The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-09-02


soon be needed again. But if a new jai
should be built as recommended, / beliey
blythe last Grand Jury, in the northeas
corner of the Court House yard, the old jai
may be utilized during the building OF tn
new for the detention of prisoners Afte
the new jail shall have been built, the oil
building need not be torn away but may b
retained and reiitted. Th rec sets of Office
} can be made in the part Of the building nos
occupied by the Sheriff as dwelling thes
:. Offices will rent for at least one hundre'
dollars each per year, paying total OF thre'
hundred dollars into the county treasury
If desirable-by which l mean If tner
should be desire for more offices-th'
prison pen" can be renovated aud at leas
three more sets ofpffices formed. producing
the same rent as the Others, making the ole
Ijail pay a revenue of six hundred dollar.
into the county treasury. There is nothing
fancifpl in the figures I have given-ths
prices can be realized whenever the offices
are forthcoming. In addition there would
remain apartments upstairs which could
be converted 10 a variety Of uses, one oi
which might be rs hall in which the Com
.missioners might meet-but-an abundance
of uses wonld be found.
Should new Jail be erected at the point
cited, it could be readily and thoroughly
cleansed soil pipes and fixtures could be
scientifically arranged; q water-tank of
many hundreds OF barrels capacity could be
placed in tine upper part of the building, and
by properly arranged Windmill could be
kept constantly full. Such tank would be
supplied By the new well which has been re-
Gently sunk in the court house yard. By a
proper system of plumbing and fitting the
entire new building could be supplied with
water from this tank, or flooded in case Of
necessity. The BALTIC. and Ohio Railroad
Company use many of the wheels, to which
have referred, at their water stations there
is one at Confluence one, | believe, near
Somerset, and some Others in the county.
Such a statet of things would surely be pref
erable to the existing one. The question is.
what will our next grand jury do? The
last recommended the building of new
jail viii the coming one. stuitify Them
selves by recommending anything else? If
tbeylisten to the gush ofcerfain demagogues
and would-be political heayy-weights. they
may recommend repairs but the hope of
the people who know anything about the
present prison here is, that their official
oaths will be of sufficiently binding force to
cause them to recommend, as they should
do, the building of new Jail. But what
viii be the "grievous burden, heavy to be
borne" which, according TO some persons
who really know better than they say, will
be laid on the taxpayers of this grand old
county of Somerset? a Let us reason to-
gether %; The gross valuation of this coun-
ty Is, for all purposes, ST,os9 3ei this, at
numbers, s. ,0o0 yearly. In other words, the
man who owns $1,000 worth of property
would pay at one mill on the. dollar, which
is one tenth ofone per cent, exactly one dot-
lar more tax than he pays now. 1t might
be grievous burden for any ..one on the
verge OF an assignment. but not to most
people. only save ten drinks OF whisky per
year and it would be paid. an abstinence so
slight that it would not hurt any one.
Now, any one who sees fit can figure for
himself the number OF years that it would
take TO pay for new Jail at any given cost
that would probably be incurred for said
binding. and it is 10 be borne in mind that
theinterest on the money would, or at least
could Be paid by the rent of the Offices which
| have shown can be formed by retaining
the old building and converting it 10 such
use OF course it is well understood that
the old building and grounds could most
likely not be sold without special act of
Assembly authorizing such sale. and on the
basis above laid down it would not be de
sirable to effect such sale at all. Another
point from the humanitarian standpoint. A
gentleman recently at the county seat in
formed me last evening that there are two
prisoners in the prison pen which dis
graces the name of Jail at that town, who
are wearing ''ball and chain" to prevent
them from breaking out. This is very
beautiful state of affairs. BY what right are
prisoners who are merely handed over TO
the Sheriff to be safely kept so disgraccd?
Remember, no matter what the weight of
evidence against these men, or either of
them, may be, they are presumed innocent
until proven guilty" Do you place ball
and chain on an innocent man? Do you
not rather awaken the presumption of guilt
and of desperate character by such treat
ment? Is there any law Tor such proceed
ing? What crime have they committed?
So far as proof goes, mona
They are presumptireiy as free from guilt of
any kind as any one else is. Their only of
fence is thus far in the proceedings, that
they haye been arrested. charged with cer-
tain offences and found no one vino would
''go their bail'' in order to secure their re-
lease. No man in the county-the Judge on
the bench dare not charge any crime against
these men to-day more than | have stated
Is it a crime TO have no influential friend to
lend the weight of his purse to deliver one
from the clutches of the sheriff?
But suppose these men had friends who
were willing to trouble themselves about
their treatment, might not the sheriff, or the
county. be in some little danger? To shut
man up in such an atmosphere of filth as
pervades Somerset prison pen" is bad
enough, without the additional suffering en-
tailed by wearing ball md chain. Sher-
i'll Spangler brought certain prisoners into
Court for trial wearing shackles, and Judge
Baer ordered him very peremptcrily to take
the prisoners back and remove the irons,
and never again to.be guilty of introducing
a prisoner into the court roona -Ender. penal
ty of being fined for contempt. The truth
in nutshell is simply this: The present
Jail Is unfit, in every respect. to be used as a
place OF security Tor persons charged with
crime 1t is insecure II is not ventilated. |
1t is abominably filthy and cannot be clean
ed. 1t is in direct and gross violation of the
laws regulating prisons. 1t isa place OF tor
tare for the poor devils who are so unfortu-
nate as to be shut up within it. 1t is cess
pool from whose contaminated air emanate,
fever germs, diphtheria spores and death.
Il is public nuisance. and the Commission |
ers are liable to prosecution for not abating |
t. 1t is source of disgrace to the entire
county, and is the worst prison in the state.
Repairs cannot bring it up to the standard !
hat modern civilization demands hence