The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-23
TOO MANY IN JAIL
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS
OF GRAND JURY
WILL CALL ON MAYOR MYERS
TO SUGGEST METHODS WHICH
WILL RELIEVE CONGESTION.

/
BILE to the Large Number of Pri-
sOners from the Recorders Court.
| Committee Inspected Jail and
Court House ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
should Send More Offenders to
the Chaingang and Less to the
Jail the Committee Thinks-Other
improvements VIII BE Recon-
mended.
AS a result of the inspection by the
| Committee on Public Buildings of the
grand jury, which was conducted yes
terday, it is not unlikely that some
change win be made in the present sys-
tenn of imposing sentences in the Re
| corders Court, and that instead of
sending SO many offenders to the coun-
ty Jail, the ranks of the striped forces
of the county will be augmented.
The committee, composed of Messrs.
A. A. Aveilhe, chairman; A. Ehrlich
and John Q. Hodges, will call on Mayor
Myers to-day and urge a departure
from the methods now in vogue. He
will be asked to bring the matter to
the attention of Council and request
the aldermen, who serve in the absence
of the Recorder, to impose more chain
gang and less Jail sentences. The con-
dition resulting from the method now
employed will be brought to the at
tention of the Recorder, and will be
included in the report of the committee
which will be incorporated in the gen
eral presentments.
The position assumed by the commit
tee is the outcome of the crowded con-
dition of the Jail, which was made ap-
parent at the inspection. On one floor
of the building there are GA prisoners
in thlrty-one rooms. In each OF
these rooms there is a single ham,
mock, so that one of the two men con-
fined in each of the cells is obliged to
sleep on the floor. The committee were
impressed by this condition of things,
which they deemed not only inhumane,
but conducive to ill health.
Cause of Congestion.
They were told that the congested
condition resulted from the steady in
flux of prisoners from the Recorders
Court. Many of those who were sent
to the Jail had to serve only five days;
others thirty In this way the supply
remained steady, so that there was no
likelihood of the condition being re-
lieved so long as the system now en-
ployed of sending the offenders to the
Jail remained operative.
The committee were told that there
were quite a number of regulars" at
the Jail. BY this term is meant those
offenders who spend most of their time
in jail 1t was brought to the atten-
ton of the gentlemen of the commit
Tee that there were certain negroes
who made it a business to stay in jail,
and that this crowd seldom spent a
week in the year out of jail 1t was
the sense of the committee that If
these miscreants were sent to the
gang for term, this condition would
no longer exist.
A Solution offered.
The suggestion which will be made
to Mayor Myers and the Recorder is to
| send all regulars" to the changing;
| that where the offense is light and the
! offender not a frequenter of the court,
| to employ the present method The
committee urge that it is a compare
! lively easy matter for the Recorder to
distinguish the two classes, in the exer-
else of his discretion. Unless some
! thing can be done in this direction, the
| committee think the accommodations
should be increased at the Jail.
| The committee also had some fault
| to find with the plumbing in the jail
|
comparatively new, and that it's bad
appearance resulted from the large
amount of disinfectant which it was
necessary to use. This explanation did
not suffice, however, and the commit
tee will make recommendation that
the plumbing be improved.
| The general condition of the jail was
the subject of commendation and a
source of qualification to the gentle
men of the committee. The different
departments were neat and orderly,
and in the best sanitary condition. The
ventilation was observed to be excel
| lent. The results of the institution
were briefly stated to the committee,
and met their approval.
Hartman Sisters Ward.
AT the request of the committee an
| inspection of the quarters where the
| Harmon sisters were recently confined
| was made. 1t had been stated that
| the apartments were not a fit place
for a woman to be incarcerated, and
it was for the purpose of investiga-
ting this charge that the inspection
prised to find the quarters commodious
airy neat and clean, and, in their
opinion, admirably adapted to the use
to which they had been put.
After the inspection of the Jail, the
Court House was visited. Besides
nlIle ldCk VI IOOIIl III the TeCelN-
er's office, which was commented up
on in the recommendations of the
committee of the last grand jury, the
only recommendation which suggested
itself to the committee was to have
new linoleum placed on the floors of
the various offices. The present car
peting was laid about eleven years ago.
with the exception of that in the
County Commissioners court which
was recently put down.
The Court House has been greatly
improved during the last year, about
$4,000 having been spent in improve
ments. With the exception of the rec
ommendation relative to the imprison-
ment of prisoners from Recorders
Court. the plumbing at the Jail and the
Competing at the Court House, it is
thought that the report of the commit
tee will be in all respects commenda-
tory of the present condition of the