The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-11-18
THIS is SERIOUS.
MI. Charles Lynch Objects
to the Accommodations
at the County
Jail.
MISSED THE COMFORTS OF HIS HOTEL
The Institution Is Crowded, But
the Place is Clean and the
Food Wholesome and
Ample. &
KISSED THE COMFORTS OF HIS HOTEL


whose address is given as No. 542 Jersey
avenue, but who possibly puts up at the
Waldorf or the Fifth Avenue Hotel in
New York. had occasion to spend month
at the County Jail recently and the ac-
commodations there were so inferior to
what he had been accustomed to that
he wrote to one of the yellow journals
about it. As that is just the kind of meat
the yellow journals feed on Lynch's story
was duly exploited with appropriate head
lines
Nj. Lynch was not a voluntary guest at
the County Jail. He was sent there by
Police Justice Potts upon conviction OF
being drunken and disorderly person.
Lynch arrived at the jail on October IL
and remained until November II. Neither
Warden Lennon nor Clerk Ambrose Lynch
mo relation to Charles, by the way), nor
Turnkey Sullivan, nor Matron Murray,
had received any intimation that the new
guest was an epicure who had been ac-
customed to high living, so they fed him
on the ordinary prison fare, the same as
the other prisoners. 1t was good SUD-
stantial fare, as will be shown presently,
but it did not suit Lynchs deHcate
palate.
Lynch's chief complaint, however, was
that he who had been accustomed to
spring beds, hair mattresses ana elder .e,
down coverlets in a large and airy room,
was Obliged to repose on small cot IN
narrow cell and he did not have even
the exclusive use of that. sometimes ne
had one cell mate and sometimes two,
and that grated on his sensitive tempera-
ment. The climax OF his grievance was
capped by the fact that Warden Lennon
refused to give him new PAIR Oh shoes
when ne was going away.
Sometimes when prisoner has served
sixty or ninety days in the Jail and his
shoes are dilapidated the Warden gives
him a new pair Lynch had propapiy
heard of this custom and thought ne saw
an opportunity to provide himself with an
extra pair. AS the shoes he had We're IN
good condition, Warden Lennon very
properly refused to give him another
pair Lynch went out and sent a state
ment to the aforesaid yellow journal
about small, overcrowded cells, lnnuLnan
treatment, inferior and lnsufnclent 1000
and variety of other things. Lynch's
story did not lose anything by the eX-
ploitation in the yellow journal
Now, as a matter of fact, the jail was
never in a better condition than 1t IS now.
A ''News" reporter went there unexpect-
edly yesterday and made a thorough IN
spectfon OF it. The entire institution from
bottom to top is as clean as paint, ka1so-
brushes can make it, Every room and
every cell, every particle of bedding, are
in spick and span condition, ana as clean
as a new pin. The food is plain, but 1t
good ana SUBSTANTIAL, dilQ tileI6 IL
plenty of it. The reporter watched the
process of preparing dinner yesterday.
Two large iron kettles were hlled with
savory soup, made from meat and vege-
tables and thickened with flour, and good,
wholesome bread There was enough of it
to feed twice the number of prisoners
there were in the County Jail yesterday.
The bill of fare Of course is not the
same every day, but the reporter has it
on the authority of several prisoners
whom ne picked out here and there in the
different wards and questioned that the
food is always good and wholesome, and
there is always an abundance of it. The
reporter examined the bread, which was
stacked up in a large closet, and found
it good enough for anybody's taste. The
bread is furnished by reputable baker
other customers.
The statement that the Jail is over
crowded is only true occasionally, and at
rare intervals. Ward No. g. which the
yellow journal, on the authority4 OF
Lynch described as being in a shocking
condition, has two tiers of cells, eleven
on each tier, making twenty-five in all.
There are two cots in each cell. arranged
one above the other like berths in steam
boats or sleeping cars. Usually there are
two occupants for each cell, but when it
becomes tea necessary to put a third prisoner
in cell a comfortable mattress is laid on
the floor. The mattresses and the bedding
are clean, and has been said before the
cells are as clean as kalsomine and soap
and water can make them. Many of the
prisoners are more comfortably situated
there than they were when they are not
in jail.
1t is true that the jailsis not adequate
to the needs of the county. 1t is the
same now that 1t was forty years ago
when the population Of the county was
considerably smaller than 1t is now, but
there Is no similar institution in the State
that is better managed. The State or
ganization which exercises a strict and
careful supervision over all the penal in
stitutions in the State has commended the
manner in which the jail is kept and the
prisoners cared for under somewhat adj
verse conditions. What the county needs
is a larger and more modern building, or
an addition to the present building.