Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-06-27
Life iu Ludlow Street Jail.


During the investigation of the charges
of mismanagement made against the
sheriff of New York by the Bar Associa-
ton of that city, interesting testimony
was given concerning the manner in
which affairs were conducted at Ludlow
Street Jail. Mr.. J. Edward Ireland. re-
Gently released from that institution, said
that he was forty years of age and lived
ut Broadway and Twentieth street. He
was arrested and taken to Ludlow Street
Jail under a process issued by the sheriff
of the county of New York on August
80, 1878, and liberated on May l3, 1879.
lie described the construction of the Jail,
and said that on the lower floor were
two rooms which rented to wealthy pris-
oners at S35 and $40 week, and another
and handsomer room which brought S75
week. The witness had paid at first
$3.50 and afterward SIS week for his
board in the Jail. AS boarder he was
Tar better treated than the non-paying
prisoners. Each of the latter had in his
cell an iron bedstead, a straw mattress
and pillow, n coarse army blanket and
an iron slop-pail nothing else; no
sheets or pillOw-cases. These prisoners
were locked up at five o'clock in the
evening and allowed to come out of their
cells at six in the morning. Their cells
were, for the most part, filthy, and one
of them, belonging to an old man of the
name of Frost, was so dirty that it made
the witness sick to go near it.
The paying prisoners, on the contrary,
were treated like gentlemen They
went to the dining-room for their
meals, and were waited upon by a col
ored attendant known as Marc Antony.
They had clean sheets and pillow-cases
upon their beds, and were permitted to
remain in the yard until ten and hall
o'clock at night, besides being allowed
various other privileges. Mr.. Fitzsim-
mons went around the jail every week to
collect the board bills, and generally
there was no delay in the payment.
After time the witness ceased to be a
paying inmate, and at once experienced
n change of treatment. His sheets and
| pillow-cases were removed, he was
| locked up at five and half o'clock in
the evening, and the quality of the food
| furnished was widely different from
what it had been. His friends, too,
were rarely permitted to see him, and
once, because a lady and gentleman who
called upon him entered his cell, the
keeper locked him up from one and a
half o'clock in the afternoon until seven
o'clock the following morning. and de-
prived him of his supper.
The bill-of-fare for non-paying prison
ers, as he described it, was not succulent
or delicate On Monday, for breakfast,
they got dry bread, which was often
sour, and a concoction which was called
coffee. Every morning, Sunday in
| cluded, the same breakfast was served.
On Monday, for dinner, they got what
was facetiously termed an Irish stew,
consisting of onions, little meat and
bread, all being served in a tin pail,
without knife, fork, spoon, pepper or
salt. On Tuesday, for dinner, plenti-
full supply of beans, so strong and pun
gent that they made the prisoners sick.
was ladled out. On Wednesday the
Irish stew was served again; on Thurs
day and Sunday corned beef and potatoes
constituted the banquet; on Friday fish,
and on Saturday the stew once more.
For supper, throughout the week, a
pint of bad tea and piece of hard bread
were served. All the meals were carried
around in tin bucket and ladled out in
the cells.
When the witness first became an
inmate of the prison the floor of his cell
and his bed were covered with a coating
of filth half an inch thick. He was un-
able to remove it himself, and he had to
pay to have it taken away.
There were three or four female prison.
ers in the Jail, who seemed to be all
boarders. They had free access to all
parts of the prison and associated famil-
iarly with the men. He once saw one
of them having her supper served in a
male prisoners cell.
On the ground floor was cell called
the "bar CELL" where liquor was sold.
The witness had bought very bad lager
beer there at fifteen cents bottle, and
scenes of drunkenness and debauchery
frequently took place there.