Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-05-24
ABOUT NEW CASTLE JAIL.
a Former Inmate Makes Some
Damaging Statements.

But SherT Gould Takes Them Up and
Declares That They Are Faise-IIow the
Prisoners Are Fed.
In Tuesdays New York World the
following letter was printed:
To Mc Editor Of Tie World: | have fol
lowed your investigation of the Elmirn
Reformatory, and think ii you would
publish this letter ii would do good
to some prisoners confined here. Ii
yon would investigate this jail and in
tervlew some OF the prisoners in the cells
you would be surprised. On the 18th
instant there was correspondent of your
paper here, but the warden and sheriff
took great care to keep the correspondent
away from the convicts confined in the
cells. Those that were talked to were
afraid to say anything for fear Of heing
locked up, as they are the favored
few. A white man gets no privi-
leSes in this place. and ii they did
not have friends to bring them things to
eat they would get along very badly, rs
the food given to the prisoners is not iit
for Il dog TO eat. As there's no salary for
the sheriff he has to make his money off
the prisoners food. The ration that pris-
oner is allowed is half pound of meat on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and
that meat Is rotten before it comes here
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and SATURDAYS
they are given bean soup that is nothing
more than water, and that is either sour
or scorched. On Sunday they get nothing
but Il loaf of bread and pint OF coffee. i
think If you would investigate this New
Castle jail You would do the prisoners SER
vice, ms the papers here will take 10 inter-
est in the prisoners. The biggest part of
them are Republicans, the same us the
sheriff. JoHH I. STlDnAM,
New CASTLE, DEL, May 18th.
A reporter Of the GAZETTE Tuesday
morning called Sheriff Pierce Gould's at
tention to the World letter.
"What have you to say, sheriff ?"
asked the reporter, regarding the state
ments made by StidhamY"
"Why, the whole thing is lie" he
replied, with some emphasis. 81 give
the prisoners from 10 to 25 pounds of
meat, more than u pound apiece, three
timesa week. We use the same kind of
meat on the table that the prisoners get
in the jail. There is no bad meat among
it,"
"What about the statement that the
warden and the sheriff Kept World
correspondent away from the conyicts'
cells on the 18th instant I"
THAT also is untrue. | took Nellie
BY 10 every cell IN the Jail and when
she came out she knew more about the
prisoners than | did. She told me
about prisoner being whipped that |
knew nothing about"
AT this juncture Deputy Sheriff
Joseph Gould, the sheriir's son, came
up, and when he learned what the con
yersGtion was about, he said:
just say in that interview that Std
ham cut his throat twice while he was
in the Jail and had the rams so badly
that if it hadn't been for us he would
have died. lie was in Jail for drunken
ness"
Sheriff Gould then turned to the letter
and read the portion of it charging him
with discriminating in favor Of the
black prisoners. lie denied this allega-
ton. He said that on Sunday each
prisoner gets a pot of coffee, pint of
molasses and loaf of bread. He said
he courted an open investigation of the
Jail management.
John Il. Stidham, the author of the
World letter, is a brother of Emmett f.
Stidham, Republican nominee for coro-
ner.