Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-03-17
NEW CASTLE PRISON.

Report OF Visit by the Ph,lanth roplc
Committee OF the Wilmington Monihiy
Meeting.
Tires OF tba members.of Wilmington
Monthly Meetings. committee on Phi
lanthropic labor, Waited the prison the
18th of January lgat. We found i57
prisoners in all: 90 convicted, 90
awaiting trial. There were 40 desig-
mated as fine and coat prisoners, or
Migrants. There are IS cells, or rooms,
10 by teet, besides two large rooms
for white ami colored Migrants or
tramps, called 'bum cells" We foun1
% persons in the white Migrants room,
not we'll ventilated and the air impure
and unhealthy, with very poor accom-.
modetions for sleeping or cleanliness.
The smaller cells are Tor two persons
eauh. but four or five are frequently
crowded into them from necessity, and
sometimes six or seven. There were 80
prisoners whipped at the whipping post
during the year 1887. Thirty i've
tramps were given dinner the day Of
our visit, without being required to do
any work rs compensation.
We thought it very impolitic that
these tramps should be fed without
being required to work, thus encourag
| ing their shiftless idleness. There Ia
a store kept in the prison open to nll
prisoners, whore provisions, vegetables,
tobacco, &C., are sold TO any having the
means 10 buy. No insoSicRnts are al
lowed, hut there ia reaaun to fear that
strong drink Is sometimes struggled in.
The prisoners 10 the Cooking and keep
| their rooms in order, nut have nc
other regular employment, which we
think great cause of Generalization.
Some make toys which they Try TO sell.
There is 10 classification OF prisoners.
First offenders are put with oil and
hardened criminals. Our Delaware
| prisons are rather schools of vice than
reformatories To uplift aud improve
their inmates. This last report Of our
Associated Charities says:
our Jail system is constant menace tc
our people, and why our taxpayers have
not long ago risen in revolt against it !,
difficult to explain. The heroic efforts
which have already been made are, how
| ever, not i'll VAN, and n reform i'll this
direction will surely come.
For years the moral sense of the best citi-
zens OF Delaware has been shocked at the
condition of the prisoners of this State. auC
they have petitioned and demonstrated anc
urged in their associated capacities, that {
| workhouse or penitentlary be built, which
would furnish employment for all able t.
work, where good ventilation might be haC
and cleanliness and deceucy enforced,
| While our Constitutional Convention wa
in session, our committee, with those %
other bodies, made an earnest cndeavor b!
petition and in other ways 10 get the conven
vention to take measures for prison reform
and abo!lshing the whipping posi- and nj
| Tory. William G. Srruance, one of tn
members, introduced the following:
| EiraV 81. A.. -
soon as practicable, provide Tor the erection
and maintenance Of a state penitentinry.
Second. The punishment OF crime by whip
ping post or pillory shall he unlawful after IN
LIST day oil January IN the year OF our Lord, 1867
The convention failed to pass these resc
lntions and did nothing in favor of priso
reform.
At meeting of the Delaware Unio
for Public Good, held in December, 1896
Mrs. +. Williamson. secretary of til
Board Of Public Charities of New Jer
sey. said IL never saw anything equG
. to the horror OF New Castle Jail, and
: have seen the prisons in many States
She classed it as "a prison run by prie
oners, and not iii for animals" 1t il
great loss to our State, and a groa
modification TO her best people that "
continue a penal aystem SO barbarou
and injurious.
We must not grow weary in our er
deavors for reformation, though the de
, sired improvement seems long delayed
Signed on behalf of tie philanthropy
committee of Wilmington MONTH
Meeting of Friends.
David Ferris,
Joseph A. Bond,
Third mouth. 9th, 1898.
We do not want to put undeserye
| blame on Sheriff Finn or those
= charge; under the circumstances the
D cannot remedy these abuses.