Radio in the walls

Looking up DeForest’s Unit Panel system, ran into an article in Gernsback’s Radio News from June 1928.

Radio in the Ohio State Pen, by 52607.

Conditions were definitely different when I was in Mansfield in 1969. If this article is accurate, the inmates of 1928 had far more latitude and trust.

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The greatest step for the betterment of conditions in our American prisons is directly due to the influence of radio. Radio has done more to enlighten, instruct, and create a desire in the prisoner to return to respectability than all the legislation our assemblies can write into the books with the idea of diminishing crime.

Jails and penitentiaries are made for those who have little to lose, and fancy they have much to gain, by crime. Were we to open the question of comparative guilt between sinners who are in bonds and sinners whom the law cannot touch, this article would expand into a volume. We must leave the inequalities of human justice to balance themselves, while we examine briefly what radio is doing for prisoners behind the cold frowning ramparts of the Ohio Penitentiary.

There are probably more radio sets in the confines of the Ohio Penitentiary than in an equal area anywhere in the world. Just how many there are, no one knows. Between 900 and 1,000 sets would be a conservative estimate.

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Sinners whom the law cannot touch is an eternal truth.

When I was in Mansfield in 1969, radios were not allowed. The prison ran its own closed-circuit “radio”, basically an intercom, which operated for a few hours each night. Each cell had a box with phone plugs, and each inmate had a pair of headphones. The “station” was operated by inmate DJs, who had to conform to the rules.

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Less than an hour ago, I heard one prisoner say, “That little ‘box’ may make a lot of racket; but it helps me while away the long hours, keeps my mind far removed from my imprisonment, my troubles, and above all, it keeps me in touch with the outer world.”

The speaker, a bank robber doing a long term, is the proud possessor of a little one-tube set. What he said goes for practically every prisoner in this and every other prison in America.

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In touch with the outer world is crucial for nonprofessionals who can be straightened out. While you’re in the walls you need to look forward. After you’re on the bricks you shouldn’t look back.

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The Ohio penitentiary has done much to furnish Central Ohio radio stations with excellent talent to diversify their programs. Warden PE Thomas has repeatedly supplied prison talent to stations WEAO, WAIU, WLW, and others. Incidentally, the talent is on par with that heard over leading midwestern stations. This is best evidenced by the fact that after each program in which the prisoners appear before the microphone, hundreds of letters and gifts for the entertainers pour into the prison post office.

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Also not allowed in 1969. WLW was the nationally heard Crosley powerhouse in Cincy, so the inmates were establishing a national reputation and making national connections.

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To be sure, some reformers started a series of howls that reverberated from one end of the state to the other, but their efforts availed them little if anything. To illustrate just bow much some of these would-be reformers really know about prisons and prisoners, I will relate a little incident that occurred last Sunday. We were in our cells and a party of visitors were being escorted through one of the corridors. “Why, officer,” exclaimed one, her eyes as big as saucers, “they have aerials and radios in here!” “Yes, ma’am,” replied an “egg” on an upper tier. “And some of us even got ears and brains!”

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The “reformers” of 1928 were also opposite to modern reformers. Those older “reformers” wanted to eliminate all contact with the world. Judging by conditions in 1969, their howls availed. Modern “reformers” want to eliminate prison entirely, which is even worse.

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Warden Thomas does not object to the men having their radio sets. He will tell you that they improve the morale of the men. “When they are listening in on their radio sets,” said the Warden, “they are not hatching plots to escape or make trouble. And the worst punishment I can inflict upon an unruly prisoner is to take away his radio set.”

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Wise warden! He understood the proper purpose of punishment and reward. Reformers at both ends don’t understand.

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Tech footnote 1: 52607 doesn’t say how the prisoners acquired the tubes and batteries. Radios needed new batteries and tubes fairly often, so I’d guess the commissary must have sold them. Relying on parents or friends to send the parts would have been clumsy and insecure.

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Tech footnote 2: Those one-tube rigs were performing quite well inside a literal Faraday Cage of metal, which happens to look a lot like the DeForest Unit Panel. The lower end of the radio spectrum isn’t bothered much by walls. Modern “communication” is all in the UHF and SHF parts of the spectrum, which are tightly restricted by walls. The only way to get in touch with the outside world is through officially authorized translators and transponders. It’s all closed-circuit intercom now.

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Footnote on Don’t Look Back: Mansfield is 50 years in the past, so I can look back now without harm. The 2020 universal worldwide prison and torture camp is still fresh, so I can’t look back without stirring up a whole batch of unnecessary panic and anger, thus ACCOMPLISHING THE PURPOSES of the monsters. I have to look forward, focusing on the unmistakable signs of improvement in SOME dysgovernments and institutions. The US dysgovernment shows no signs of improvement on any score, overall functioning or wars or the Public “Health” genocide.

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Numerical footnote: The author was 52607 in ’28. I was 77251 in ’69. The numbers applied to the whole state prison system, not just Mansfield, because long-termers would graduate to the state pen in Columbus after doing undergrad at Mansfield or Lebanon. If there wasn’t a restart of the numbering or reuse of old numbers, this would imply that about 25k inmates had entered the system between ’28 and ’69. This seems awfully low by modern standards, but this Wiki page has some national data that seems to fit. From 1940 to 1970 the total currently in the walls increased by 80k. This is intakes minus releases; can’t find a pure count of intakes only. Ohio is about 5% of national population, so its intakes minus releases would be about 5% of 80k or 4k. This would generally fit with 25k intakes-only in that period. Most sentences were fairly short, so the turnover was fairly fast.

After 1970 we started imprisoning far more people with much less purpose or effect. Parkinson as always. Keep the budget increasing in a way that doesn’t solve any problems.