Litchfield enquirer., 1875-03-11
Reform Needed at our jail.

Reform Needed at Our JaiI.
 We referred incidentally, last week, to the mode of running our jail now prac tieed, and to the claim of our High Sheriff that he was making no money out of it. In what we shall say regarding this matter we shall try to avoid all discourte- ous personalities. We think we can prove that Sheriff Baldwin is, in point of fact, making a very considerable amount of money under the present mode of board lug and WUrkiHS the prisoners i'll uut jail; but whether or not he is cognizant of that fact, is a question we do not feel obliged to discuss.
 In order that our readers may under stand the matter, it will be necessary to refer briefly to the law and practice regard ing the custody, board and working of prisoners. High Sheriffs have by law, ''the charge and custody of the jails Tn their respective counties" This authority isusually committed by the sheriff to a dep ty jailer. In this county such was always the practice till the present sheriff came into office; but for nearly four years, there has been no legally appointed jailer resident at the County House, e,-only an agent of the sheriff. For the board of each prisoner, three dollars week is al- lowed by the State, and the county is obliged to furnish the jail with necessary fuel at an expense, on an average, of about S1O0 per year. For the management of the jail, since the sheriff. .has himself been sole iailer, he has employed man and his wife, at an expense of $500 per year, wages, and their board. All the domestic work of the jail is done by the prisoners, 50 that the only expense to which the sheriff is at for jail management is the salary of the agent and the agents wife, and the raw material for their board. It has always s the practice in this coun- ty. also, to allow the jailer to set at farm or other outdoor work such of the pris- Oners as were in jail on sentence, and to take the proceeds of their labor. The present sheriff has habitually worked gangs of prisoners of from three to twelve in number on his own land, ard at such jobs as he found it profitable to employ them. Of course the income from this labor has varied greatly with the season of the year and the number of prisoners. From all we can learn from the persons who have of late years had charge of the jail, we judge that an average of $1, ,OOO a year, is q low estimate to place upon the value of the ayails of the prisoners labor, to our present sheriff.
 In former years, when there was a much smaller number of prisoners than now, the jailer was generally allowed by the county commissioners, as a compensation for his services, the board money of pris- Oners and the avails of their labor, fur nishing, however. his own fuel, and pay ing into the county treasury $500 rent for the County House. During the war, when the average number of prisoners was very low, the rent paid was merely 0O1inal; but, with a yearly average of ten or twelve prisoners, $500 rent was perhaps a fair arrangement to make with the iailer. When our present sheriff came into office, in June 1869, the jail was rented to Mir. Harris B. Gibbud for the year ending April 1st 1870, for $45O, and hs had agreed, also, to furnish his own fuel. In August 1869, Sheriff Baldwin re- moved Mir. Gibbud, took possession of the jail, and has ever since not only re- fused to pay rent or to account to either county or State for the avails of prison CTS labor. but has compelled the county to furnish the jail with fuel. His course in this regard was severely censured, and lost him many votes in the election of 1872. At that time the Republican con- vention nominating a sheriff passed the following resolution:
 Resoiced, That our nominee is hereby direct cd to follow, if elected, the uniform practice of previous Republican sherifs of this county. and allow the county commissioners to rent the County House to the jailer thereof for such sum a he can reasonably pay therefor thereby securing to the county treasury a revenue suffi- caent to avoid any necessity in the future of calling upon the towns for voluntary assess ments to meet the general expenses of the coun- ty.
 Had the Democratic county convention of that year needed our request, taken this matter in hand, and passed and en- forced similar resolution, the county would have saved at least S1, ,5OO during Sheriff Baldwin's second term.
 We now come to the question whether the sheriff is making or losing money in his management of the jail. His allow. ance for prisoners board is taxed at the end of each term of the Superior court and is paid over to him by the clerk, from whose records We take the following fig. ures showing the exact amount he has re. ceived for prisoners board at the end oi each term dnring the two years last past
 FROM ERE. 2s. 1873 to FEB. 8, 1874.
 Feb. g, to May 4, '73 481 .S4 May {. Oct. s, '73 1,273. IA Oct. s, Dee. 14, '73 431 .Os Dee. H, l" Feb. 6. '7S S591s