The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-06-06
SYSTEM
E|nPTIES new
Prison
Kern County Has $500, 900
Structure and Nothing to
Use 1t For.

BAKERSFIELD, Cal, June o.
What is Kern county going TO do with
its newly completed S200;600 jail2 Re
cent governmental changes have
Icy toward legal offenders, and the
roomy new building will be as use
less as 100000 pound be, unless
the supervisors decided TO turn 1t into
a public library or SomethinS.-
Three months ago there were no
men In the old county jail To-Day
there are 21. and the rest are on pa
role. BY July 1, when the new build
ing Is to be finished. there may be
only five or ten
A parole oficer-a thing that never
existed here before-has been appoint
ed and IS receiving regular reports
from his ninety-6our prisoners at large
not one Of whom has broken parole
in the slightest degree.
incidentally the feeding graft" has
been abolished. The feeding graft
was one thing that kept the cells full,
whereas Tulare, just across the line
had an empty Jail
The supervisors years ago voted to
allow the sheriff a fat sum OF II liz
cents for each meal furnished to a
prisoner. Expert restaurant men and
others who have observed the meals
that were served agreed that they
had cost about four or five cents
It is now easy to figure why the
sherihs were eager to make arrests.
Each prisoner had two meals a day;
the sheriff received thirtyfve cents
from the supervisors and spent ten
cents for the meals.
Through this perquisite the super
visors controlled the sheriff: for II
sheriff offender the ring the super
ytsors could stop the game
Naturally the sherin:S aim was to
get as many men into jail as he could,
feed them as poorly as he could and
keep them there as long as he could
When the first parole officer was ap-
pointed-he is George r. Walters,
president OF the Building Trades
Council OF Kern county-he found that
there was not a single rich man
man serving sentence for gambling
or pandering or any OF the protect
ed' vices, and that the bulk OF i'm
prisoned men were workinsmen.
charged with petty offenses and
awaiting trial, which, somehow, vas
very slow in coming
Many Of these have been there a
year or more without having been
brought to trial Many had not even
been formally charged In all the
bunch there were but half a dozen
whose ofrenses were of the accepted
Jail standard.
And what is to be done with the
new $500. 900 county jail? It has ac-
commodation for 200 prisoners. Pos
sfbly the supervisors viii decide to
put it on wheels and send it to San
Quentin, or to saw it in sections and
supply all the counties with fine little
iails Of size suitable to the new era
in prison control
District Attorney MCGOWAN has in
stitu1ed Investigations with view to
fling suits against two formers sher
ifls-Tom Baker and John w Kelly
for the recovery to the county of
$4,000 alleged to have accrued to
them through the feeding perquisite.
The claim OF the present sheriff
Bonne Newell-was held up.
The remnant of the old ring is
doing everything it can to hinder the
cleanup. The county auditor recent
" refused to allow the claims Of Su2S
each voted by the board o6 superv:s-
ors. to hire three special counsels to
facilitate the work OF cleaning up the
criminal calendar.