PRISON PROBLEM

Continued from page 8

Riots have a reason

so improve rehabilitation chances for men leaving prison. This is not a new idea, but it has never been encouraged because it offends the morals of some of the very people who worry most about prison conditions. Reformers go all around Robin Hood's barn in discussing morale and methods of improving it, but they duck the fundamental issue.

They always have. As far back as 1932, in his book, "20,000 Years in Sing Sing," Warden Lewis E. Lawes wrote: "In public discussions of prison problems, the matter of sex emotionalism is politely ignored."

Let's take off the wraps and face facts.

Fights, killings, stabbings, riots, revolts, bitter hatred, attacks on guards and fellow prisoners, and escape attempts have a sexual connection, for they are the fruits of frustration. Convicts have told me time and again during almost 35 years of working closely with them that the hardest part of doing time is the absence of normal sex. They become so worked up without it that they eventually spill over and, like hot lava in a boiling volcano, literally blow their tops.

Another undiscussed danger

There's plenty of sexual activity in our prisons, but it's the wrong kind. No inmate, no matter how good his intentions, is entirely spared homosexual advances, and many succumb. Some can never resume a normal relationship. What they believe to be a temporary expedient in prison becomes a permanent problem after they get out.

In countries where sex is neither a naughty word nor a hush-hush subject, these conditions are openly admitted, and steps are taken to offset them. Almost all South American nations, for example, permit conjugal visits in prison.

In Mexico City two hours are allowed every week to inmates who earn the privilege. In some South American countries, wives are allowed to come for the night.

Conjugal visits are also accepted practice in a number of European prisons. In Sweden, selected inmates have a room where they may entertain their wives during daylight hours without supervision. In Russia, special cottages are set aside for the purpose. Elsewhere in Europe, similar arrangements are made.

Because single men have the same drives that married men do, they are also given the opportunity for sexual satisfaction. In some prisons, weekend passes are given as rewards for good behavior. Several countries permit bachelors to receive overnight semale visitors. While this sort of thing might be hard, if not impossible for Americans to accept in view of our own strict moral code, it makes sense. Bachelors can get as violent as benedicts behind prison walls. Mississippi is the only state in the United States where conjugal visits to prisons are permitted.

The Mississippi State Penitentiary — continued on page 12

Born

Born in San Quentin, where his father was a guard, Clinton T. Duffy joined the prison staff in 1929, became warden in 1940 and served till 1951. He is now executive director of the San Francisco Council on Alcoholism. With Al Hirshberg, he recently urote "88 Men and 2 Women”