KinSource - Tale of the Week - County Jail Nuisance

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, January 6, 1885, p. 2

COUNTY JAIL NUISANCE.

A Disgrace to the City, County and State.

A Libby of Dirt, Vermin and Foul Air, and a Criminal Manufactory.

Sheriff Fred Richter, on taking the keys of the county jail yesterday morning, by previous arrangement had an exeamination made of the institution by H. H. Hart, secretary of the state board of corrections and charities; Dr. A. B. Ancker, city and county physician and Henry F. Hoyt, superintendent of the city board of health.

These gentlemen made a very thorough and careful survey of the premises and committed the result of same to paper in a report to the sheriff with suggestions of improvement, who in turn will present the same to the board of county commissioners at their session at 10 o'clock this morning. It would seem that the commissioners would get their eyes opened by this examination to the fact that the present condition of the Ramsey county jail is a disgrace, not only to the city and county, but to modern civilization, and that it would lead them to take prompt steps to remedy the evils pointed out by these gentlement at once, and more especially as the country is in dread of the scourge of a general epidemic.

REPORT OF CONDITION.

The jail is not very clean, the corridors being strewn with sweepings, and the cells, several of them in an untidy condition.

Many of the cells are without beds or bedding. The bedsteads, where there are any, consist of iron bars fixed in the wall. They are very poor bedsteads, amd being easily removed afford convenient weapons and material for tools.

The bedding consists of filthy straw ticks, which have been apparently unrenewed for a long time, a partial supply of pillows, still more filthy, one sheet to each bed, reasonably clean, and a good supply of woolen blankets in fair condition. There seens to be a sufficient supply of towels. There is no other furniture except iron cell buckets.

At the rear of each corridor is a fixed wash stand with three bowls, for which the water connection is out of order, a galvalized urinal and an open sink serving as a water closet. The contents lay undrained in one closet, vitiating the atmosphere. The jailer stated that the water supply did not admit serving the upper and lower corridors simultaneously. Each of these closets is in a very unwholesome condition, food and other garbage being scattered about and thrown in the tanks.

The ventilators in the cells and those connected with the water closets have no draft whatever. The ventilators in the floor, connected with the rear shaft, have a feeble draft, but the air was reasonable good. The jailer stated that the ventilators are infested with rats, some of which have died therein making the air very bad at times.

There is no provision whatever for separation of different classes of prisoners.

The women's corridor is so cold that the one female prisoner is given the liberty of the jailer's corridor, where communication with male prisoners is unavoidable. Even in the women's corridor unobserved conversation with male prisoners is easy. The women's water closet is an open sink unscreened from the jailer's corridor. It has been the practice to use a cell on the women's corridor for punishing refractory men, there being no other place where they can be separated from their comrades.

Boys have to be locked up with the men.

Two men held for examination as insane persons are locked up in the common corridor.

Three men held as witnesses, not accused of crime, are locked up with the other prisoners.

There is no hospital cell.

There is a bath tub.

The jailer reports the prisoners of one corridor infested with lice.

SUGGESTIONS OFFERED.

We offer the following suggestions:

1. Cleanliness is an indispensable requisite in a public institution. The condition of the bedding calls for immediate attention.

2. The iron rods should be removed and canvas hammocks substituted, such as those in the city workhouse.

3. The women's water closet should be screened. The lavatory and water closets should have an adequate supply of water. The deposit of food and other garbage should be strictly prohibited.

4. If practicable, the smokestack of the furnace should be placed in the air shaft. It is impossible to secure good ventilation by unheated flues.

5. There should be a bath tub in each corridor.

6. The county should furnish prison suits, as is done in Dakota county, and enforce bathing, enabling the sheriff to secure cleanliness.

7. We consider it indispensable that there should be provision for isolating withnesses, insane persons, children and women. At present the sheriff cannot comply with the law requiring separation of the sexes.

8. There should be a separate apartment provided for hospital uses.

9. There should be fixed benches for prisoners in the cells and corridors.

10. We are of the opinion that $2 a week is not sufficient compensation for the board of prisoners. We know of no other county where the compensation is less than $3.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

H. H. HART,
A. B. ANCKER,
HENRY F. HOYT.