New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1903-07-01
WOULD PREVENT CRIME /
Separation of Prisoners in County
Jails IS Urged.
Paper Read Before Charities Con.
vention at Rochester.

ventiOn at Rochester.
Brown County Delegate Partici-
pates in Poor Farm Discussion.
The Review is in receipt of the re-
port of the eleventh annual conference
of Charities and Correction, held in
Rochester last November. The volume
contains great quality of instructive
matter, including an interesting dis
cussion with poor farms as the sub
ject Andrew J. Eckstein of this city,
who represented Brown county at the
conference. took an active part in this
discussion and spoke as follows:
"We have this morning poorhouses
and their management. Would it not
be good idea to discuss the matter of
the number of acres involved in the
county farm? Our commissioners saw
fit to send out a delegation to the vari-
Gus adjoining counties to investig ate
the manner Of taking care of county
paupers before they attempted any
thing at home. I do not believe that
tits wise to go into farming for the
support of county paupers. I would
suggest that only such amount of acre
age be used for taking care Of our
county paupers as is absolutely
necessary for vegetables and a little
food for the animals that are used. In
our county we only have about forty
acres, rich soil, lots of timber, good
spring water, and we will endeavor to
build county home next year, or the
year following. I feel sure it will be
ample to care for all the paupers in
the county. In fact, we do not intend
to have any paupers in the county ex-
cept in the home. Of course, there are
exceptions to this; for instance, a
widow and children; we could not take
them into the home. If we insist that
no one will receive aid except at the
county home I think our paupers would
be better cared for, and there be less
of restitution among the poor in the
county. [ have noticed in the adjoin-
ing counties they have large farms, 100
acres. but has it occurred to you that
farming, where you haveto employ all
the labor, does not pay? do not find
that it pays in any county"
In view of the fact that this county
must have and will soon erect a county
jail, paper read by w. A.. Gates is
deemed worthy of reproduction. Mr..
Gates took as his subject ''The County
Jail as a Means of Prevention of
Crime," and handled it as follows:
"The county Jail serves two purposes
"a place of detention for those accused
of crime, and place of punishment
for those convicted of crime. The first
class are to be presumed innocentuntil
they are proven guilty. Many good
a Jail and later, upon trial. are found
Jail to hold them securely until their
day in court. It ought to be evident
to every one that this class is entitled
victed criminal.
''The latter class are kept in jail for
punishment for the crime for which
they have been convicted. In many
instances the sentence is to the State
Prison or Reformatory to which the
prisoner is removed as soon after his
sentence as possible, but frequently the
sentence is for 80 days or more in the
county jail. The prisoner has now been
pronounced a criminal and is kept in
Jail because he is a convicted criminal.
"The state does not assume the right
to punish in the strict sense of that
term. to pay the penalty, but as an ex-
ample to others to deter them from
similar crimes and to prevent the
prisoner himself from further crimes
both while he is in jail and after he
has been discharged therefrom. To
manage the prisoner SO that his i'm
prisonment will deter others from crime
and prevent him from crime while he
| is within prison walls is a simple
proposition. But to manage him SO
| that he will be deferred from crime after
his discharges amore difficult problem.
It is the important object to be sought
by Imprisonment and the one entirely
lost 81 ght of by the averaged ailer. The
true place of the prison is now we'll
understood and most ofour large penal
institutions are managed along these
lines, but the county jail is badly
neglected.. ~. .... ...y.
'The first requisite of a good county
jail is proper constructions; and in the
constitution of a county jail, the first
thing to be sought is security. A jail
that cannot hold it's prisoners is use.
less for any purpose except tramp
boarding house. There are jails in
this state where the prisoners usually
leave just before the grand jury meets,
A jail which theprisoners can abandor
at pleasure should be immediatel J
abandoned by the county commits
sioners. -
"For the protection Of the community
at large, as we'll as the prisoners, E
jail should have all essential sanitary
appliances. There must be gooc
water supply and sewer system, with
sufficient bath rooms and toilet facili
ties. 1t should be sufficiently vel
| lighted to permit of reading in ever.
cell on ordinary days. Adequate hea
and ventilation are also essential.
IF, however, the jail is to fill tn
place we wish it to occupy it must b
sufficiently large and subdivided t.
furnish the proper classification Q.
prisoners. The indiscriminatehu ddlins
| tnrot bo,, Of mi mn CT no