The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-02
STATE RESPONSIBLE
More About the Condition Of
the Trenton Prison.
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE SHOWN
Governors Green and Albeit Both
Urged Improvement, but the
Legislature Ignored Them,

In its second article upon the crowded
condition of the Trenton State Prison
the Newark Daily Advertiser says there
are two rooms devoted TO the sick. One
is a large apartment probably 2ox40 feet,
and contains twenty cots, one half of
which are occupied. In the centre OF
the room is a large skylight. The other
room which is small, Is devoted TO many
purposes.
1t is a bedroom, bathroom, dining
room and sitting-room all combined.
When the door was opened and a view
afforded, it was found that there was a
table where the convalescing patients
were furnished their food. 1t was COW
cred with white oilcloth and some COM
NOR dishes. To the rear of it were three
cots, used by the nurses and separated
from view during eating hours by three
thin muslin curtains.
To the right of the dinins-roora were
several bath tubs, screened in, where
the patients can bathe and wash, just
as the emergency may require. These
meagrs and uncouth accommodations for
an institution having over 1000 inmates,
nave been emphatically declared a public
nuisance by physicians.
The prison physician is DIR. T. H. Mac
Kenzie. He has been recently appointed,
succeeding DR.. Cornelius Shepperd. DR..
shepperd, during the period Of his in
|cumbency, was very solicitous about these
hospital accommodations, and repeatedly
urged that other arrangements be Sc
cured; ever if a new hospital could not
be erected, that the sick might be taken
5000 80 a. 49, -o-+ ~ tho incti
tuition.
Because of these unsatisfactory ar
-rangements the present physicians have
to be more careful in the treatment Of
the sick and give their constant atten-
ton to all cases demanding medical
treatment, because of the bad sanitary
arrangements of the hospital n the in
ability of the prison to provide accom-
modations in case of an epidemic.
There were nineteen deaths in the pris-
on during the year, mostly from lung
trouble, and there is no way of separat-
ing a dying patient from those who may
be convalescing or only suffering from a
/ slight injury received in one Of the shops.
Sometimes men are two and three days
dying, and their dying agonies have to
be witnessed by all unfortunate enough
to be in the hospital. There is but one
toilet basin for all the patients to use,
and this openly exposed right in the
hospital room itself.
KEEPER PATTERSON TALKS.
Keeper John ]. Patterson has been al
the head of the institution for the past
nine years. He succeeded Patrick Law
erty. He was appointed by Governor
Albeit and was at the time of his ap-
pointment a resident of Monmouth coun-
ty, had been Sheriff and an active mar
in Democratic politics.
Mr.. Patterson very freely discussed
the situation in the prison.
1.-THE State Prison management is the
best thai can be obtained under the
circumstances he began. eve believe
that we have an institution that is wei
governed, but we are also conscious
of the fact thai we have an institution
that is very badly arranged, and be
cause of this arrangement the corrective
n moral purposes Of the institution
are not o~btainable. We have not a mode
institution so far as the buildings are
concerned, and we are far chino other
States.
FOUR IN A CELL.
Because of the lack of room We are
unable to separate our criminals as we
4 desire, and we are forced to place II
/ some cells four men that were only in
tended for two, and in cells only intended
for one. two men. 1t is almost impoSsi'
BILE to describe the condition of affairs
as they exist in these overcrowded cells
Many of these criminals are brutal il
their Instincts. There is no way O
preventing it as long as we have only
700 cells for over a thousand prisoners
THE cells in which the four men are
confined are in the old south wing, anc
were intended originally for two, blu
four men can live in them quite com
fortably. / think the %crowding of two
men in the north wing cells is certainly
imposing a hardship, for the cells ART
only intended for one, and they are ver1
narrow, and the men are obliged to sleel
on hunks that are nothing more thai
shelves two feet wide and scarcely wild
enough to turn on. The health of thu
prison as a rule is good. The principa
cases that we have in the hospital ar
lung troubles and such diseases as attent
syphilitic patients
"But should we have an epidemic we
would be very much embarrassed IN han
ding it, because our hospital is right II
/ the very centre of the building. In the
west wing we do not have closets an
use the old-fashioned buckets, and whilt
they during the night produce somewha'
of a nuisance the hall is a wide one
well supplied, will windows, SO that in {
very few minutes it car be thoroughly
ventilated, but our bucket system has
been very generally condemned by SAM
tarians who have come here to the in
stitution, and some are of the. opinion
that some day it will cause trouble, but
SO far we nave not experienced it. Ths
State has persistently neglected this in
stitution.
WoEFuL LACK OF MONEY.
Money has been expended on othel
State institutions. The State House ha.
been materially enlarged and armorie'
have been erected at an expense o
$500, 900, yet it has been impossible fol
us to get any money herd,even to improv'
the sanitation, not congfdering how badl.
we need q new wing a new hospital, I
chapel and more room for workshops
We could employ more men II we hat
room, by introducing some commonplace
Industries that any one could do. tina
would require NO particular skiiledlabor
This would materially increase the in
come of the State and would enable II
to employ some of the men who loaf o.