The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-01-04
STATE CHARITY AID.
Annual Meetine--Sheriff's Admins
tration Commended

Ine annual meeJlnB OF the MOTIFS
County Branch of the State Charities
Aid ssociation was held in they. NJ.
@. A. parlors Wednesday afternoon.
Meeting was opened with prayer by
Rev. D. Hughes. Isaac R. Pierson
reported for the Poor House Commit
tee that with Robert Garter he
had visited the County Poor House.
Inmates were comfortable and we'll
taken care of and seemed well pleased
with their new quarters. The library
has been unpacked and is now in use.
The freeholders are to complete the
building without any extra appropria-
tion. They expect to save from $500 to
$500 a year from the ordinary appro-
priation which will be available for
improvements.
The secretary read the following re-
port written by Rev. DR.. Twining for
the Jail Committee:
Public attention has been called
again to the defects of the Morris
County Jail. This time the complaint
comes from the medical officer of the
Jail, and is supported. in a way equally
creditable to his intelligence and his
humanity, by the chairman of the
Jail Committee of the Freeholders,
DR.. Becker.
The new charges rest on the same
hos nf 1oi1 xxyh ifh
have been expressed by the Charities
Aid Association against the County
Jail for the last fifteen years. Through
all these years the population of the
county has been increasing. The
number of criminals has become more
apparent every year, until the exami-
nation of your committee on Thurs
day, Dec. 27th disclosed a deplorable
condition of affairs.
The officers of the Jail are not re-
sponsible for this condition of affairs.
The Sheriff and his associates are dis
charging their Office faithfully and
with humane consideration for the
prisoners. TIL main hall, the cells,
the bath room and closets are as clean
and tidy as they can be under the cir
cumstances. Intelligent attention is
given to ventilation, by the opening
of windows. The abuse of the sys-
tenn of so-called TRUSTEES" which
led this association to bring formal
complaint against a former sheriff
before Judge Magic, is entirely cor
rected under the present officer We
no longer hear of prisoners visiting
friends in Newark, or private fami-
lies in town, or wandering beyond
the bounds of the State. or bringing
beer pals to saloons in Market street,
or coming into the Mission there to
exhort the meeting.
Considering the embarrassments OF
their situation, we have nothing but
commendation for the Sheriff and his
associates. Nothing but their devo-
tion and humanity has saved this jail
from condition as bad as that of the
chairman of our Jail Committee, DR..
Charlton T. Lewis, found in those he
visited in Cuba. Under less vigilant
and humane officers Nothing in the
construction of this Jail would save
it from becoming the "open sore" OF
our penal system. So far as the jail
itself is concerned the conditions are
ripe now for such a state of affairs.
What are those conditions? First
there is a main common hall where
all prisoners of all grades and for
whatever reason detained, drunks,
mere suspects held for the Grand
Jury, indicted prisoners awaiting
trial, and others under county Jail
sentences, the whole unclassified mass
are herded together in absolute idle
ness in hall 90 feet long, 16 feet
wide and 10 feet and l3 inches high.
1t is lighted and ventilated by
grated windows opening in narrow
area to the southeast which supplies
all the light and air the prisoners get.
The northwest side is occupied
with twenty cells in two tiers, one
above another and each cell in 10 feet
long, 5 feet wide, and feet inches
high with single iron bed in it,.
These cells are boxed in with air
tight stone walls on three sides. have
no light or ventilation, except through
grated opening into the hall. All
are damp. Three have been con-
demned and are now out of use ON this
account
AS the Jail is now, two prisoners
are locked up every night in each of
these II cells, where each of them has
an allowance of 172 cubic feet of air
space to live in, and that air not
drawn from out of doors, but from
the scanty and poisoned atmosphere
of the hall they have all been living
in all day. Occasionally when the Jail
is crowded, three prisoners have to
be thrust into one cell, and then the
air allowance for each prisoner is 155
cubic feet, or space seven feet long,
A feet wide and 3 feet high. How
much larger than his coffin is that?
Now for the hall where they spend