Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1900-12-13
TO THE VOTER OF VIRGINIA

called meeting of the Legislature
tskts place 10 January. but a ar more
important object than that for which it
is called can be brought before it when
1t meets, and brought by you.
Our State prison, built for three hun.
dred men, has, for some years pas',
held an average Of fourteen hundred.
One ordinary sized room, or cell, dur
ing the past year has contained twenty
nine mep; seversl others over twenty
each. All are crowded. Sleeping 9
0unks, or shelves, are let into the wslls
ou two sides Of the cells (4lmost from
aoor to ceiling in some of theu) leav-
ing very small space for those packed
here 10 move about the floor betwee Q
them.
Each cell is lighted and ventilated by
A small, heavily barred, window al one
snd, and transom over tie door op-
posite which leads into col iiaed
cour yard, which itself has little fresh
air, as It is enclosed on every side by
iofty wslls. No ordinary convenences
Of a modern house are supplied except
bathing rooms, and every relief OF
nature must take place within the cells
It is almost miracle that 90 soouTge
Of disease has broken out among the
inmates, and from them TO the city sll
around, from this one dreadful fec,
alone. II is useless 10 try to descrb
fully the situation of these wretche d
men, locked by US in that horrible
place, allowed to continue there year
after year, without hope OF relief and
sithout appeal from our decision that
bus they shall remain.
The cooking department is under
ground, dark and of necessity too
cramped and small to furnish deceDtly
cooked food 10 such numbers, yet OF all
the men they need suitable nourish-
ment 10 enable them TO stand up to the
work demanded of them under such
terribly dissdvantsgeous con0i lore.
The hospital, too, greatly enlarged 10
recent years, is in the midst OF the COZ
tracted courtyard into which every cell
opens for its only chance of fresh cir
No wcnder men die in such place
eseily. No wonder That 80 many who CO
Ter il strong and active come cut broke n
10 heath and spirit.
Another horrible result Of crowding
is this. Numbers of comparatively il
nocenf, or at least rot depraved merr
confined perhaps for small ohenses, are
orced iDexorsbly into contact with
hardened villsirs. to be thus familiar
,zed with deSrads'ion and vice. Go tc
MARYLAND, peLnsy lvaDia, almost to any
northern or western state, and see The
spacious, wholesome buildings their pen
itenliaries are, with one, or at mott two
prisoners TO cell, and then consider
the abjecl misery in which you and
keen our helpless wards. T1en you
will bs ready to go to your Del gate
and Senator and tell them that thii
blisteriug, burning shame, under which
our proud commonwealth now rests
must be wiped out. that our peni;en
tiary must be enlarged.
Three leading journals of the country
nave in tbe pas. year puoit3ned
staging criticisms upon the stst'
prison Of Virginia. The world is wi Il
awake, looking upon our dlsgTace'o
ain today. Lit II look 10 iooeI
Charge your legislators. in the name o
a God OF mercy, to see that the $50. co
nrned yearly into the State Treasury
nv the labor Of these unfortunate prison
s0ntrs, if no more, be used at once t;
build for them, not luxurious hablta
lion indeed, but one that will be
| healthy and eudurable abode for hu
man be;ups.