xt7mkk94bp7g https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7mkk94bp7g/data/mets.xml Kentucky 1962 newsletters English Eddyville, Ky.: Kentucky State Penitentiary This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Physical rights are retained by the owning repository. Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Please go to https://exploreuk.uky.edu for more information. Castle on the Cumberland Kentucky State Penitentiary -- Periodicals Journalism, Prison -- Kentucky Castle on the Cumberland, March 1962 text Kentucky State Penitentiary v.: ill. 28 cm. Call Numbers HV8301 .C37 and 17-C817 20:C279 Castle on the Cumberland, March 1962 1962 1962 2021 true xt7mkk94bp7g section xt7mkk94bp7g

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Volume I, Number IX

(3me ON THE: C'tJIniBERLAND March, 1962

AH'J‘IINISTRATION TABLE OF CONTENTS}
The Honorable Bert T. Combs W. Jesse Buchanan 1
Governor
Castle News 2
Wilson W. Wyatt
Lt. Governor The Editorial Side 6
W; C. Oakley Sports Report 7
Welfare Commissioner
Articles 8
MarShall $Wain
Deputy Commissioner Exchange Page 10
Dre Harold Black Meet the Prisoners 11
Director of Correctiors
’~ ’ ‘ Tall Tales ' 12
Luther Thomas Lloyd T. Armstrong
warden Deputy-Warden Department Reports 15
Kathlyn Ordway W. T. Baxter Poetry 17
Business Manager Guard Captain
' Cartoon Page ‘ 20
Rev. Paul Jaggers
Chaplain ' ’ Crossword 22
Henry'E. Cowan William Egbert Statistics & Movies - 2}
Supervisor of Vocational ‘ ‘
Education Instructor T
‘ STAFF
--Parole Commissionwm ~
Dr. Fred Moffatt Lawrence ﬁnOW‘ Billy Howell
wecut'ive Director Editor Sports Editor
waiter Ferguson
Chainnan ' Hughie Hammock Charles Garrett
' Lithographer Secretary
Simeon Willis Ernest Thompson
Member ‘ Member

The CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND is published monthly by the inmates of the Kentucky
State Penitentiary at Eddyville. Subscriptions, one dollar a year, payable by

>money order at: CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND, Subscriptions Dept., Kentucky" State

Penitentiary, Eddyville, Kentucky, and by inmates at the Chief Clerk's Office.
Articles are solicited, but the CASTLE reserves the right to reject, edit, or
revise any material submitted. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not nec-
essarily reflect those of the administration. Permission is hereby granted
to reproduce any part of this magazine, provided proper credit is given. Where
possible, a marked copy of the quoting publication is requested.

EQBMEE KEEEQCKY SLAEE EENITENTEABYﬂEugDEN'DIES
lIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllllllllllll

W} Jesse Buchanan, twice warden of the Kentucky .State
Penitentiary and Penal Adviser to the Department of
welfare, passed away early on the morning of March 6th
in Lourdes Hospital, Paducah. He had suffered from
leukemia since January.

Mr. Buchanan first became warden here in 1956 under the
Chandler administration. He remained in office until
l9hh, returning again in l9h7. He retired in 1955 and
served until shortly before his death as Penal Adviser.

Prior to serving as warden, Mr. Buchanan, 78, had been
a deputy sheriff (1922) and a sheriff (1923) of Union
County, Kentucky. In 1952, he was appointed aide to_
Governor Laffoon, and in l9§h he became Deputy U. 3.
Marshall at Owensboro.

While serving as warden, Mr. Buchananyworked to provide
the prisoners with a balanced diet and advocated a
merit system for prison employees. His administration
has been/cited as outstanding in Kentucky penology.
He was outspoken against inmate idleness and estab-
lished a garment factory and knitting mill to help
alleviate the condition. And, although he presided
over 50 executions in his more than l6 years as warden,
he was opposed to capital punishment.

Graveside services and Masonic rites were held March
7th at the Morganfield Cemetery 'with Deputy warden
Lloyd T. Armstrong, Fred McChesney, Jack Greene, George
Humphrey, Thus Duncan, and Hale LeFan serving as pall—
bearers.

Mr. Buchanan was survived by his wife, the former
Margaret Keagy Clements, of Eddyville; a stepsone A. W.
Clements of Louisville; a son, William Jesse Buchanan,
Jr., of Bedford, Massachusetts; a daughter, IMrs. Hugh
Glenn Greene of Eddyville; and seven grandchildren.

Mr. Buchanan had made his home in Eddy-ville since his
final resignation as warden in 1955.

Page 1 CASTLE ON THE“ COMM—BER LANE,

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MICHIGAN CRIME COUNCIL URGES
RENAL CODE REVISION

If the Michigan Crime
Council has its way,
longer be sentenced according to the
crime commited and each case will be
judged according to individual factors,
says the Associated Press.

and Delinquency
offenders will no

In a proposal submitted to the State Bar
Association's Committee On Criminal
JuriSprudenoe, the Council recommended a
maximum term of 5 years for offenders
judged not dangerous to society, and the
elimination of life sentences for all
crimes except first—degree murder.
Other recommendations: Eliminate the
habitual criminal laws; speed processing
of detainers by out=of~state authori-
ties; eliminate the ban on probation for
certain types of crimes; permit the
parole board to release prisoners when-
ever they are actually ready for release
rather than when an arbitrary period of
time has elapsed.

' PRISONERS ABOUT AVERAGE IN INTELLIGENCE

A sociologist employed at the Michigan

State Prison at Menard has published
findings indicating that the average
level of intelligence among prisoners

does not differ significantly from the
level of intelligence among free per—
sons, according to the WEEKLY PROGRESS,

penal publication of the prison at Mar-
quette, Michigan. /
Robert J. Brooks, prison sociologist,

reported in his study that the most in—
telligent group of prisoners (considered
by crimes commited) were those convicted
of fraud. Highest overall IoQo reported
was 132, lowest, 77. Four hundred inn
mates were studied in the tests. .

Brooks says the information derived from
his study was instrumental in revising
the prison's approach to the education
Of inmates o

INMATES ENJOY SPRINGLIKE WEATHER

I N MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY

Think the weather is screwy this winter?
So do we, but no one's complaining.

Last month‘s springlike days brought the
men out of the shops in droves. The
pool tables got a rest, business at the
coffee stands slacked off, and a few
faces turned-pink in the unseasonably
'warm sunshine.

There was even an outdoor basketball
game, and the grunt-and—groaners got the
chance to lift weights out of doors for
a change.

Here in the newspaper office, we left
our door open to take advantage of the
warm, fresh air outside, and our work
suffered not a little bit when the skies
turned blue and cloudless and we simply
had to lock up and get out in it for a
while.

In the cellhouses, there wasn't a single
complaint about the lack of heat. In
fact, the heat stayed off completely
several nights, and we slept under one
blame-to

Even the cats (four-legged variety? quit
begging at the cookshack door long
enough to take an out-of-season interest
in the opposite sex, although we didn't
hear any feline singing under our cell
windows as we so often do in summer.

And here and there on the little mounp
tain that rises just beyond Eddyville's
wall, the trees looked suspiciously
ready to bud.

So if this march issue isn't quite up to
par, blame it on the weatherman. Days
like this, we'd much rather be working
with a spinning reel than a type-
writer.

Spring in.middwinter ...'3 wonderful!

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

Page 2

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Castle News

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REPORT ON' THE LIBRARY —~ CENTER OF LITERACY WITHIN' EDDYVILLE'S STONE WALLS

LIBRARY SMALL BUT POPULAR

It's only a small room, not more than 20
by 50 feet, but it's a mighty important
room to the men of Eddyville Prison.

Located behind the chapel, the library
gives employment to four men: Buford
Cox, Librarian, Jonathan Parks, Chap-
lainVs Secretary, and Jess Moffatt and
Denver Gregory, janitorso Richard
Ditsch, pianist for the chapel, also
lends a hand in the library at times.

There are only about 5000.volumes in the
library, and many of these are worn out
and falling apart; but the books that
are serviceable get a lot of use. Even
more in demand are the paperback novels
and periodicals that the librarians keep
stacked on a long table in the center of
the room. -

Some of the books are stacked on the
floors because there isnit enough shelf
space for them. However, there are plans
for enlarging the library this summer.
If the plans are carried out, capacity
will be almost doubled.

Books and magazines are checked out just
as they are in freemworld libraries, the
only exception being that no one needs
a library cardo The number on his shirt
sufficeso

The library is also the setting for in»
formal discussion sessions with the
Chaplain, sessions in which all the
problems of the world ~— and sometimes
of individuals mm are solved daily.
(See story on Chaplain beginning in cola
umn at righto)

How long has there been a library in
Eddyville Prison? No one seems to know.
But according to an old textbook on
crimin010gy in the shelves, the State of
Kentucky was one of the first to estab~
lish a prison library, 3way back in the
19th Centuryo

KSP CHAPLAIN IS UNUSUAL MAN

On fMarch hth, 1899 mm two years to the
day after William.McKinley took the oath
of office w— the Jaggers family of Hart
County, Kentucky celebrated the birth of
a man child, During the first years of
his life, the boy found nothing to re—
sent in the fact that the presidential
inauguration coincided, every four years
or so, with the date of his own birth.
But, as he grew older and more indepenr
dent, he came to realize the inappro -
priateness of it all. Finally, in 195h,
he decided to do something about it.

“The President and I got together," said
the Reverend Paul Jaggers, "and dis-
cussed the situation, and we decided
that he'd move the inaugural ceremonies
ahead to January 20th, and I”d keep
March hth for my birthday." And then
the lithe, active man who has served as
chaplain of the Kentucky State Peni—
tentiary for 10 of his 65 years cackled
with laughter at his outrageous tale.

It was a rare occasion, for the Chaplain
was at our request talking about him~
self, a subject that this man, who loves
discussion and argument above all other
forms of pleasure, usually avoidso A
liberaluminded Baptist, the Chaplain
makes his office in the prison library,
a small room attached to the chapel and
one of the busiest spots in the instituu
tion. Over the years, this tiny library
has become to an unusual degree a center
of literacy in a place where literacy is
not always considered a virtue.

"I'd like for the library," said the
Chaplain during our interview, "to be
something more than a place where books
are stackedo It should be a forum, a
place where wits are sharpened, a place
where men can come to learn."

The .library is certainly thate The
Chaplain keeps his desk in the back of
(Please turn to Page h}

vi. Page 3

CAsTLs ON THE CUMBERLAND '

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Castle News

KSP CHAPLAIN (CONT)

the room, rather than in a private
office (“My"policy,'" he once said in
reply to a question, "is to be avail-
able"). Throughout the day, highly in-
formal running debates are in progress
almost continually, and anyone who drops
in feels free to enter into them. Quite
often, the debates concern religious
subjects. But in the course of a day,
virtually every field of human knowledge
will have been touched on. There are no
tabus and no rules in the discussions,
and the only qualification is that a
participant be prepared to, back up his
contentions and define his terms.

If the tOpics of the impromptu debates
are varied, so is the education of the
man who stages them. Paul Jaggers began

-his education in the public schools of

Louisville and has never ended it. Al-
though he has attended, among other
schools, the University of Louisville,
the Bryant and Stratton Business College
and the ﬁouthern Baptist Theological
Seminary, where he studied under such
famous teachers as W. O. Carver .and the
great Greek scholar, A. T. Robinson,
Chaplain Jaggers claims he got the beta
ter part of his education when he was
associated with the Seminary library, an
institution that houses from 100 to 150
thousand volumes.

"Forty years ago," he said, "the schools
concentrated on reading and arithmetic,
the two basic subjects a man needs in
life. If you teach a man to read and to
know his numbers, and then turn htn
loose in a good library, you've opened
the doors to him as wide as if he'd
spent years in a university." He paused
and gestured out the library ‘window.
"But knowledge is where you find it," he
went on. "And men can teach us more
than books. I always try to let the
other man talk a little, too, because
I've found that I can learn something
from every man I meet."

Reverend Jaggers has had ample oppor-

tunity to meet people in his busy life,
and in the process he has developed a
rare, unsenttnental love for mankind.
In addition to teaching psychology and
English, he has been a pastor for some
he years. His first church was Grace
Baptist in Louisville. In ho years, he
has had but one other, the Portland Bap-
tist of the same city.

A practical and tough-minded preacher,

Chaplain Jaggers' sermons -- which seem

always calculated to appeal to the rea-

son rather than to the emotions --

almost invariably deal with the relation

of religion to human affairs. "Too many

men," he said in one sermon, "try to

stand in the present dragging the bur-

dens of the past and tugging at the

coattails of the future." And in

another: "Religion is not concerned with
your comfort, not even with making you

happy. It can show you the way to be
happy ... bﬁt‘ you have to take it from

there."

At 63, Chaplain Jaggers is still physi~
cally robust and eager to enjoy life.
Fishing and camping occupy much of his
scanty leisure time, although he's apt
to carry books as well as rod and reel
to the country. For years he and a
friend used their fishing excursions as
opportunities to discuss and argue
philos0phy and literature and kindred
subjects in the kind of settings that
another philosopher -- a Greek named
Socrates -- loved best.

Quite often, too, the Chaplain and his
wife take to the road for relaxation,
mostly to see " ...the things that man
has made and the things that man hasn’t
made," as he puts it. Over the years,
they've managed to cover most of the
United States as well as nearby count~
ries such as Cuba and Mexico. This year
he's debating whether to attend the
Seattle WOrld's Fair or to travel in the
Southwest, a region of which he’s
especially fond.

(Please turn to Page 5}

CASTLE ON THE CUMBERLAND

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