COLORADO'S SHAME
Horrible Practices Shown to Exist in the State Reformatory
An investigative report exposes torture and financial disorder at a Colorado state reformatory, describing prisoners hung by their wrists until unconscious — a brutal, largely erased chapter in American penal history.
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San Antonio Daily Light · March 22, 1895 · Page 1
1 min readDenver, March 22.
Every charge made against the reformatory at Buena Vista is sustained by the report of the special committee of the board of charities and correction, appointed to investigate the management of this institution.
Cruel and inhuman punishment, the testimony shows, has been practiced at this institution, and crimes, shocking to morality, are common. Men have been hung up by the wrists until they became unconscious. In one instance it was testified that Deputy Warden Hoyt jumped upon a prisoner so manacled and strung up, and hung his whole weight upon the suspended man. The whole management of the institution is shown as brutal and demoralizing. As to the financial affairs of the institution, it is shown that practically no books are kept.
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