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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
I
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: STEPHEN WILDSTROM
I
The 'Hole' Truth
HE "HOLE" IN the Washtenaw County
jail is an anachronism, a chamber of
dark horrors which should be perma-
nently closed.
Sheriff Douglas Harvey, members of
the sheriff's committee of the County
Board of Supervisors, and tk-e Ann Arbor
News defend the hole because they do
not want criminals coddled. As they see
it, the same tendency to anti-social be-
havior which originally necessitates jail-
ing the inmates will occasionally find ex-
pression within prison walls. They thus
contend that the hole helps preserve
order within the jail.
But the Washtenaw County jail is not
adequate to provide rehabilitation for the
prisoners. Even Harvey says he has been
asking for a new jail for some time now.
The jail, like many small jails, has no
recreational facilities-no yard for the
prisoners to play catch with a baseball,
no garden for the prisoners to cultivate,
no shop for the prisoners to work in. The
prisoners, in short are provided with little
exercise or constructive activities. Is it
therefore unusual in these circumstances
that they will take out pent-up aggres-
sions on fellow-inmates or turnkeys?
JAIL OFFICIALS are obligated to protect
everyone concerned by isolating the
aggressive inmate, but should he be
treated no better than an animal? The
prisoner is not just confined; he is
thrown into a black 6 by 7 foot cement pit
which has no bed, no toilet or floor-drain,
which receives air only from tiny holes
above the door which, in fact is stripped
of everything but two pipes along the
ceiling.
Nor is banishment to the hole re-
stricted to the violent inmate. Two groups
of anti-war protesters, serving a 1965
trespassing conviction, were recently
thrown into the hole because they were
caught with small toilet paper fires in
their cells. For this offense (both fires-
used to make hot chocolate-were set by
a "regular" who wasn't a protester), one
group of 7 was subjected to a week of
punishment-two days in the hole,' and
5 days in the "steel cell." While impossible
to prove that either group was "set up,"
one of the turnkeys (before the incident)
said he was going to "get' the prisoners.
Even more disturbing is the case of a
University law student placed into the
incorrigible cell for making a wisecrack.
Although not arraigned or even informed
with what he would be charged with, he
was thrown into the hole for a night when
he asked an officer'who was marking an
information card "W" for "Color" whether
"that was significant for the dispensation
of justice around here."
IN BOTH incidents, people were thrown
in the hole and were denied access to
toilet facilities. When the law student
hollered for a turnkey, no one responded;
when the protesters asked to be let out,
they were told to "do it in your pants"
and "use the floor."
The experience of the protesters and
the law student exemplify the practical
problems connected with the hole. Police-
men being what they are, the decision to
place an inmate in the hole is often arbi-
trary. Studies of policemen consistently
demonstrate that the person who joins
the police force usually has an authori-
tarian personality, and a black and white
view of right and wrong. These person-
ality traits affect his notion of his own
role; and the constitution and the law
are often considered impediments to his
work. Because his ideal world is highly
ordered and rigidly structured, he is an-
noyed by non-conformity. Because he is
an arbiter of good and evil, he resents
what he conceives as threats to his
authority.
While no studies have been made of the
Washtenaw County Police, these elements
don't seem to be missing here. The law
student, because he was a law student and
because he refused to be cowed (he re-
calls, "He gave me the distinct impres-
sion that if I would just apologize and
admit I was wrong he would have taken
me home and dropped the whole thing")
had to be taught a lesson.
SOMETHING NEEDS to be done, prefer-
ably something which will protect in-
mates from these eccentricities of the
police personality without hindering po-
lice efforts to protect other prisoners.
,Minute by minute outside supervision of
the internal administration of the prison
would place the police in an awkward
position; it would indeed undermine their
authority. The solution is to insist that
brutal forms of police punishment be
abolished, especially the hole. If solitary
confinement is necessary, it should be
under conditions which do not resemble
the psychological terror tactics of Stalin
and the Gestapo.
-STEPHEN FIRSHEIN
Associate Managing Editor, '67-'68
-URBAN LEHNER
Editorial Director
"It's a Running Battle, But We Here at the University
Prefer to Consider it an 'Academic' Pursuit."
NO, SCHOOL isn't out and summer vacation hasn't
begun, but for the outgoing Senior Editors the year
is over. The twelve months we spent in office have been,
for us, one extended and exciting experience, but a new
and talented administration has taken command and all
we can do is reminisce on the year that was.
We are caught up in the midst of an important era
at the University, one in which definite indications have
begun to form of the way the multiversity is seeking to
find its identity. Ann Arbor has always been an interest-
ing place to go to school, not only for students but for
faculty members and administrators. But for me the
University has proven to be an amorphous mass; one is
unable to conquer it as an individual and tends to suc-
cumb to its enormous size and complexity.
People attempt to mask their alienation in various
manners: some seclude themselves in libraries 12 hours a
day, some spend their time at sports events or in front of
the tube, some join fraternities and sororities, some be-
come involved in campus activities, and some join The
Daily. They work to convince themselves that everything
is rosy, that college can be a utopia of sorts, but none seem
to be prepared to cope with life when they graduate. Last
year at this time I began looking forward to summer, a
job and some trips around the country. I wanted to forget
that which I couldn't comprehend and lose myself in the
'corporeal' world. I had almost succeeded in convincing
myself that all was fine.
BUT NOW THINGS are different. Summer no longer
means escape, but brings into reality a fear of being
drafted. For the first time in my life I feel like I'm under
the point of the gun, and I'm scared. For seniors, the
universal atmosphere is one of extreme apprehension.
"Spring Cleaning, Mr. Pierpont ?"
THAT
WAS
THE
YEAR
THAT
WAS
The enlightenment or knowledge that I have gained
here at the University have not really prepared me for
what awaits graduating seniors this May. But most stu-
dents will be returning next fall. Byron Groesbeck, as-
sistant dean of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies,
assures us that about only one out of six graduate stu-
dents here will be subject to conscription. Many students
will continue their deferments in medical or dental
school. Most undergraduates will remain undergraduates.
The cartoons on this page are intended for those who
will be here next fall.
THE ARTISTIC ENDEAVOR was done by, Jan Hol-
comb, a friend of mine, who already has done two covers
for the sometimes-published Daily Magazine, and who,
more recently did the SGC caricatures for Gargoyle. The
illustrations demonstrate some of the high points of cam-
pus activity this year and pretty well speak for them-
selves.
The Fleming cartoon, takes us back to last October's
revelation that the University, supposedly a bastion of
academic freedom, was conducting a million dollar secret
counter-insurgency project in Thailand. This was fol-
lowed by a sit-in teach-in at the Administration Build-
ing, and more recently the Elderfield Committee's faculty
report that classified research was all right as long as it
didn't kill anyone ....
The Pierpont caricature brings to mind some of the
mistakes of the University's vice-president and chief
financial officer: his determination to fight Public Act
379, his involvement in last spring's Unversity land sale
to the Stepar Corporation, and the failure of his pre-
sentation to. the state' Legislature to garner the needed
appropriations.
The cartoon inthe lower right-hand corner illustrates
the failure of city of Ann Arbor to allow students to take
part in the municipal' decision-making process, and the
difficulty students have in even registering to vote.
The ApartmentseLimited joke needs no explanation.
It speaks well for itself.
THE FOOTBALL CARICATURE brings to mind The
Daily's most sensitive news story of the past year. It
amazes me that one is able to pick on almost anyone in
society at almost anytime. But when the University's
football team is placed under investigation everyone
seems to go wild. It really makes me wonder what our
society is all about.
There were other important stories on campus this
year, it is true. These are just a sample.
-JOHN LOTTIER
Asst. Editorial Director, '67-'68
4
On Immediate Withdrawal
IT IS EXTREMELY depressing to note
that even at this late date in the his-
tory of the Vietnam war there has yet to-
arise a truly meaningful dialogue con-
cerning the rationale of the initial U.S.
military presence there and throughout
the rest of the Third World.
Thus far the bulk of the Vietnam de-
bate has dealt with "more practical"
problems: can we win? should we halt
the bombing? how strong is the National
Liberation Front? what about the "peace
feelers?" etc. The "dove" campaign of
Senator Eugene McCarthy continues in
its expected failure to transcend the
tactical arguments-we find him in basic
support of the U.S. commitment in Asia
and, in his argument that Vietnam is a
bad vwar for tactical reasons, he remains
in basic support of the rhetoric and
practice of hard-line cold-war anti-coml-
munism.
In short, McCarthy argues that Viet-
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Editorial Staff
MARK LEVIN, Editor
STEPHEN WILDSTROM URBAN LEHNER
Managing Editor) Editorial Director
DAVID KNOKE, Executive Editor
WALLACE IMMEN ...................... News Editor
PAT O'DONOHUE .................. .. News Editor
DANIEL OKRENT.F.......... .eature Editor
LUCY KENNEDY................ Personnel Director
nam is too costly a war ($35 billion per
year) and maybe we should get out so
that we don't over-extend ourselves. But
if American hegemony can prevail rela-
tively cheaply in Bolivia, South Africa
and Thailand, then indeed it should.
There has yet to come the challenge
of this government's right to "fight for
freedom" ("protect corporate order")
wherever it can do so quietly.
'THIS CLEARLY will not do. The U.S.
government has placed itself, partly
in the name of anti-communism and
partly in the name of a social scientists'
preoccupation with the world's reform,
in the position of opposing revolution and
supporting military rule throughout the
world.
To be sure this is not wholly by choice.
If the world's poor would only keep quiet
and "wait" until this government's de-
mands for liberal, reformist democracy
can be fulfilled, then perhaps there
would be no military rules.
But people are not waiting, not in
Africa, not in Asia, not in Latin America.
And when push comes to shove, our own
"liberal democracy" will favor the mili-
tary every time in order to protect the
status quo.
Americans must now decide, while the
issue is clearly at hand, whether we wish
to continue throughout the rest of the
world the role we are now playing in
Vietnam. If not, then the only rational
and realistic argument to make about
Vietnam is to call for immediate and
unconditional withdrawal of all U.S.
'troops, and to acknowledge once and for
Taking Candy from a Baby: Ann Arbor Style
WW~ I
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