Throughout the Diary, many formally incarcerated people discussed the harsh treatment either they faced or they witnessed others face. Often this inhumane violence came from the wardens or prison keepers. One incident of punishment that was mentioned by multiple people to Hopper involved Barney Smith. Not much is known about Barney Smith just that he was often the victim of violence.

Samuel Boyce, a 37 year old Irish man who was convicted of grand larceny and sent to Sing Sing, was one of the ten people in the Diary who reported about Smith to Hopper. According to Boyce, Smith complained of not feeling well and left work to go to the hospital. However, Smith never made it to his destination because Robert Lent, a prison keeper, beat him with his club and then locked him in his cell.

After an hour, Wells, the Warden, then beat, “the man while naked on his head, hands and shoulders till the blood ran profusely from his finger ends.” 

Boyce went on to tell Hopper that, “it is a quite common occurrence to see both Wells and Lent beating the prisoners with their canes or clubs.” George Boerem, a 24 year old New York City native who was at Sing Sing for burglary, supported Boyce’s account about Smith. He too also witnessed the incident. Elkanah Shaw, another New York City native who was 33 year old and convicted of grand larceny, saw Lent hit Smith too and reported Lent for bad behavior. James O’Brien, another Irish immigrant at Sing Sing for grand larceny, told Hopper that Lent often beats prisoners and watched him beat Barney as well.

John Donovan, a native from Ireland, gave a long account to Hopper about the treatment of Barney by the wardens. He recounted that Barney threw a small stone at the wardens that missed them and yelled, “stop that talk.” Donovan stated that, “This put Lent in a violent passion and he flew at Barney and with the assistance of other helping threw him down and jumped upon his breast and head, until the blood run out of his mouth and nose.” Wells then ordered for Barney to be showered and then dressed. However, Barney refused to dress and in retaliation to not following his orders, Wells, “beat him over the head with his cane and then with an ox whip until he wore it out. He then took the handle and beat him till he shivered to pieces.”

These are just six prisoners accounts of the incident with Barney Smith, four other prisoners also came forward to Hopper and with supporting details about the mistreatment of Smith in particular.

As Donovan put it, “Lent has not human feelings.”

This was only one example of administration mistreating prisoners at Sing Sing. Hopper mentioned other incidents of violence within the Diary as well that continue to raise many questions surrounding what was legal within the prison system for wardens to do to prisoners.