Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-21
JAIL CONDITIONS
MENACE TO CITY
Scathing Criticism by Depart.
ment of Justice Agent.
CROWDED AND INSANITARY
Conditions Termed "Intolerable to
Civic Consciousness.
RECOMMENDATIONS ARE MADE
Prison Should Be Used as Place Of
Detention only-Need Of Re-
formatory and Out
door Work.

present conditions are waste
full Of public moneys and are
menace to the good order of the
Capital city. They are an insult
to its moral tone"
This is one of the conclusions
reached by Mrs. ]. Ellen Foster.
special agent for the Department
OF Justice. after many visits to the
District Jail for the purpose OF
making suggestions to the United
States Attorney General. She
found the building overcrowded
and with insanitary cells, lack Of
proper ventilation and a state of
affairs 'intolerable to the civic
consciousness Of today"
In her report to the Attorney General,
Mrs. Foster says:
Since my last report 1 have made fire.
quent and long visits to the Jail. I have
personally inspected many tiers of cells
in both cell wings. have been from
the furnace rooms and laundries in the
basement to the hospital at the top of the
main building. My Investigations have
been sufficiently thorough to qualify me
to report on the conditions as / found
them.
THE main entrance to the Jail. which
is the only door of entrance and exit for
visitors. leads to a reception room, which
is 40 feet wide and IL feet deep. AT the
back of each end Of this room are the
administration offices of the warden and
suboffcials. From the center of the room
and opposite the main entrance is a door
opening on a hall from which stairs lead
below to the basement. and above to =
floor of isolation and other cells. and
still farther up to the hospital. OF which I
will write later.
From the hall--out of which these
stairways lead-is a door leading into the
great rotunda of the jail from which to
the north and the south extend the great
wings which each contain the four tiers
of cells in which are crowded the prison.
ers. there being on January 10 so men
in the 80 cells.
In the Rotunda.
From the east end of the rotunda ex-
tends small wing in which. on the lower
floor are the kitchen and storerooms, and
above is the womans department. In
this woman's department is a block sof
cells i'm three tiers. opening on either
side on wide corridors, in which are high
windows. The rotunda. which is the
heart, the core of the building, is noble
room about 50 by % feet. crowned by a
skylight. In this room the male prison
ers are received and searched. and from
1t they are taken to the bathrooms at
the rear of the cell tiers before being
put into cells. Lawyers see their
clients In the rotunda and i'm ii divine
worship is held on the Sabbath.
THE cell wings extending north and
south from this room each contain four
gratings. and are on the ends of the
wings next the rotunda. They are guard
ed by small iron grating o. lattice work
from bottom to top.
Size of Cells.
There are about 800 cells by s feet
in size ard 10 feet high: each cell has
a window feet wide and = feet
inches high: this window opens on
corridor IS ceet wide, i'm which are
windows opening on the air and the SUM
light OF the outside world.
THE gates to the cells are u feet high
and - inches wide. Besides the 80
s by feet cells there are eighteen
or twenty cells twice AS large.
About one-half of these are fitted up as
bathrooms; the others are used for va
rious emergency purposes.
I'm. these cells are an average 40
men, white and colored young and old:
some are detained awaiting action OF the
grand jury. others are under indictment
awaiting trial; others are being tried.
others serving sentence: there ~ no gem
eral segregation of these different ella sseS,
except there arc few large old cells
in the part o. the jail formerly used
by the women. which when not i'm ordi-
nary use afford opportunity for partial
differentiation of Jail inmates.
The Hospital.
THE room used as hospital is on tho
north side Of the upper floor of the main
building. 1t is ~ feet inches long by
Is feet s inches wide. and over II feet
high. There are four windows and the
ventilation is good. There is a sanitary
bathr bonn and water closet. This room
is tolerably well adapted for its uses. eX-
cept that 1T Is too small for the emergen-
cies OF a population of JO0 or 6OO men.
THE day ! visited the hospital there
were three sick men and their one nurse
all colored--in the room.
LAS ! said before. this room is pleasant
and we'll ventilated: the fault is its size,
and there is no possibility o. segregation
of contagious cases. One man was suffer-
ing from tuberculosis. His coughing and
expectoratIon while I was there were
most distressing to hear and see.
There is no woman's hospital. The
mildly sick and the well are crowded into
the three tiers of cells in the woman's
quarters
"If active disease develops there is a
hurried thinning Of some cells out and "A
doubling up in others so that the sick
woman may be alone.
Jail Overcrowded.
..The huiIding Is oyercrowded. Accreea.