Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-10-22
NEED OF NEW JAIL.
BY MARSHALL NEWTON AND LES
InLMcnM

LIE JOHNSON
All persons not in favor of the bond
issue for a new county Jail should pay
the present one a visit and they will
certainly be convinced that a new one
is necessary. Their experience will
be very much Ike that of two student
reporters who recently visited the jail.
We were not especially interested in
the bond issue but n haSty glance
around the interior changed our minds.
The main room or "bull PEN" is some
what the shape of a square with the
cells in the center, opening into it.
This pen was fairly clean considering
the means for keeping It so. but was
very much overcrowded. 1t smelled
very strongly of a disinfectant OF some
sort, which with the other odors made
it very disagreeable. 1t seems that
what dirt can be easily removed is
taken out and the rest is covered with
the disinfectant and whitewash.
The cells appeared to be free from
vermin.
The whole place is very dingy and
poorly lighted, no sunlight ever enter
ing, and there is almost no ventilation.
The windows are covered with sheets of
iron with holes in them. These few
holes are about one and one-half
inches in diameter and are supposed
to admit air The light comes in from
an arched sKyIight. This has a graf
ing under it. The foul air is supposed
TO be conveyed from the building by
small circular opening in the skylight.
None of the cells has a light or any
means of ventilation but what comes
in at the grated door. II is not very
hot at this time of the year but IL was
so warm inside the cells that we were
sweating. II one sweats in October
when just there for a short time, what
must such a place be like in July and
August? 1t is surprising that there is'
not more sickness than there Is. AS
one of the prisoners said, This may
have been built for a Jail but it is
more like a dungeon" We agreed
with him. Another prisoner said he
had been in jails In Mexico and the
Philippines, but had never seen one
as bad as this- There is but one bath
tub and two toilets for all the male
prisoners.
At this time there are 81 prisoners
confined in the jail. There has been
as high as IS men confined at one
time" said one OF the prisoners who
had been in since May. He also said
that in the winter sometimes as many
as two hundred were there at once;
but that seems impossible to believe.
There are but Is cells and two sleep in
a cell. The rest sleep on the floor in
the bull pen" All of the air in the
cells comes from the larger area or
bull PEN" so you may imagine how
foul 1t must get.
Some people may say that this is
good enough for men who are out
casts of society. But is it? "a mans
a man for "a that" Can We forget
that these men are human even though
they have broken the laws? But think |
of the men who are put in here while |
awaiting trial. They may be found in
nocent when tried. We talk of our
twentieth century progress and en-
but we support a relic of /
fuedal times in our community. For 1
our Jail is but few steps removed from /
a medieval dungeon. No fair minded /
person can turn down the bond issue /
is he will pay our jail a visit. II is all |
Of the argument necessary to convince
him that a new one is a crying need. |