The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-29
For ViIeness and Lack of SAM
tatiOn City Bull Ben
Cannot Be Exceeded Anywhere,
Declares Judge r.. M. Yates.
NOBODY TO BLAME, IT SEEMS
The City Officials Are Helpless
in the Matter.
The Only Remedy Is an En-
tirely New Building.

"Our citv government is clean and
free of graft. but the conditions at
our city Jail, for vileness and lack OF
sanitation, are not exceeded IN the
worst graft ridden city in the United
States,'' said Police Judge Rooert M
Yates this morning.
taThere are no means for the proper
treatment of a majority of persons
brought into the police station. many
are arrested on misdemeanor charges'
their offenses being more or less trlV-
ial They are not bad men at heart.
They are not hardened criminals. Yet
thew are treated in the same manner
as the worst characters. All are
thrown together in a common room,
our municipal bull PEN This is a
disgrace and mockery OF the loeaIs
and Christian principles we profess
before the world.
"I doubt if the bull pen is exceed
ed in its utter responsiveness anywhere
in this country. To see it as 1t Is one
is reminded of the dungeons of Europe
centuries ago.
Sun Never Shines.
mot a ray of sunshine has shone into
this bull pen since it was built thirty
wears ago. Think of this in the capital
CITY of Kansas, where we make so
much of safeguarding the health OF
human beings from the cradle up;
where we have commissions and ny
and hourly; where we have anti
tuberculosis associations and state
health boards to educate US on how
to prevent tuberculosis and other life
destroying diseases. Is 1t not irony
that a sentiment and an intelligence
that inspire us to these things per-
init among us and put the stamp of
community approval upon a city
prison where men and women, boys
and girls are incarcerated in room
! into which the sun never shines and
which is never free from vermin 2?
Nobody to Blame.
Judge Yates was quite emphatic in
his denunciation of conditions he de-
/ scribed Yet he stated it was nobody
fault in particular. The people alone
are responsible. The present city Of
| ficials Mayor House, Chief Parsons
and others, are not to blame any more
| than their predeceSSorS-any more
than every private citizen. The people
have tolerated the conditions because
the city's treatment of prisoners did
not seem to interest anybody In par
ticular, although all admit that 1t is
reproachful.
AS many as sixty persons have been
incarcerated in the bull pen at one
time Sanitation, therefore, is out of
the question. Other conditions Judge
Yates described in connection with
sanitation as unprintable.
Forty Days Enough.
| Sometimes, he said, he imposed
fines of from $50 to 500 on offenders.
| At the legal allowance of a dollar a
day for each days imprisonment, it
would require 100 days for a fine OF
500 to be Laid OUT in Jail But
have never permitted any man to re-
main in the bull pen over 40 days,
continued Judge Yates. because there
is hardly any crime in the category
that would justify such punishment
Three months would impair any per-
sons health and perhaps undermine
it permanently.
1.-The ideals of our citizenship are
high. In fact, l think it would be
difficult to find a community where
the better things of life are more ap-
preciated than here in Topeka, but the
deplorable conditions at our city jai
and the demand for a new building
are a challenge to our citizenship to
live up to its standards in other re-
spects."
Judge Yates stated that there is nc
way in which the present jail can be
made sanitary or decently habitable
THE only thing to do with this eye
sore" he declared, lis to tear it down
and build another in it's place.
Being so strongly impressed with
the bad conditions surrounding the
present Jail, Judge Yates, when the
agitation began sometime ago for q
new auditorium, urged that a new jail
should be included in the effort fol
one, and when the committee of citi-
zens took up the matter they asked
his services, along with those of Mayor
House, in looking after the new jail
plans.