The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-25
Writer Had No Intention of Attacking Administration
 of Sheriff BatsOn
OATES AND GRUBB
 AGREE WITH HIM
Both Have Declared Building 1nsani. tary-HOw About the Bedding of Prisoners! Does "Carbuncle''
 Smell Sweet and Clean?
Ky ALLEN !. KREBs, JR.

10. B. Knight, chief deputy sheriff of Jefferson county. has erroneously construed the article written by my self regarding the county jail appear ing in The Age Herald yesterday morning as an attack on the adminis- tration of Sheriff Batson. Nothing could have been further from my in tention.
 I am an admirer of Sheriff Batson and by no means an enemy. That he Is humane man I would be the last to question. Nor has The Age Herald other than friendly feelings toward the present sheriff of the county
 The primary object of the article was not an attack on the sheriff but by a presentation of conditions as they ap- peared to a reporter to arouse the peo- pie to a realization of the need for a would not oppose such movement and knowing conditions as he does he must be constrained to admit that such a structure Is badly needed.
 Admit that the jail is kept "as scrup- ulously clean as can be done with soap and water as MT. Knight says 1t Is, what then? Has not Dr. William c. Oates state prison inspector. time and again condemned the Jail ("carbuncle." he termed iD place unfit for human habitation? Has he not stated that the building was fundamentally insanitary and that no matter how great the attempt at cleanliness the effort was doomed to failure on ac- count of the building itself?
 Dr. Oates even went further than that He ordered negro women pris- oners confined In the jail removed to the prison of another county. declar- Ing that it was no fit place for them
 Judge William I. Grnbb of the dis trict federal court went even further than that. He declared no female fed eral prisoner should be confined in the jail at all on account of the terrible conditions there
 So much for the jail itself How about the bedding and mattresses fur nished the prisoners? Does it smell sweet and clean and has it the ap- pearance of having been acquainted with soap and water in 30 days? When was the jail fumigated? Fumigated, not swept out with compound. Has 1t ever been fumigated? It does not smell so for the stench from the jail IS almost overpowering to one not &C., customed to the fetid atmosphere.
 Now as to the food. It would be interesting to know why. 1t Is neces- sary for prisoners of Jefferson county to fast from noon until o'clock tho Following morning--19 hours Again, IT the city of Birmingham can feed It's prisoners well and furnish three meals day for Ia cents, why cannot the county do the same?
 MT. Knight says that it costs 23 cents a day to feed the county prisoners The state pays 30 cents. profit of cents per day on each prisoner. Figur- ing total of 400 prisoners in the tall, in month this would be almost 5000. Why not use that money to furnish the third meal?
 Now as to the woman confined in the jail. Had any of the officers n- terested themselves would 1t not have been an easy matter to have secured her release? Cannot any deputy ap- prove misdemeanor bond. for the woman was charged with nothing more than vagrancy? Did att tack the sheriff for locking up tho 
 And finally as to courtesy. One MT. inside warden, informed me that the sooner I got out the bet ter. This may have been courteous, but 1t is point open to debate