NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
On-Line Library

30
HELL IN NEBRASKA

uses inmate labor only. To the east of the new building is the greenhouse, located in the center of a beautiful little park. In the greenhouse can be seen two of the curiosities of the prison, an ever blooming Lantana Vine, sixteen years old, which has become as large as a tree, and perhaps the largest goldfish in the state, "Old Bill." The boys say that he is serving a life sentence for he has been there longer than any other inmate, and seems to be perfectly satisfied. The greenhouse is managed by a life term prisoner, who loves his work and raises many beautiful oleanders, palms, and hybiscus, cacti, and many other rare plants and flowers.

From the greenhouse we pass to the workshops. There is a chair factory turning out some of the most beautiful reed and rattan chairs, some retailing as high as forty dollars: Then there is a broom factory and a whiskbroom factory. These three factories employ about two hundred men. There is a modern laundry, and a cold storage plant, and the

 
HELL IN NEBRASKA
31

engine rooms and the "hanghouse," which is now being torn down as there will be no more hangings in Nebraska. You have now seen the inside of the prison from start to finish, as the average visitor sees it. In the following chapter I will show it to you as the incoming prisoner sees it.