During revolutions, however, when the prisons were
overcrowded, the political prisoners were kept in irons and
supervision was rigid. According to law the functionaries of each
court of first instance were supposed to visit and examine the jails
once a month, but as the date of their visit was known beforehand the
inspection was little more than perfunctory. Not very long ago it was
whispered in the Cibao that a judge in inspecting a jail accidentally
passed through a door to a room he was evidently not expected to
enter, and there to his own embarrassment and that of the warden found
a score of prisoners whose names were not on the prison rolls.
The more serious offenders were kept in irons. The Dominican
authorities, realizing that they had no reason to be proud of their
prisons, were loath to permit foreigners to visit the jails. When I
called at the government building at Sanchez on one occasion, however,
the commandant was absent and an indiscreet sergeant offered to show
me the two rooms used for prison purposes. The building was a wooden
one and one of the rooms, though heavily barred, did not seem unfitted
except in case of overcrowding, which I was told sometimes occurred.
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