The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-08-28
Jail Delivery.

Tuesday night, three prisoners es
capped from the county jail. They were
all colored. Henry Watson, charged
with forgery Joseph Greeley having
three charges against him for house
breaking and letting out convicts, and
Dote Bell, serving a sentence from the
county court of twelve months for house
breaking These prisoners were con
fined in the room on the first floor in the
southwest corner of the jail. There
were five others in the same room who
are serving short terms and did not at
tempt to escape.
The prisoners had their supper hand
ed them about O'Clock Tuesday after
noon and escaped at 8. The work was
done between these hours, as every
thing was all right when the supper was
handed in.
The work OF escape was easy, judging
from the apparent condition of the Jail.
A partition wall of soft brick separates
confined from the next. Near this wall,
where it adjoins the outer stone wall, is
located closet sink. Some bricks had
been taken out of the wall from the mid
die room torepair the water closet. The
prisoners had then to remove only a
brick and half, when they were down
on a pine sill, rotten and worthless,
easily removed, and when taken out adj
mitted them to the furnace below.
The outer door of this room is secured
by common wooden frame lock, which
was priced open by piece of iron pipe,
and the prisoners were in the yard, and
separated from freedom by the high
brick wall. This was scaled without
difficulty and they were free.
j In company with A. G. Gordon, Esq,
attorney for the city, and the jailor, the
reporter of the VIRGINIAN visited all
the rooms in the jail mentioned above
1t is simply impossible to believe, ex-
cept you see it. that building whose
massive stone walls and iron grated win
dows look SO solid and secure, should be
so rotten and worthless as a place of Sc
curity in thefinterior. Where the pip
ing and plumbing have been done, the
soft brick walls have been saturated
with water until they can be picked to
pieces without any trouble. If the piece
of wood taken from under the wall where
it was cut through was a part OF the
original construction, it was fraud and
deception, and never secure The walls
are not only insecure. but they are satu-
rated with water and unhealthy, and
present anything but creditable condi-
ton in this age of Christianized civiliza-
ton. We would not advocate silk gloves
or velvet slippers in the treatment of
criminals, but common humanity de-
mands that prisoners confined ia our
county prison should at least be pro-
tected from the ravageS Of disease pro-
duced and aggravated by such surround |
lngs as are to be seen in the Augusta |
county jail. 1t is a rebuke to our proud |
boast OF progressive civilization and re-
form, and the sooner the authorities take |
decisive steps to remedy the existing
evils and rendert the county prison house
secure, the better it will be for our good
name. No blame can possible attach to
the officials in charge of the jail They
can only be held responsible for the safe
keeping of prisoners when the means
them are reasonably secure.
Such is not the case at our county Jail.
The condition of the Jail is horribly
bad and the place is insecure The
matter should be attended to at once,
Tor so long as the present condition of
things exists, we may look for repeti
tion Of such occurrences as that of Tues
lay night at any time. We are in
formed that contract has been made
% fix the plumbing arrangements. 1t
should be done at once.