The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-11
TRAvESTY ON LAW
Only the People Who Have No
Influence
Receive the Full Penalty of the
Law =
IN SHAWNEE COUNTY.
w. E. Dom Let Out of Jail
Every Night
To Go Home or Ramble About
Town.
O HERS IN JAIL
OTHERS IN JAIL
Have to Stay in Their Cells
Night and Day, -~
Although in Many Cases They
Haven't Been Tried.

If any one who cares to do SO will
stand in the alley back of the county Jail
tonight he will see something interesting
that is unless the programme is
changed.
If you care to try the experiment be
sure to be on the ground at nightfalL
Then when the last streak of sunlight
has disappeared and objects around you
are no longer readily distinguishable
there will be sound of door opening
in the jail before you and short,
heavy set man will come out. He
glances around uneasily, and then
walks out into the alley and disappears.
You may conclude that a prisoner has
escaped but do not be uneasy or alarm
the officers, for the same thing has hap
pened before.
1t is true that the man is supposed TO
be a prisoner in the county Jail under
sentence from the district court, and you
may see him with the other prisoners
any day you care to visit the Jail, and he
will be back in the morning before the
town is astir. It does not require the
force of an officer to return the prisoner;
he comes back as he went, by the alley.
The man who creeps up the ally after
nightfall leaves the jail for the purpose
of spending the night with his family.
His term has almost expired but tits not
difficult to see that his imprisonment is
not a very serious matter with him. The
man is W. E Dom, convicted embezzler.
He was once practicing attorney in To-
peka and was convicted of appropriating
his clients money and sentenced to
ninety days in Jail.
Dir. Dom is not what is known as .trus-
ty." He is not allowed in the Jail office
during the day, but spends his time in
the corridor, as it is the custom to keep
one Of the prisoners in the corridor out
side of the big cage in which the prison
ers are confined to see that there is no
disturbance.
Often the trusty is allowed to ramble
around town doing errands; this of itself
is a violation of the law, but it is consid-
cred quite unusual for the corridor man
to spend the nights outside the Jail en-
closure.
A Jail sentence is never a very serious
matter for the man with influential
friends, or who has pulp of one kind
or another. His imprisonment is merely
nominal.
Whether Mr.. Dom regards his impris-
onment in that light or not is not known.
but his appearance indicates that he is
not suffering any from the effects of his
confinement"
It is said that on Thanksgiving Day he
was allowed to go home and eat Thanks
giving dinner. When there was little
danger of being observed he returned to
the jail, though on this occasion he was
sesn by two or three people who know
him.
Some of Mr.. Dom's friends say that the
reason he is allowed TO go home when he
chooses is because his sentence has al
most exDired and that the sheriff is sat
istied that he will make no attempt to
escape.
The time of the SO called prisoner will
expire on Dec. 81 and after that he will
spend his days as we'll as the nights out
side the jail.
The injustice of this proceeding is that
other prisoners are compelled to stay in
the Jail all the time, even though their
health is suffering from it. Do the laws
press equally on all who break them or
not; manifestly they do not.