From: divine_austerlitz@hotmail.com   
      
   I have been reading in _Gold Dust and Gunsmoke_ by John Boessenecker,   
   about the prison known then as the Stones, which later came to be known   
   as San Quentin.  The author says that, in the 1850s, for two years,   
   there was no outer wall around the prison, the guards were poorly paid   
   and often drunk, and trusties were armed with guns and assigned to guard   
   duty.  Further, when there was discipline, it was often brutal.  It says   
   that there were many escapes, especially among prisoners sent out on   
   wood chopping details.   
      
   That there were many escapes under these conditions does not at all   
   surprise me.  What surprises me is that any prisoners stayed.  The   
   author says that the guards had a cannon loaded with grapeshot and   
   mentions them using it, but it is clear that any prisoner who wanted to   
   escape, didn't have to face it.  Until 1861, the prison was leased out   
   and run for profit. With such a high number of escapes, how could the   
   lessee have made a profit or even have expected to do so?   
      
   The author provides sources in his notes, but I haven't had a chance to   
   check them out but it does seem rather incredible.  Does anyone know   
   anything more about this?   
      
   --   
   Céline   
      
   'Porter already knew that the Confederates were chopping down trees   
   ahead of the expedition; he now learned that they were doing the same   
   thing behind it.'   
                   - A Naval History of the civil war by Howard P Nash Jr   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)