KinSource - Tale of the Week - A Workhouse For Prisoners

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

Hennepin County Mirror, June 8, 1883, p. 1

A WORKHOUSE FOR PRISONERS.

The Pressing Need of a Place Where Criminals Can Work.

THE MIRROR has persistently urged the need of a reformatory institution for the petty criminals and vagrants of Hennepin county, in the shape of a workhouse; something on the plan of those at Louisville, Detroit and Cleveland; but our county and city officials have lacked conscience and wisdom enough to devise and carry out anything for the amelioration of this class of people, that we have begun to despair of every seeing a reformation. That there is urgent need for something to be done, there is no doubt, and we are glad to hear that such men as Judges Young and Mahoney and Chief Munger, are in favor of some system. We condense the following statement of the condition of the jail, and the views of the gentlemen mentioned above, taken from the Pioneer of Monday:

SHERIFF STODDARD

was asked what he had to say on the subject of a workhouse. "I have nothing to say on the subject, but I can show you the condition of the jail." On entering and examining the record it was found that there were sixty-six prisoners confined there, nearly all of whom were serving out short sentences from the municipal court. Fully two-thirds of these are sent up for drunkenness, and many of them are not there for the first time. Of the sixty-six persons confined there, nine are women, most of them sentenced for drunkenness and the remainder for vagrancy.

"What do these women do to spend their time while serving their sentence?"

"Come up this way and I will show you." The sheriff led the way up to a room on the second floor, and opening the door said: "Ain't that a spectacle?"

In a small room poorly ventilated were confined the nine women. They had not yet arisen (it was 10 a. m.), or if they had, they had gone to bed again, for they lay in their bunks, dirty and filthy beyond all imagination. The nine live, eat and sleep in the same room, not going out at all. During the entire day they have nothing to do but to sit or sleep the time away. The sheriff ordered them to get up at once and clean their quarters or he would have them sent to the dungeon, remarking as he closed the door that he had great trouble in making them keep themselves and their room clean. On entering the quarter of the men, all were found confined in their cells. The rainy weather prevented them from working on the stone pile to which they were sentenced, so that all they had to do was to pace their cells to pass away the time. The sheriff stated that twenty-six work ordinarily on the stone pile, and the number was not larger because several were sick and many had no clothes suitable for cold weather. The chief of police adds his testimony that those once sent up almost always came back again, and there are cases in the city who are sent up periodically. The stone pile is a yard with a high board fence and a sort of shed at one end, built after the style [of] the city cattle grounds. In the yard is a huge pile of large cobble stones. These the prisoners break and crush until they are about the size of a walnut. They used to be used for filling in the street railway tracks, and similar uses are found now. The sale of the stone probably does not pay for drawing it in and the hammers which are worn out, to say nothing of the salary of the two policemen who stand on guard with double-barrel shotguns. The labor of these twenty-six able-bodied men is thus

THROWN AWAY, AND NO REFORMATION MADE,

even if a positive injury is not done to them. With a workhouse, the large number who now have their sentence suspended because, as the judges say, there is no place to send them, would be punished if not reformed.

JUDGE A. H. YOUNG.

Judge Young, who is one of the state board of charities and correction, was interviewed, and said: "It is a matter which the board has under consideration now. I cannot give the views of the board, for they have not yet decided fully but it is something which we ought to have and have at once. St. Paul has just started a small one at Lake Como, and it was my idea to have the two cities unite and run one together. With the number of prisoners which we now have in the city it might not pay, but there is no question but there should be one for the protection and improvement of society. The method employed now of working the prisoner on the stone pile brings little or no revenue to the city and can work no good for the prisoner. The plan which I would recommend would be the indefinite sentence and reformatory system. This would require legislation, but it could be obtained at the next session of the legislature. Under this system the prisoner is sentenced until he is reformed, and is not turned out ten days after the sentence perhaps worse off than when he was sentenced. Investigation should be made as to what kind of employment would be best and at the same time the most profitable. I would recommend that there be a reading room in connection with some competent person in charge, instead of turning the prisoners into a room by themselves. After they are through work, they would come here and receive instruction. When they have been reformed they are examined by the board of control, their record looked over, and, if warranted, a certificate of character is given them, which aids them in securing employment. The workhouses of Detroit and Cleveland are among the best in the United States, and are paying institutions. I think the city of Detroit received $30,000 from its workhouse last year; but there is no question but what we ought to have one, whether it is a paying institution or not."

JUDGE MAHONEY.

I believe that the city needs a workhouse, and that the necessity is urgent. It needs some place where a wholesome reformatory punishment can be provided for minor offenses. The law is not vindictive. It desires to improve the offender, and by example deter others from committing crime. At present the only means of accomplishing this object is either to impose a fine or to imprison the offender in the county jail. Neither of these is effectual. Punishment by means of fines touches the poor and the rich unequally. To the one it may be considerable hardship - to the other it is no inconvenience. In any case, the law fails to produce any permanent reformation. Imprisonment in the county jail is little better. It is sufficient to say that all the surroundings and associations are degrading in the last extreme - injurious to body and soul. The atmosphere is contaminated physically and morally. The confinement has no tendency to raise the offender above his past condition. On the other hand, unless he has a stout, hopeful heart, and the determination to reform within himself the chances are that he will give up in utter despair and become indifferent as to what may happen to him in the future. I am aware of the fact that a so-called stone pile is provided, and that the men are sometimes required to work on it; but no one will deny that this is an entire failure. It benefits neither the city nor the prisoner, except so far as it gives the latter an opportunity to breathe fresh air and see the sunlight. It is not necessary [to] contrast this condition of things with a clean, well-ventilated, well-lighted workhouse, where healthy employment is provided for prisoners and an example of industry set before them, Besides, statistics - if we had time to prepare them - would show a pecuniary gain to the city that would surprise any one who has given the whole subject little thought.

CHIEF OF POLICE MUNGER.

said a workhouse was what the city needed and must have. The method now employed had no salutary effect on the prisoner, and the record showed that those who were sent there once were usually sent there again. These are persons who, as soon as they are let out, are arrested for the same crime for which they have just served their sentence. The sooner the workhouse is obtained the better it will be for the city and county.