Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-01-28
THE CHOSEN FREEHOLDERS.
IMPROVED JAIL FIXTURES CON-
TRAcTEn FOR.

held on Thursday last, all the members
being present except Mr.. Wilson, who is i'll
at his home in Swedesboro.
WOODBURY., n j.. Jan. 20, 1904.
TO the Director and members Of Tie Board of
Chosen FreezoJders,
GENTLEMEN:-The matter of improve
ment Of the county Jail having been by
action of the Board on August 20, 1903,
continued in the hands of the public prop
erty committee, and in accordance with
later instruction to said committee to pre-
sent some plan to the Board for their con
sideration, your committee have been
investigating the subject. Oa January Sth
we went to Kensington, New York, and
examined the Ulster county Jail built by
the Pauly Jail Building Company, Mr.
Barnaby and Mr. Walton having previously
examined the Jail at Mineola, New York,
built by same firm on same general plan or
system On Jan 9th the committee visited
the Queens coun-y jail at Long Island
City, New York, which has been built
about three years by ..another firm; this Jail
was also equipped with an automatic cell
locking device, which, however, according
to information obtained from the person in
charge of said jail, ,has not been satisfactory.
We spent two days in visiting these iais,
and in examining jail plans and models
The committee are unanimous in reporting
that we can fine no system of jail construc-
tion which in our opinion is equal to the
Pauly plan of automatic locking cell doors,
utility corridor and tool proof corridor
grating, etc. Their system renders it un-
necessary for the warden to 90 among the
prisoners; he can feed his prisoners and can
open or close one or all the cells by levers
from the outside, this feature proyides-fo for
the safety of the iailer, which is entirely
lacking in our present iai :, and would
comply with the recommendation OF the
Grand Jury of this county to this Board
few months ago. By the Pauly system
aud plan we can also get the desired classil
cation of prisoners BY placing the criminals,
women and boys in separate departments
so they cannot communicate with each
other or even know who may be confined
in the other corridors. 1t would be diff
cult, if not impossible for a prisoner to
escape from snch a Jail maintained under
proper supervision, aud the wardens at
Kingston and Mineola, New York, and
Wilmington, Delaware, informed our COM
mittee that the locking device is simple
and effective and does not get out of order
The utility corridor is also strong feature
of the Pauly system. In it are placed the
water and soil pipes, permitting any neces-
sary repairs to be made to the plumbing
without coming in contact with
the prisoners. This corridor is also
ventilating shaft and appears to be a
valuable sanitary adjunct
Each cell has a wash bowl also water
closet in niche closed by a sli1ing door
To place a tool proof grating around the
present cells would simply lessen the
chance for prisoners to escape. IL would
not protect the warden as he would still be
obliged to 60 in among the prisoners t.,
lock them in their cells. etc ; II in addition
to the tool proof corridors the present cells
were to ue fitted with automatic licking
doors it would add greatly 10 the cost and
we would still lack the improved sanitary
features
Your committee, therefore, after careful
consideration concludes that it would not
be advisable or economical to repair the old
Jail, hut respectfully recommend that the
present Jail be remodeled by tearing out
the cells now therein and installing twenty
eight new steel cells having the Pauls
automatic locking device, and utility car
ridur, said cells to be enclostd by toni
proaf crrridor, grating, etc, and that the
windows and heating arrangements b
changed to suit the new construction.
D. T. MATHERs
VIM H. BARNABY,
JOHN RAcHoR. JR,
Committee
The report was ordered received and
filed and contract entered into with the
PauIy Jail Building Company Of s. Louis,
Missouri, on the basis Of the figures sub
mitted last August, 1915 629) less the pres
ent price Of steel which is about s. ton
lie than at that time. This will reduce
the cost between 5000 and $500.
The following communication was re-
ceived from the Burlington Board Of Chosen
FreehoIdprs =:
MOUNT Holly. N. j., Nov 10, 1904
WHEREAS, The cost Of building and niain-
tanning the stone roads il, the County Of
Burlington has greatly increased owing
to the prevailing high price oi stone, aud
WHEREAS. The price of stone for said pnr-