Coulter 1935
Coulter MA thesis on prison journals
Begins with poem — Ralph Chaplin, “Night in the Cell-House”
“Material on the subject of prison journals is very limited — confined mostly to magazine articles, the Proceedings of the Annual Congress of the National Prison Association, writings of ex-convicts, and the prison journals themselves.” — so also sent out a questionnaire to 266 institutions
Managed to receive info for 258 institutions
Low level of education among incarcerated
March 27, 1856, issue of The Leisure Hour (London) — account of a convict journal published on a ship bound for “Van Diemen’s Land” (Tasmania); no printing press so they made copies by hand
“Prison Poetry,” article in January 28, 1893 issue of All the Year Round
Chapter 2
Identifying excerpts from the Proceedings of the Annual Congress of the National Prison Association, 1870-1933, that discuss prison journalism
1870, Joseph R. Chandler, “The Question of a Prison Newspaper” — asking about the value of a prison newspaper; ultimately concludes that the reason for having one is that “A knowledge of passing events, of the questions and strifes that enlist men’s tongues and pens of the habits of thought and action unwrought into the life of the hour, of the opinions that prevail in society, of the principles and modes of business and labor — in a word, contact of some kind with the living world is essential to fit any man to enter successfully into the keen rvalues that mark the civilization of this busy, bustling, progressive age.”
1884, Z. R. Brockway on the prison paper in Elmira Reformatory, NY — “A printing press is indispensable to the prison school. It is running all the time…”
1886, Gardiner Tufts, Massachusetts State Reformatory, prison journal could be an arm of the administration
1895, “The Model Prison Paper,” offers key points about what a prison paper should include — including that “it ought to be, as much has possible, the work of prisoners” — followed by a discussion about the value of prison newspaper
1897, resolution that prison papers (and schools and education) are good
1900, C. V. Collins, “Education as an Element of Reform in Prisons,” discussing Prisons of New York State; in Sing Sing, a biweekly, 26 page paper “which is edited and printed entirely by convicts and which contains no article of any kind except those composed and furnished by the inmates of the prisons under my charge.” — called “Star of Hope; exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1900
1901, C. C. McLaughlin, warden in WI, expresses concern that jokes or stories in prison papers will have a bad moral effect; maybe the warden won’t understand the inside joke and so can’t properly censor it
1908, William H. Moyer supports penal press for giving prisoners access to outside news
1915, Orville Kiplinger supports penal press for giving prisoners outside news; better than rumor
1916, “Prison Discipline,” support prison papers
1917-1933, “not sufficient evidence to indicate that the prison officials were very much concerned with the question of a prison journal or paper during these years”
Chapter 3
History of prison publications in Massachusetts penal institutions, through excerpts quoted from Annual Reports
1915, reports that The Mentor is now printed instead of being mimeographed
1931, mention of The Colony, a paper that grew from a mimeographed sheet to a printed newspaper, printed at the shop that prints all the forms in use by the institution
1933, State Reformatory for Women, “The Seed,” a collection of poems written by women there grew out of a writing club
Chapter 4
Summary of survey; most of it copied to spreadsheet
Many girls/women’s prisons and reformatories have very short-lived papers not reflected in the main histories e.g. Baird 1967
State Training School for Negro Boys in Oklahoma — “up to the present time, we have been without printing or duplicating machinery of all kinds, and hence for financial reasons only, we have no publications” (38)