Prison Conditions and Penal Reform

Report Outline
The Prison Problem
Conditions in American Prisons
Proposals for Penal Reform

Ariot by thirteen hundred prisoners in Clinton Prison, New York State's institution for hardened offenders at Dannemora, broke out July 22, 1929, and continued unchecked for five hours. Three convicts were killed and a score wounded. Two buildings were burned and property worth $200,000 was destroyed.

Five days later, on July 27, seventeen hundred prisoners at Auburn prison revolted, seizing arms and ammunition from the arsenal, burning six buildings, shooting four guards, and storming the walls in a desperate break for freedom. Four prisoners escaped. Three were killed. Half a million dollars worth of property was destroyed.

In another five days a third outbreak occurred, this time at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. It started with nine hundred prisoners in the mess hall and spread to the remaining 3,758 inmates of the prison. Here one convict was killed and several wounded.