Prisons

3835

Privy-

 

probationers. In all prisons certain indus-
tries are carried on, varying with different
countries and with different parts of large
countries. In the United States, for instance,
the large prisons of the North engage in
manufacturing. In the South, convicts make
roads, run turpentine camps, and farm. In
World War II, through a special ruling of the
Attorney General, State prison industries were
converted to war production.
The State of New York has erected an
agricultural prison for women, where they are
taught farming, gardening, bee culture, dairy-
ing, and poultry raising by women.
The places where criminals are held, both
before and after sentence, are known by
various names. In addition to the rural lock-
up and the city police station, to which the
prisoner is first taken, there are penal institu-
tions known as houses of correction, work-
houses, bridewells, jails, and penitentiaries.
The word penitentiary is sometimes used as
a synonym for State prison, but in other
places, as in New York, it is a county or
district prison where misdemeanant prison-
ers sentenced for short terms are confined,
though occasionally felons are imprisoned
there. Architecturally there is a great diver-
sity in prisons. The first object being safety,
they are massively constructed, the shops
and factories being within the walls. Those
of the United States, with a few exceptions,
have corridors outside the cells, so the sun-
light must cross the corridor before reaching
the cell. Open-work doors prevent privacy,
though giving more access to air and making
it easier to guard the prisoners. Modern
prisons are supplied with electric lights,
baths, good food, libraries* and excellent
sanitary arrangements. The effort in the
States most alive to reform is to put all
convicted prisoners in State institutions and
keep jails only for persons detained for trial.
The buildings for reformatories are better
adapted for their uses than the average pris-
on. They have gymnasiums, school rooms,
trade schools, baths, graded dining rooms,
and special quarters for the different grades.
A chapel is an essential feature in every
prison, and in many there are three—Prot-
estant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish. In ad-
dition to the warden, superintendent, or
governor of a prison, a chaplain, a physician,
and instructors are usually attached to the
staff. See criminology; reformatories.
Consult Reports of the American Prison As-
sociation; the writings of E. C. and F. H.
Wines, Z. R. Brockway, Eugene Smith,

Charlton T. Lewis. Warren F. Spalding, S. J.
Barrows, Lewis E. Lawes, also Clark and
Eubank's Lock step and Corridor.
Pritchett, Henry Smith (1857-1939),
U.S. astronomer. In 1897 he became super-
intendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey. In 1900 he was appointed president
of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, resigning in 1906 to become the head
of the Carnegie Foundation, where he re-
mained until 1930; later becoming pres.
emeritus.
Private. All men belonging to the United
States army who have not attained the grade
of non-commissioned officers are termed 'pri-
vates' after they are taken up for regular
duty with their organization, before which
time they are called recruits. See army of
the united states.
Privateering, Privateers, vessels of war
armed and equipped by private individuals
and furnished with a commission or Iicense3
known as, 'letters of marque/ from the state,
to cruise against the shipping of the enemy.
The commission placed the privateer practi-
cally on the footing of a man-of-war, and
allowed the owners to keep the prizes which
they took, also granting them a certain sum
for every man of the enemy taken or de-
stroyed. The practice of privateering grew
up in the i$th century, and until the middle
of the 19th century was generally employed
by naval powers. By the Declaration of
Paris, in 1856, privateering was abolished so
far as the powers signatory were concerned;
and in wars conducted since then, even by
non-signatory powers, no letters of marque
have been issued. See letters op marque;
hague peace conference. Consult Statham's
Privateers and Privateering (1910).
Privet, the popular name of several species
of nardy shrubs and small trees belonging
to the genus Ligustrum (Oleaceae). Their
chief value lies in their use for hedges, as
they stand shearing remarkably well. The
Japanese privet (L. ovalijoHum)—miscaHed
California privet—is preferable for hedge
purposes, especially along the seacoast.
Privilege. In law this term is used to de-
note: (i) certain fundamental political rights
enjoyed by all citizens; (2) the exemption
from certain legal or political duties or bur-
dens enjoyed by a limited number of citizens.
Privy Council in Britain is nominally an
assembly of advisers to the sovereign on
matters of state. At earlier periods of Eng-
lish history it exercised large powers, but it
ceased to exercise its ancient functions when