The bedrooms are plain yet light and cheerful apartments, not over-large, but as fresh and airy as an abundance of open windows can make them. Each prisoner has his own little iron bedstead, with straw pallet and pillow, and a coloured counterpane, and his name is boldly written at the head. The utmost care is taken to lodge the prisoners according to age, character, and characteristics. "We have separate bedrooms for the old, the middle-aged, and the young, separate rooms also for the first offenders and for the recidivists," said the Labour Inspector who showed me round the institution, "for we study peculiarities as much as possible. We also study their comfort," he added, "for we put all the snorers together."
The day begins for the inmates at 4.30 during the summer months (April 1 to September 30), and at 5.30 during winter and on Sundays and festivals. The hours are divided as follows:--
4.30 a.m.--At the sound of the bell every prisoner has to rise, dress, and wash, and in a quarter of an hour must have arranged his bedclothes and be ready to leave the dormitory.
4.45 a.m.--Assembling in the corridors the prisoners are numbered, after which (so runs the "Order of the Day"), "they shall offer up at word of command (_auf Commando_) a silent prayer." Then the field labourers, the implement room workers, and the bakers go to the dining rooms, and the weavers, tailors, shoemakers, cigar makers, and the female inmates to the workrooms, there to begin at once their work.
4.50 a.m.--The bell sounds for the morning meal (soup and bread), the inmates going to the same in bands in charge of the overseers.
9.0 a.m.--Work is then continued without interruption until 9.0, when there is a pause for a quarter of an hour for bread and beer.
11.40 a.m.--A pause for dinner, which is partaken like breakfast in bands. (For the outside labourers a different order is followed.)
12.0 to 1.0 p.m.--A pause, during which the prisoners have at least half an hour in the open air.
4.0 p.m.--A pause of a quarter of an hour for bread and beer.
7.15 p.m. (in winter and on Sundays and festivals, 6.15).--The bell rings for supper, and work ends for the day.
7.50 p.m.--The prisoners are examined for the detection of forbidden articles, and at 7.55 they are marched off to bed.