Six Prisoners Entered Federal Prison Yesterday.
Two of Them on Whom the Steel Door Shut Are Past Sixty-Five Years of Age-Both Sentenced for Pension Fraud.
The first prisoners to pass through the steel door of the new federal prison went in yesterday afternoon. The men-six in number-were under the watchful eye of Chief Deputy Marshal J.H. Rinard.
Two of the prisoners,m whose ages made them particularly noticeable, were G.W. Clarke, an white man, 65 years old, and Caesar Davis, a negro, who has recently passed the prescribed limit of three score and ten years. The two old men are serving sentences of five years each for violating the United States pension law. The prisoners transferred to the new prison yesterday began serving their sentences in the Fulton county jail, as the new prison was not ready for occupancy at the time of their conviction, which was at the October term of the United States court before Judge Newman. The other lawbreakers transferred to the new prison yesterday were R.D. Stallings, of Carroll county, who will serve a five years' sentence for counterfeiting. Handy Middlebrook, a negro, will serve three years for a similar offense. John Sanford, convicted of robbing a postoffice, will serve three years and J.H Henson and Oscar Bishop will serve fifteen months each for making "moonshine" whisky.
Davis is the only one of the prisoners received yesterday whose home is in this county.
United States Marshal Walter Johnson received a message yesterday stating that the federal prison was ready for the reception of prisoners. He notified Warden Hawk, who had the seven federal prisoners in his charge, to remove them to the new prison. None of the prisoners expressed any dissatisfaction at the change of quarters.
There was no formal ceremony at the opening of the new prison. A deputy marshal, under instructions from Marshal Johnson's office, brought the prisoners to the new prison, where they were assigned to their respective cells without delay.
source citation:
"PRISON DOORS SHUT IN EARNEST," news, The Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, 31 January 1902, six prisoners entered federal prison yesterday; online image, Ancestry.com (search.ancestryinstitution.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=6789&path=1902.1.31.5 : accessed 7 August 2012).
