Yuma Prison

Yuma Prison

The Yuma prison opened in 1876 and closed in 1909. In its thirty-three year history it housed 3,069 prisoners, 29 of them women. The women I think were incarcerated because they were ugly. But mug shots are never really flattering. In addition to the regular murderers, robbers, counterfeiters, grand larcenists, and Sabbath breakers, there were 27 arrested for adultery. Imagine the overcrowding today if adulterers were still arrested.

The strap iron cells with their thick adobe walls are about six feet wide and twelve feet tall with vaulted ceilings. Six prisoners were entombed in each cell. In its thirty-three year history Yuma Prison only had one genuine riot and two successful escapes. One prisoner, incarcerated for murder, shot the fellow who was sticking a knife into the warden’s neck and was thus rewarded with a pardon and a letter of recommendation. A hero like that should be turned loose to the public. That’s my opinion anyway.

One female prisoner was arrested for being a poet. Perhaps more accurately prison life brought out the poetry in her. Her name is Pearl. The following is a sample of her work. She may have benefitted by reading some poetry first, but the important thing is that she got all the information into the poem. And each line rhymes. My favorite couplet is

We saw it [the stagecoach] coming around the bend and called to them to halt,
And to their pockets we attended, if they got hurt it was their fault.

I can see the logic in that, and why worry about meter when the muse is upon you. Bonnie Parker couldn’t have done it better with her ‘rat-a-tat-tat.’ If only the judge had read poetry. But it was her skinny horse that betrayed her.

One more day they would not have got us, but my horse got sore and thin,
And my Partner was a mean Cuss, so Billy Truman roped us in.

It makes one almost sorry Pearl Poet's horse got sore and thin. Who knows how much more poetry she would have written. Was it Pearl who said my ‘kingdom for a horse’? or was that her cussed partner? or was it Shakespere? Great poets just sort of run together. rkm