The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-05-21
Committee Went Through on a
Tour of Examination.
ALL WOMEN KEPT TOGETHER
Arrangements viii be Made to Keep
Females of the Two Races Separ-
ated- Committee Caught Whit
of That Trash Barrel.

A committee composed of Mayor Pre-
Tenn r. H. Kerr, w. j. Pearce, chairman
of committee on police and sanitation. C. G
Chiles, chairman of board of police COM
missioners and Chief of Police c. w. Aus
tin made an examination of the city prison
yesterday afternoon and ordered severa
needed changes inside the Jail.
The principal change made was in pro-
viding separate apartments for the white
and negro women prisoners. Owing to the
manner in which the prison was con-
structed this has heretofore been impossi-
BILE and though it was a lamentable fact
nothing could be done until the matter was
taken up by the officials and the necessary
changes made. The female prisoners &C.
cupy the second floor of the jail and have
heretofore been huddled together regardless
of color. In the center of the upper floor
is a large cage and between this and the
outside wall there is a space about ten
feet wide on one side and about four feet
wide on the north and east sides, the iron
work being fastened to the west wall On
the inside of the cage is a small cell ia
miilarly known as "the dungeon" in which
unfuIy prisoners are placed for punish
ment Between tho dungeon and the
cage walls there is space about four OIL
nve feet in width In this the negro wo-
men VIII be kept. partition will bt
WINDOW to keep the negroes out of the out.
side passageway which will be occupied by
the white women. Generally there are
very rev white women confined in the tai
ana the space provided for them gives them
ample room IN which to sleep and exercise
themselves.
1t was suggested by one of the commit
tee that In each of the departments a
stevedore be appointed by the warden. and
that 1t VIII be her duty to see that her ter
Etory is Kept clean and in order If the
work Is well done she will receive as COM
pensation shortening of her sentence
Under this plan it is believed that the wo-
man department OF the prison will be
Kept In neat condition and there will be
no more of the old trouble caused by keep.
ing the women together without regard to
race.
After examining the inside of the prison
the committee walked around the outside
OF the wall and found that large box
next to the prison wall is used for deposit-
ing all the trash and filth from the market
house and the fire department At times
from this place arises horrible stencil
causing the jail and court room to be per-
Yaded with a sickening odor. An alley
extending from the Jail to the market
house is used to run the water and refuse
into a manhole, which has become consd-
erably clogged from a lack of cleaning, AT
the time the committee visited the place a
large quantity of dirty paper, decayed veg
etables and the decomposed bodies of two
rats were lying in the alley. 1t seems that
1t is no ones particular duty to see that
this territory is kept clean, and this proba-
bly, accounts for the accumulated filth
One of the committee remarked that it
was enough to give the prisoners and the
man who had to stay around there the
hay fever, and that it should be attended
to at once. Just what arrangements will
be made about this matter has not yet
been decided.
Several of the female prisoners were
turned loose during the day, and very
few remain confined in the prison.
The waTdens and attendants around the
prison have been using every effort to keep
everything in a neat condition, and under
the change expect to accomplish beneficial
results.