, 1884-12-21
4 DARK DUNGEON.
A Description of the Dark Hole
Called a Iail.
Prisoners Unfortunately Turned
Into a Foul Enclosure.
An Insecure and Presidential Place
Unworthy Of the City.

The recent raids by the police have
again shown the urgent necessity of a
City Jail that will have a sufficient ca
pacity and that will also be fit for occupa-
ton by a human being.
The present jail occupies a rather in
considerable portion of the old brick
building on Seventeenth, known as the
City Hall. 1t was built a number of
years ago and is barely adapted to the
needs of a country village. The upper
story of the old building is used as a
Council Chamber and for the meetings of
fire companies. The major portion of
the ground floor is occupied by the Durant
engine, hose carts, etc, while a large area
is devoted to the hallway through which
access to the jail is gained.
The Jail proper is a room of very ordi-
nary dimensions, at the rear of the build
ing. 1t has a stone floor, made after the
style of the smaller stone sidewalks. The
floor was put in not long ago and the ex-
pense was most reluctantly incurred by
the City Council. 1t was an improve
ment somewhat disproportioned to the
other features Of the jail. The walls are
thin brick affairs and bear the scars of
several assaults made upon them by pris-
oners who appreciated their fragile ma
ture. In one corner is a foul closet and
IN the opposite side is a hole which is
complimented with the name Of a cell.
In the center stands an old iron stove
which is knocked down and scattered
around the room whenever some excitable
prisoner takes a notion to vent his wrath
on the old rusty trap. The place is pro-
tected by a rude iron door, and iron bars
across the windows. Such is the City
Jail as it appears to one who hurriedly
glances at the interior from the doorway.
Upon entering the place a foul smell
aud an almost sickening stencil is at once
noticed. The floor is covered with a coat
ing of f~oulness that makes it slippery:
from the walls a dark and noisome mois-
ture oozes and trinkles down to the floor
in Shiny streams. Nothing like a decent
closet is connected with the place and the
filth often oyeraows into the place and
emits a stencil that is horrible when the
old stove is fired up. There is no connec-
ton with the city water works or the
sewer, and it is therefore almost impossi-
Bile to keep the hole in as clean a con-
dition as an ordinary hog-pen.
In this place are put drunken men in
an advanced state of intoxication, men
who are accused of some offense and who
the next morning clearly establish their
innocence, tramps covered perhaps with
rags that swarm with virmin, men who
are bowling drunk and who insist on fight
ing without any provocation, boys who
have committed some petty offense and
colored men and Chinese offenders. All
are in this one room, where in the winter
time the old stove heats the foul air until
the inmates are almost suffocated until
some one knocks it over, when coal gas
and a freezing temperature must be en-
dured until the next day. There is
no place where the inmates may
may lie down except upon the cold stone
floor, there is no light, and there is no,
separation of inmates by classes or de
grees of crime.
Last summer an addition was made to
the old building. The upper story of the
addition is used as offices, half of the
lower one is the Marshalls office and the
rear is a small room for female prisoners.
This room has n rude bed and a stove. 1t
will accommodate two or three women;
any more than that number must lie on
the floor. Drunken ones, petty offenders,
those suspected of wrong doing, andindeed
all women arrested by the police must be
placed all together in this one small room.
Such is the City Jail in a city of 5000
inhabitants and where the latest and most
metropolitan %conyeniences are everywhere
visible-except in the police provisions
and City Jail.
A small expense will make the jail at
least decent, wen if not large enough.
Connection with the water works and
sewers is needed. At least two separate
apartments are needed for male prisoners,
and another room is needed for females.
Marshall Schnitger has computed that
$1,000 will pay the expenses of the ALSO
lutely necessary improvements. No one
doubts that the improvements should be
made at once and the matter will proba-
bly, be a factor in the ensuing city cleo
ton. There is no sufficient excuse for the
present condition of the City Jail.