Prison walls, locked gates and armed guards need not be barriers to the mind. The living proof of this is a group of convicts at Norfolk State Prison Colony who annually out-smart and out-talk top college debaters from all over New England.

In recent years the Norfolk Debaters, as the group calls itself, has become one of the strongest debating teams in the country. A glance at its record against collegiate competition will show why. Since 1936, when they began debating colleges, the convicts have won 44 debates and lost only 15.

In eight debates against Harvard, Norfolk this record in mind it is not surprising that the Crimson debaters rank Norfolk along with Yale as their toughest competition. After three successive defeats to Norfolk in the last two years, Harvard finally managed to pull out a victory two weeks ago, but only against the convicts' second or third team.

Winning Streak

As a matter of fact the Crimson's November victory broke a winning streak of 11 consecutive victories for Norfolk which included wins over Williams, M.I.T., Columbia, Holy Cross, Boston University and Oxford.

The Oxford victory on February 17 of this year was the supreme triumph of the Debaters' history for it came against a highly touted and successful team from the English university which boasted eight successive victories over American colleges--including one over Harvard. It was also the prison's first international debate; but not its last. In March Norfolk debated Canada's McGill and next week will face two English students now studying law at Harvard who will represent Cambridge University.

In its 17 season of collegiate debating, Norfolk has compiled winning records against 13 of its 19 opponents. Besides Harvard and Oxford they include Boston University (12-1), Columbia (1-0), Clark (2-1), Connecticut (1-0), M.I.T. (8-2), Massachusetts (2-0), McGill (1-0), Princeton (1-0), Providence (1-0), Suffolk University (1-0), Williams (2-0) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1-0).

The only blotches on Norfolk's record, if they can be so considered, are a 1-1 tie with American International College of Springfield, a 2-2 tie with Holy Cross, a 3-2 record with Boston College and a single loss to Tufts.

Formed in 1931

The story behind the Norfolk Debaters' amazing record is an unusual and astounding one. Although it did not begin debating colleges until 1936, the group was formed in 1931 as part of a progressive approach to prison administration inaugurated by Howard B. Gill '13, superintendent at Norfolk from 1927 to 1934.

Two years after the Norfolk Debaters were organized, Superintendent Gill was dismissed by Governor Joseph B. Ely. He was charged with failure to maintain discipline. Apparently some prisoners took advantage of Gill's liberal approach and a few small-scale disturbances broke out.

May 2, 1937 the convicts took on M.I.T., their first collegiate opposition and won. Since 1938 Norfolk has been debating college teams only.

Under the present administration of Superintendent Frank B. Coughlin, the Norfolk Debaters have really thrived. It has fast become one of the most popular activities among the inmates. This year the group is 45 strong and still growing.

Not all of the 45 are active debaters. The group is open to all of the 700 inmates and a good number of them join the debate club as auditors. Of the 45 members, though, about 15 are good enough to be potential debaters for outside competition.

When the Debaters begin to prepare for a debate they assign a four man squad to the job. The squad divides up into groups of two, and each prepares a case for a practice debate to be held before the rest of the club. The winning group in practice then begins to prepare for the debate itself.