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History from the inside out: prison life in nineteenth-century Massachusetts

Journal of Social History, Winter, 1997 by Larry Goldsmith

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is an art . . . taught in Penitentiaries, which has its appropriate instruments, its technical terms, its successful mode of operation, all easily learned by apt scholars from good teachers. The instruments are forceps, to insert in long and narrow pockets, and an extremely thin, keen knife, to cut through coats and pockets without moving them. . . . The mode of operation is learned by practice in Prison, where the convicts steal from each other, and where they practise the art by way of experiment merely, and where instances have occurred of success in stealing the pocket books of visitors.(6)

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Prison records suggest that visitors to the institution presented a particular temptation; prisoners likely resented these intruders, many of whom were institutional tourists, allowed to satisfy their curiosity for a 25-cent admission fee.(7) Henry Williams was committed to solitary "for attempting to rob a gentleman of his pocketbook as he was passing through the cookery," and David Hill suffered the same fate for "stealing a handkerchief from a gentleman's pocket whilst he was visiting the prison."(8)

Contractors and others transacting business in the workshops were also easy targets, and prisoners cooperated in separating them from their valuables. James Inman was ordered into solitary confinement, on bread and water, "on strong suspicion of his having stolen the Pocket Book of Mr [Holton] out of said [Holton's] pocket at a time when sd [Holton's] Coat was hitch'd on a Nail in Blacksmith's Shop." Further investigation revealed a conspiracy, and Sylvanus Cahoon, Ephraim Davis, and James Stearns followed Inman into solitary cells. All four confessed and they directed the incautious Holton, contractor for the prison foundry, to his pocket book, which they had "secreted in the Necessary House." The superintendent released the repentant conspirators upon their promise of future good conduct.(9)

Inman did not honor his word for long, however. A few months later he returned to solitary for embezzling stock from the plating and harness shop in which he worked. After he destroyed his "Crib &Tin Night Pan," the keeper put him in chains. Several months later the same offense landed him in solitary once again. Inman used the stolen stock to barter with a fellow prisoner, the keeper reported, noting that he was "represented to be inclined to idleness and negligence and is much in the habit of applying the stock to his own use and benefit." In this habit he was not alone. Prisoners routinely appropriated from the materials and provisions they handled in the course of their labors. Andrew McGee went to solitary for "pilfering Fish, which was entrusted to his care to clean," as did Robert Curtis for "stealing sundry articles from the commisary's [sic] Store." James Williams was punished with a clog and chain "for stealing milk from the men's allowance."(10)

Like Inman, prisoners frequently took goods, not just for consumption, but for exchange on an illegitimate market of prison contraband. Those who worked in the shoe shop had access to particularly valuable commodities. Robert Curtis "confessed that he had sold 7 pair shoes which he had secretly received from Michael Bumpo to Fuller the man who brings provision from Boston for the prison." Bumpo in turn was punished "for stealing shoes from Mr Brooks, and getting Curtis, who attended in the commisary's [sic] store to convey them out." George Stevens and John Williams went to solitary for "embezzling shoes," as did Henry Williams, who was "concerned in a clandistine [sic] trade." James Thomas did so "with intent to sell them to the boatmen for rum." Thomas Lynds went to solitary for "stealing shoes and selling to his fellow convict," David Gordon, who was "punish'd with a clog for trading with Lynds & partaking in the theft." Persons unknown "stole several pr shoes, boots, &c from the shoe shop" one December night in 1817; a year later thieves made off with a much larger haul: forty pairs of boots and sixty-two blankets from the commissary's store.(11) The frequency of such transactions suggests the existence of a kind of commercial network; prisoners came together to trade those particular commodities they were able to pilfer through their respective work assignments.(12)

History from the inside out: prison life in nineteenth-century Massachusetts

Journal of Social History, Winter, 1997 by Larry Goldsmith

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