4Si PACIFIC COAST PRISONS,
Good conduct is promoted by a credit of five days in the month to every prisoner, with an increase of one day every two years, till the allowance reaches ten days. This is deducted from his term of ser- vitude. Pardons are also held out besides other rewards.
Punishment has become more humane, and consists mainly in reducing privileges and good-conduct time. Desperate characters wear chain and ball, and are prohibited from holding intercourse. The lash which was once applied for all offences, and periodically to captured fugitives, has almost fallen into disuse, and so has the dark dungeon, although both remain to inspire a salutary terror. Flogging was also admin- istered with a long paddle-fonned board, with perfora- tions, through which the flesh was forced by every blow. Even more feared than this was the torture by water, which consisted of a jet played upon the mouth and nose of the victim. So severe was this punishment that if the same jet were let fall upon the stomach it would cause death.
The numerous attempts at escape form interesting episodes of prison history. The thought of liberty here swallows all other thought, and life itself appears the inferior gift of heaven, as Dr^^len puts it. The great leisure enjoyed allows the mind ample time to fondle the alluring hope ; to dwell upon the many records of fellow-prisoners who have with varying success scaled the walls, filed bars, undermined cells, assumed disguises, or otherwise hoodwinked the guard ; and to evolve plans worthy of a Daedalus, attended by equally daring exploits.
The most famous stampede was that of July 22, 1862, when a general outbreak took place, owing immediately, it was claimed, to the starvation regime of Commissary Jones.
Nothing occurs to arouse suspicion although the plot must be widely known. The dinner hour has passed
