Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-10-20
County JaiIs,


yesterday. Some very interesting and
valuable papers on subjects relating to
prisons and cOnYicts were read one OF
the most valuable of these papers was on
County Jails," by Mr.. Eugene Smith, OF
New York city.
As a Jail IS about to be built in this
county, and as several jails are projected
in other counties Of this state, Mr.. Smiths
paper can hardly fail to have considerable
interest for many of our readers. We
therefore present the following summary
of it, which contains, without elaboration,
its principal points
The great objection TO the county jails,
| as now administered, consists In the in
| discriminate cOmmlngling Of the inmates
! and their urrestrained cOmpani0nship.
4 During the daytime all the prisoners are
/ herded together in a common apartment,
without employment and without disclp-
line. The association Is necessarily de-
basing. and tends to reduce them all to
the moral level of the worst. The force
of this objection can be understood only
by considering the diverse elements
which make up the population of the
county jails. The jails are used for two
essentially different and distinct purposes
first, as places Of imprisonment under
penal sentence OF persons who have been
tried for crime of minor order and con-
yicted; and secondly, "a places of deten-
ton until trial for persons who are &C
cused of crime, or VINO have been wit
nesses of crime. The persons thus de-
tanned comprise many innocent persons,
as well as culprits of every grade, from
young men who have committed their
first misdemeanOr and have Just started
on downward career, to old, hardened
criminals who have passed large frac-
ton OF their lives in prison and are guilty
Of the most heinOus Otfenses known to the
criminal law. All these different classes,
the innocent and the guilty, the young
and the old, the novice and the adept in
crime, are treated in the county jail with
out the slightest distinction, and all are
thrown together in promiscuous assOcia-
ton.
The county Jail is like o hospital where
Off such an absurdity can be magined) },
all the patients are confined in a single
room without any regard to the contag-
iOus character of the complaints from
which they are suffering. in the Jail, as
if to insure infection, the prisoners are
kept in enforced idleness; and so, as by
maleVOlent forcing, the leaven OF upright
eousness is made to pervade the whole
mass.
These are the reasons why the county
iails are declared by everyone who has in
vestigated their condition to be "s0hOols
OF crime" Sinclair TOusey said of them:
"MOre of the vice and crime that prey
upon the community can be directly
traced to the corrupting influences of the
county Jail than to any other cause, not
excepting the use of intoxicating liquors.
The evils pertaining to the county jails
are so widespread and universal that it
would be difficult to say which State in the
Union is entitled to the pre-eminence of
| having the worst jails and the same
abuses still exist that characterized them
fifty and even a hundred years ago. The
movement in favor of prison reform, which
has achieved the most marked results,
has been directed almost exclusively
toward prisons OF the higher grade; and
so the county Jails have remained the most
stationary as well as the most disgraceful
element in our political organism.
Two measures of reform, or more prop
erly of revolution, are insisted on as alb
sOlutely indispensable. The first of these
is the elimination from the county jail of
all persons convicted and under sentence,
and the restriction OF the Jail to use as a
place OF detention for persons accused Of
crime until trial; and during this period
of preliminary restraint, which is Ordina-
! rily brief, each prisoner should be con-
| fined in separate apartment where COM
munioation with other inmates OF the jail
shall be impossible. Such isolation is
| essential as the only means of avoiding
the moral contamination resulting from
| association; and is useful, too, as a chas-
/ tening and healthful discipline to the
/ prisoner. Few of the existing county
| iails are so constructed as to answer the
/ requirements of separate confinement;
| some of them are susceptible of remodel
/ ing, but it Is true of the vast majority of
| them that they are worthy only of utter
/ destruction. For sanitary reasons alone
most of these structures ought to be lev
eled to the ground with a righteous indig-
nation.
The second measure of reform advo-
Gated is the establishment of suitable re-
| format0ry prisons to receive the county
jail convicts. Better reformatory results
are attained in a large prison than in a
small one within certain we'll defined lin
It's; and a single reformatory prison would
meet the demands Of four, eight or twelve
counties according TO the varying dem
sity OF population. The new prisons re-
quired. therefore, should not be county
institutions; the county organization is i'll
| adapted TO the maintenance OF a punitive
/ prison, nor is there any reason on prin-
! ciple why the county should undertake
TO punish Otfenses against State law.
/ The State should protect its own majesty 4:
/ anu all COnNlCLS OF WndleNef BThQe snOulQ
be delivered over to the State, which
ought TO control all prisons for the punish
ment and treatment of criminal offenders.
The advantages of such centralized adj
ministration would consist in securing
uniformity in the application OF penal
justice throughout the State, in increased
efficiency, and in the introduction OF more
scientific methods Of reformatiYe disci-
pline. All the prisons In England have
been made subject to the central admins
tratlon of the Home Department, and
since the adoption OF that measure the de-
crease OF crime in England has been con-
| tinuOus and rapid.
In answer to the economic objection
that the reforms proposed involve largo
I expenditure of money, two suggestions
are made. First, experience has demon
strated that approved methods Of prison
/ discipline will reform !. q. will divert
/ from a life OF crime and turn into law
abiding and self-supportlng citizens
! eight convicts out Of every ten subjected
/ 10 treatment. The result is now actually
In process at the Elmira reiormatory, and
that, too, with felon conylcts guilty Of
! state prison Otienses. The statement can
! be vindicated by positive figures that the
saving TO the community computed in
actual money resulting from the reclama-
/ ton Of 80 per cent Of our jail conyicts,
would be sufficient In "A single year 70 re-
| build all the county jails Ia the United
States. The other suggestion in answer
% NNA Oh.