Wilkins Shows Anger at Questions and Procedure Used By Dillon And Ely--Charges Gill Examination "Unfair"

Fireworks popped merrily at the Gill hearing yesterday when, incensed with the procedure followed by Governor Ely and Commissioner Dillon, Raymond S. Wilkins, counsel for the Norfolk head, charged that the hearing was "very unfair," and that Gill "has not had a full opportunity to answer the allegations."

Shortly after 10 o'clock, when Dillon called the assembly to order, it became apparent that Wilkins was getting angry, and that he was prepared to drop his passivity of the first two days. Dillon stated that the day's work would begin with allegation 17. Wilkins and Gill insisted that number 16, charging the Superintendent with laxity toward drunken prisoners, be continued from the previous day. When Dillon acquiesced, the following interchange took place:

Wilkins-Dillon Bout

Gill: Smuggled liquor is common to all prisons.

Dillon: That statement has nothing to do with the present case.

Wilkins (heatedly): Much was said yesterday on your side which had nothing to do with the specifications. We did not object. We wish to give a proper perspective, and we assume that we can consider what has been done elsewhere. We wish to make clear our purpose.

Dillon: This, I presume, is for the record. Someone may want to write a book.

Wilkins: Well, you may, if you want to.

A few minutes later, when Gill attempted to read into the testimony a passage from a book by Sheldon Glueck, Instructor at Harvard in Social Ethics, the following tilt ensued:

Dillon: In view of this (Gill's reading), do you still say that you are not being given a full opportunity to answer the specifications?

Wilkins: Yes, since you ask the question, we have not been given a full chance to answer the specifications. We have not been furnished with copies of the Hurley testimony, which you have before you. Then, there is your arbitrary decision that we must proceed with the allegations in numerical order, a thing which we are not prepared to do.

Dillon: Is that unfair?

Hearing Unfair

Wilkins: It is very unfair. Furthermore, we had only a few days in which to prepare our case. I didn't intend to say this, but you asked me.

Dillon: It's all right with me.

In charging unfairness, Wilkins must have known that he was on dangerous ground; for at least the forms of a hearing have been followed, and, as always in such cases, it was difficult to point out specific evidence. Beneath his smouldering words, however, there appeared to lie three very general complaints against the conduct of the hearing:

(a) That Mr. Gill's judges insist upon examining trivial matters of administration at length, and at the same time impede the defendant's efforts to explain in detail important new penological concepts, which, because they are new, are not convincing unless fully outlined and backed by records.

(b) That Mr. Gill is discouraged in attempts to compare Norfolk's record with that of any other institution.

(c) That often the questions presented to Mr. Gill resemble those of a prosecuting attorney, rather than those which one would expect of a judge.

A partial glimpse of the testimony may serve to indicate why Mr. Wilkins feels as he apparently does.

Hacksaw Blades

Under allegation 18, that a prisoner who had tried to escape was found later to have rubber gloves and hacksaw blades in his room, the testimony ran thus:

Gill (searching for papers): I think I can explain this, Mr. Commissioner, If--

Dillon: Never mind that, Mr. Gill. I'd like to ask you just one question. Did the man have those things in his room?

Gill: It was so reported to me.

Dillon: That's all I want to know. (Loud groan from the crowd. Dillon takes up the questioning. Eventually Ely intervenes, gives Gill a chance to explain.)

Black and White

Under allegation 21, that an inmate received a visit from a woman friend, and was later found a mile and a half beyond the walls, driving the woman's car, there was considerable discussion. Then the following took place:

Dillon: Excuse me a minute, Mr. Gill, but the inmate in question was a negro, wasn't he?

Gill: Why, yes. He was a negro.

Dillon: And the woman, was she a negro or white? (Crowd gasps.)

Gill: I don't see . . . Yes, she was white.

"On The Bench"

Under allegation 13, that there was a shortage in the prison store funds, and that no punishment had been meted out:

Dillon: What were the punishments for trivial offenses?

Gill: Well, we had one thing, called "sitting on the bench.". . . The men had to sit, all their leisure hours, on a bench outside the office, and be on call for menial work around the place.

Dillon: Do the men sit on the bench, an ordinary wooden bench?

Gill: Yes.

Dillon: Will you explain to me, Mr. Gill, how a man can do such work while he is sitting on a bench? (This went on for some time.