The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-01

l AdiO AO14OW1nS account OI d. N1SAI LO
 the Fairfield county jail was written
 especially for The Farmer by woman
 reporter who recently called at that in
 st1tut1on, on other business, and, quite 1 without prearrangement, was taken l through the institution on a tour of 1 Inspection:
 IMPRESSIONS OF OUR LOCAL JAIL l had never visited a jail and so it
 was not without some trepid2 ton that
 I accepted the sheriff's invitation to take me through Visions of dark,
 musty cells, with su1len faced, glow
 er1ng eyed creatures peering out from
 their depths, rose before me as I fol- l lowed bravely my conductor. | Through the visitors room, barred
 and screened to prevent the passage
 o1 anything to the prisoners, we went ] up stairs to where those awaiting trial
 were kept. It was a beautiful morn ing out of doors, and on this side of 1 the building the sun streamed in at every window. I had not thought of sun in a prison.
 | There was a long barred pen, with l doors opening into it from smaller cells. Men of diverse descriptions were confined here-some walking about, some sitting in the sun, others read
 ing. The sheriff called one of the lat ter, introduced us, and then walked away while we conversed. noticed that he held a volume of Shakespeare
 in his hand and we began a discussion of the works of that author, Hugo and others.
 From here, MT Vo11mer led me to other parts of the building. was inn
 pressed by the scrupulous cleanliness
 or the cells, the walls and the floor
 The latter is scrubbed every day with
 antiseptfcs. There was not a sugges-
 ton of a diSagreeabIe odOr
 Many of the cells were decorated
 with pictures and other things which make a room homelike. All were warm
 and bright.
 In ''our ladies' department as the good sheriff calls it, the same condi-
 tions prevailed except that the doors
 of their individual cells were not lock
 ed. This part of the jail is rather small, but additional cells are being fitted up on the floor above, flor some times we have an overflow of the la dies,'' MT. Vo1lmer puts it.
 In the kitchen a number of trustieS were preparing the dinner. The same remarkable cleanliness was again evil denced in the shining copper boilers and other cooking utensils. It hap pened to be "corned beef and cabbage day. and large portions of those edi- bIes were placed in each tin basin which serves a. plate to the pris- oner. This is similar in shape to a vegetable dish. A huge boiled potato | was also in each basin. Besides this | there was bread, good bread-such as one buys at the best stores.
 After the kitchen came a visit to the | leather shop where hides are prepared | for different uses, and to the stone | where cement blocks are made. The stone is quarried behind | the prison, crushed until it is quite 1 fine and then mixed with the cement. | After this it is pressed by machinery | into blocks of various shapes. The | work in both of these places is done | by the prisoners through contract l which the county has with the differ ent companies.
 We had gone through the whole | building and still had seen no sullen faces; had caught no glinpses of glow ering eyes. I had heard singing and | whistIing and mery laughter. Could these cheerful looking people be in mates of all? It was astonishing!
 Sheriff Vollmer, as he himself told | me, regards them as unfortunates who either through some weakness or through some great misfortune have been driven to break the law. That l he practices what he breaches" is clearly shown by the way in which the prisoners esteem him. He has a cheer fu1 word for every one of them and l. noted their whole faces light up with pleasure when he spoke. The man who was reading Shakespeare told me that conditions here are much better than they are in many parts of the as, unfortunately, he knew rom experience.
 Sheriff Vollmer tells the prisoners hat if they have any fault to find, to write it, enclose it in a sealed envelope, and address it to him. In this way he 1e able to rectify anything which troubles them.
 came away from the jail with feel ngs quite different from those which had brought there. All bathing or horror of it was gone. I know that might be proud of it's penal institution.