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Show IBM CAGES COMPEL PRISONERS TO STAND Alcatraz Adopts Discipline for Men Who Refuse to Work SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 23 Iron cages so constructed that the occupant is compelled to stand are used at the Alcatraz Island disciplinary barracks impartially as disciplining for all prisoners pris-oners who refuse to work and only during working hours, Col. J. B. McDonald, Mc-Donald, commandant of the prison, said in commenting on charges of the national civil liberty bureau that conscientious con-scientious objectors wero being confined con-fined in "torture chambers." All prisoners pris-oners sent to the barracks are sentenced sen-tenced to labor, he said, and when they refuse they are compelled to stand up during the seven-hour working day. "This discipline," Col. McDonald said, "Is in use in many prisons and is an amelioration of the practice of chaining- the prisoner with his hands above his head, which we have abolished abolish-ed here." He said the charge that the medical needs of prisoners were Ignored was false. Of four prisoners the bureau charged charg-ed were at present confined in "torture chambers," Dart, he said, had served his sentence and been released, Grosser Gros-ser and Rodolph had never been so confined, and Simmons still elected to stand in the cage rather than work. |