The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-24
Considered Probable Men Con-
fined in Wayne County Jail
Will Be Worked on Streets
And Roads.
ETHICAL REASONS STAND
IN WAY OF THE SCHEME.
Many People Have Prevailed
Upon Commissioners Not to
Sanction Idea Because of
DemoraIizing Results.

The days of comfortable lounging
about the corridors with nothing to do
but crack few stones occasionally,
NOW the grass on the courthouse
lawn, or shovel snow in the winter
months, may soon be thing of the
distant past for prisoners at the coun-
ty Jail. The authorities are making an
investigation of the laws regarding the
working of prisoners on public roads.
public sewers or improvements of any
kind. 1t is believed the law grants the
sheriff that right and it is probable
that before many months ball and
chain gang will be doing large
amount of the work about the roads
that the city or county now pays 20
cents per hour to have done by COM
mon 1aborers.
Ethical reasons alone have stood in
the way of previous attempts to place
the prisoners at work on public i'm
provements. The commissioners have
looked into the matter but refused to
issue any orders to the sheriff where
by he might require work to be done
by the prisoners outside of the Jail
walls. The one exception to the rule
has been in caring for the courthouse
yard. The commissioners have been
told that the sight of men working on
the streets or public works would have
degrading influence on the children
of the city. The commissioners have
been made to picture man with a
chain and ball at work on the streets
as an object of horror that would ter
rorize every child in the county and
make them gouge out their eyes and
fee in fear. The commissioners have
been told it would not be fair to the
man, who has been found by a police
officer in an intoxicated condition and
sent to Jail, to make him work before
the public gaze. The commissioners
have been told that the laws of hu.
manity ought to permit a man to
bear his disgrace in solitude and with
in the confines of brick walls rather
than to face gaping men, women and
children and be subjected to probable
taunts. The commissioners have lis
tened attentively and decided that it
is better for the man in Jail to serve
his sentence in obscurity and ease,
while the county pays the bills.
Those public officials who favor the
chain gang proposition would not do
so, if it were possible to construct a
work house for the prisoners. The
law does not give the county this right
however, and consequently some other
way must be found for entertaining"
the prisoners while doing time. The
operation of the stone pile is but spas
medically Some prisoners have serv-
ed their eleven days sentence and nev-
er had occasion to pick up rock and
hammer It is actually claimed there
are habitues of the Wayne county Jail
who refuse to go on a spree while the
rock pile is well supplied but as soon
as it is low and there is prospect OF
but little work, a grand time, ending
in arrest is INDUCED in. This class
Of prisoners never pay but LAY out
their fines.
Would Have Good Effect.
In answer to the ethical reasons ad.
vanced. those who favor the gang
claim 1t is an impressionable example,
1t is maintained that the children will
develop a dread of the county Jail and
work with ball and chain attached to
the ankles and this will serve to keep
them within bounds in later years
The effect would not be less on adults
it is said, as many men would ponder
long before becoming intoxicated in
public II he knew eleven days work on
the streets with a chain chatting his
ankle and a ball at his heel awaited
the judgment of the court.
Three fourths of the total number OF
arrests made in this city are due to
public intoxication. This is held by
the law to be a misdemeanor and q
petty offense. There are several mer
and few women in the city who have
exhausted the powers of the city judge
and when the maximum fine is reach
ed, the court has tried leniency and
began again with the minimum Utter
failure had followed in some instance.
and no sooner was the prisoner re
leased than he was found again in the
same old condition. Prisoners in the
county Jail are fed well. The worl
required Of them is not as heavy a:
that they would be forced to do tt
earn livelihood by their own efforts
| The hours are shorter. the beds ar,
good and there is recreation The con
fines of the walls are without any ef
i ~,
their lines. One long time prisone
has entertained himself by countin,
the number of bricks in the insid
wall. Other expedients are resorte,
to to divert the mind and provide
subject for thought