Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-03-16
THE CITY N0RKHOUSE
THE SUBJECT OF DISCUSSION
LAST EVENING,
By Members Of the Council Com'
mittee on Police-The Present
Institution Wholly Inade-
quate, and Prisoners Els
cape Very Frequently.

At the session of the Council Com.
mittee on Police which didn't come off,
last evening, owing to the lack of a
quorum, there was good deal OF in
formal discussion as to the condition
of that picturesque and worthless ruin,
the city wor6-house, and the three
committeeman present were unani-
mously of the opinion that not only
was the institution as it exists to-day
a disgrace to the city, but that proper
ideas of economy, if nothing else,
made the erection OF new building
desirable and necessary. Mr.. Britt
demonstrated one phase of this propo-
sition very conclusively when he
showed that during the past year ii
required about five hundred and twen-
ty-five bushels of coal TO heat the build
ing. More" said Mr.. Britt, than it
requires to run many battery or
boilers operating a very considerable
manufacturing plant, when the money
cost is taken into consideration" The
item of guards, also. is considerably
more than would be necessary had the
city vag and drunk-pro0f building,
and yet, with a superintendent, three
guards. and a cook with the powers OF
a guard-five men to guard an average
of eighteen or twenty prisoners, the
experience of the last few superinten-
dents has been that few prisoners stay
any longer than they care to, and no
less than four prisoners have run on
within the last week or so, while a
few weeks ago prisoner
made his escape, called in
at the City Hall to humorously enquire
how he could get out of the prison.
and then, after putting in day run
ming about town, concluded TO go back
to the very satisfying diet OF bread,
beans, meat, coffee, etc, furnished by
the city. The cost Of the workhouse
last year was $4,000, or about forty
times as much as the entire institution
is actually worth. In fact, the build
ing itself as absolutely worthless, and
more than once it has been in danger
of total collapse. For ten years 1t has
been the laughing stock OF citizens, the
object of the just ridicule OF those
strangers who have chanced to see II,
and while the last four or five Councils
have at times seriously threatened to
do something, plans for new brick
building being once drawn up, nothing
tangible has so far resulted. The in
evftable cannot be much longer de-
layed. however, and the present Coun-
ell Committee on Police appears to be
in the humOr TO include a sufficient
sum for new building in the annual
appropriation for the department and
TO urge the matter seriously upon the
attention OF Council.
The Police Committee has tabulated
the ordinary and routine expenses of
the City Prison and Police depart
ments for the current year, the totals
being:
fOilce. .........- ''''''''''' - ,'V'p
City Prison. n......... ...........S 4,iUV
Last year the actual expenditures
were:
Police. e................. ''.'. SIo'o-o'Ep
CITY Prison. ........S S,9S7.64
The Police department lacks about
5000 of having enough money for
March expenditures. and another
meeting of the Committee will be held
next Friday night. when an ordinance
making up the deficiency will be sent
forward to Council. The Committee
will also probably amend the Police or
dinance so as 20 require but one meet
ing Of the Committee each month.