East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-03-25
TO INVESTIGATE
JAIL CONDITIONS
PRISON REFORMERS GET
BUSY IN EVERY STATE
Reports OF Investigations IN 81 States
Show Terrible Conditions In City
and County Jails--All Ages and
Kinds of Criminals Are Crowded
Under One Roof.

Does the Umatllla county jail com'
up to the modern standard In size o.
cells, amount Of fresh air needed fol
prisoners, In cleanliness, ventilation
and other sanitary and Humanitarian
features.
These questions will perhaps be in
vestigated soon by special commit
tee sent out by the Prison Reform as
ISOLATION, which is now doing vast
amount Of work and investigation.
Professor Charles r. Henderson Of
the University of Chicago, is chair
man of the committee and the other
members are John l.. Whitman, su-
perintendent of the house Of correc.
ton, Chicago, and Warren F. Spald.
ing, secretary Of the Massachusetts
Prison association.
400 Investigators.
About year ago the committee
with the cooperation of Charities
and the Commons" appointed some
400 investigators. OF those appointed
290, representing 81 states and terri
torities including the District OF Co
lumbia, visited the jails in their
counties and reported conditions on
blank forms covering all of the inn
portant details of Jail construction
and management The results COM
piled by the committee bring to light
conditions that are disgrace to the
country.
All Offenders Under One Roof.
Under present condltins and laws,
the county jail must provide for males
and females; children, youths and
adults; first offenders, habitual Grim
inals, vagabonds, prostitutes, Witness
es held for their testimony; poor
debtors whose. crime is their poverty;
idiots, imbeclles, insane, eplleptics:
persons arrested on suspicion and
apoplectlcs whom the sapient police
man could not distinguish from
Standardization all these, under one
roof and management, IN a building
so built that cries and whispers travel
along a corridor with cages open at
the side.
A Horrid Picture.
The Jail committee was strongly
tempted to specify particular cities
where nameless abuses exist; where
vile men find their way to the doors
behind which prostitutes stand
where little children are kept in
rooms with polluted and diseased
adults; where a thoughtless lad is
thrust by the hands OF our country's
law into the school of vice and crime,
taught by trained scoundrels; where
a girl for venlal fault is shut up to
her damnation for n night with some
strumpet; where poor victim OF
brain disorder howls all night in
company with Tuffians: where an
honest fellow, unable to pay a fine
for spree, is locked i'm with burg
lars and thieves; they are bald, pro-
sale facts set down by honest eye wit
nesses in answer TO printed questions.
From the entirely empty rural in
sttution. in prohibition county of
Kansas. where the only inmate was
man who had kept a "blind pig" re-
ports go to tell of the ill-smelllng city
jails, where, at times, the cells are
packed at night like the lower deck
of a slave ship, where the corridors
afford scant room for the crowd Of
men who swarm in them during the
day. An average for the whole coun-
try would mean nothing. few IL
Illustrations of jails, where conditions
cry out for reform, would be more
Instructive.
Some Aggravated Cases.
Here are some examples of crowd
ing taken from jais in urban coun-
ties.
In Birmingham, Alabama (first In
alphabetical order of states), we find
reported, 240 men in 72 cells and %
women in 10 cells. The cells are Sx9
feet. There was one boy.
In Denver, Colorado, there were
1S9 men in 80 cells and 90 women in
20 cells, 6x9 feet.
In Los Angeles California, there
were 1876 men in SS cells; there were
80 cells designed for four men each.
and As cells designed for two men
each; SKIS and Sx6 feet
IN Colorado Springs, Colorado,
there were 55 men in 10 cells, and
four women in one cell room.
In Stockton, California, there were
six "drunks" in one cell, 15x1S feet,
and 4s6 prisoners In 26 cells.
In Washington, d. c.. the total ca
pacity claimed by the authorities was
500; while the total population was
4f4-a bad example for the capital
city of the nation.
In Chicago, Illinois, there were 434
men in 36S cells, with 80 boys in a
room by themselves.
In indianapolis, Indiana, 14S men
in 1876 cells; 16 women In IA cells
There were two boys and the children
are kept in the women's department.
In Terre Haute, Indiana, there
were 7S men in 12 cells; and the vis-
itor says there have been 10 at a
time in this JAIL
In Marion, Iowa, a small Jail, built
with four cells for men, had 20 men,
Kansas JaiIs Not Crowded.
No jail in Kansas is reported as
crowded; Is that because 1t is virtual
ly n prohibition state? But the jails
of Kansas are not models. Rural and
village jails usually have space
enough for health, out they are
among the worst for vile famillari-
ties of association. The ordinary
standard for judging whether jail
is crowded or not is too bad for a
stable or COW shed, much less for hu-
man beings. This common standard
Is that so long as men find room i'm