The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-08
The American Jail.


 New Orleans Times-Democrat.
 In a report to Governor Jelks, pr. Shirley Bragg. president of the Ala bama Convict Board. presents strong State, closing with the suggestion that humanity would be best served if every jail in Alabama were burn ed. They reek. he declares. with of them men and women remain for months without means of washing their hands and faces.
 Assuming that the doctor is correct ly quoted in these scathing utterances, they are given, by the official position of the man who makes them, an i'm portance that renders them worthy of serious consideration. There have been criticisms without number of jails in all parts of the country. but save in rare instances they have been lightly received. for the reason that the critics have for the most part been either laymen without experience, ag- grieved prisoners, or sentimentalists. When the president of State convict board finds prison conditions almost uncomfortable, his statements are like ly to carry sufficient weight with the jublic to lead to an investigation of the prison system and to the reform of such abuses as may be found to exist.
 The filthy jail it may be conceded at the outset. is not the monopoly of Alabama nor of any State, nor is the insanitary prison peculiar to any par ticular section of the country. It is proba ble that the rural prisoner Suf- fers more severely from these evils than his urban fellow -unfortunates, but even in the cities prison condI- tions are by no means ideal, and there ments might be effected by vigorous agitation of the subject. In this re- l spect it Is probably true that the pre- liminary or committing Jails are much | fow% 1I NssVl t,nh NATr oa rule than the penitentiaries them selves.
 It is in the jail, therefore, that pris- on reform should begin. In these confined many suspected prisoners, up- on whose guilt or innocence no judge or jury has passed. large propor- tion of these unfortunates are eventu- upon them and released. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the hardened criminal has placed himself partly outside the pale of public con sideration, it is manieestly unjust to subject innocent men or women who may be victims of circumstances or suspicion to the filth and other un- | pleasant conditions which have come American jail life. The recent epi- sode in New York. when a highly re- i spected woman, upon complaint of an ! irresponsible stranger, was cast into a cell with disreputable companions. points vividly to the need of reform ir | this matter. That she was later tri- umphantly cleared does not excuse the harsh system which placed her in un- willing contact with a mo'al degrada- tiou harder to be borne than the phy- sical reek and unwholesomeness of the rural prison. On account of the innocents from time to time inevitably confined. prison cleanliness and i'm proved methods become of greater i'm portance.
 If Dr. Braggs protest awakens dor mant public Interest in the Jail life ant brings about a reformation of the ad- mitted evils of the American jail sys- tenn. he will have performed public service. not alone to his own State l but to the country at large-for re- l he will deserve the gratitude of the