky Register
Tape Numbers
For Tuesday
5720, 0133, 4619
Must be claimed 3 day*
after purchase.