The Somerset reporter., 1896-04-09
The New Jail.

Considerable has been said derogatory
to Somerset county's new jail. but never
theless, the State prison and jail inspect
ors, three good business men Mho ought
to know about these things, at their
official visit recently made declare il to
be 'ample. and convenient and there is
no room for argument against this
statement.k The structure as now
arranged will accommodate 30 prisoners
and by putting in cells on the second
floor the capacity can be Increased to 80
There have been but l. at any one time
during the past winter and we hope il
may be long time before the present
capacity of the Jail will be exhausted,
and that the present generation may
never see the necessity of cells or steel
cages being put into the second story.
The structure is not an imposing one.
1t is plain aud substantial and when the
porch is put on the trout over the door
it will be good looking building
The commissioners looked over several
modern jails in the State before adopting
any plan, the contracts provided for
the best material and the best workman
ship throughout and it was closely look
ed after from start to finish.
1t is not impossible but some slight
mistakes were made such as may occur
in the construction of any building
especially one out of the common course
like Jail, but if there were such they
were not of magnitude to detract from
the success of the construction rs "a whole
The commissioners are all men of ex-
perience in affairs, careful aud pains
taking in transacting the business of the
county, and they brought these qualities
to bear upon the construction of this
public building.
The correct thing to have been done
by the County would have been to have
purchased the Morrison stand of build
ings, the Oliver Walker stand of build
ings, cleared them off and then to have
erected a brick and iron Jail with nice
brick residence fronting on Court Street
for the keepers family. This could
have been done, probably at an extra
expense of ten thousand dollars and
then the county would have had nice
set of brick buildings with large. desr-
able lot that would have been creditable
to the county for century. Why did
not the commissioners do it? For the
very good reason that they could not
legally obtain the wherewithal to do it,
The situation was peculiar one
The old jail at NorridgeHock had re-
peatedly been condemned by the prison
and Ill inspectors. The commissioners
at the March meetings of Somerset
towns in 1893 tried to obtain authority
to hire $4,000 to be used in building II
Jail as provided in Sec. II of Oh. IS, Il.
s., but the towns sat down hard on the
proposition.
Section II of chapter IS r. S. provides
that the county commissioners "shall, in
the shire town of their county, provide
and keep in repair, court houses jails.
with apartments for debtors, separate
apartments for criminals, etc.
Section II of chapter IS X. 5. provides
that loans for the use of the county
"shall not exceed ten thousand dollars,
without first obtaining the consent of
the county.
The law required them to build a Jail
and the available money for the pur-
chase of site and the construction of
jail and "A iaiers house was restricted to
the cash on hand in the treasury and the
$4,000 they were authorized to hire
This condition of affairs precluded the
possibility of the purchase of the most
desirable grounds and the erection of
brick house and jail thereon at an ex-
pense of $27, 900 to $4,000.
Under these adverse circumstances the
commissioners bought the Vosmus stand
of buildings, a house and stable with Il
large lot, upon which the Jail has been
erected at an expense for Jail and lot and
jailer's residence of about $1,000. This
appeared to be the only thing feasible
for the commissioners to do. 1t was
this or nothing, and they, wisely as we
believe. chose the course that resulted in
giving Somerset county Il Jail adequate
and convenient for the County, at the
shire town. Thus did the Somerset
Board of County Commissioners solve
the jail problem and the financial one at
the same time. The County has the Jail
and good one and is but $4,000 in
debt. These buildings are just as good
for practical purposes rs the more eXpen-
sive one, mentioned above, bur they are
not of course, so pleasing to the eye.
In our report of the annual Corpora
ton meeting, Saturday last, the issue
upon which the contest WAS made is
stated as we understand it, On one
side the issue was explicitly in favor of
enforcement of the prohibitorY law.
On the other hand, while opposition TO
prohibition and its enforcement was
large factor. other influences operated
off pt;vo11- IN ooourirr ,,otao In . IL