The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
PRISONERS ILL FED
 AND JAIL UNCLEAN
 SAYS GRAND JURY
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| (COntinued from Page Five)
 l for about 19 hours without fod. We can
 see no sufficient reason for this custom and believe that prisoners should be fed 1 three times daily, and that much better l variety of food be given them than is ! being given them at present. Prisoners advise that fat bacon, peas and corn | bread constitute practically the entire diet 1 given them both morning and noon! We ascertained from MT. Merlweatherl wno 1 has charge of the kitchen and the feed- | ing, that the food on given day for the | two meals furnished the prisoners cost | $19.3 .3S, the number of prisoners in the jail on that day being 194. This is little less 1 than 10 cents per man per day. Since the state allows to the sheriff the sum of 30 cents per man per day for feeding the prisoners in this county. we believe there is a large margin there for the improve
 ment of the food and the increasing of the variety furnished them.
 COURTHOUSE CLEAN We believe that the general cleanliness of the courthouse, both in the offices and the corridors, but especially the corridors, could be greatly improved by more care- | ful attention on the part of the janitor. There is great deal of splitting on the floors and the walls of the corridors by the general public, which we believe can
 
 of cuspidors.
 We found in our Investigations good grounds to support charges of cruelty agains. one A. H. Thrasher, who was for
 merly employed by the county as a guard at Maxine convict camp. We had wit
 nesses whose testimony indicated to us that he had been guilty of the most flag
 rant abuses of power in the whipping of prisoners under his care. We understand that he is still in the employ of the county in similar capacity, but that he has been removed from this camp to some other. We earnestly recommend to this court and to the board of revenue that this man be dismissed from the service of the county.
 We have noted that the restaurant con- ducted in the basement of the courthouse serves both negroes and white people at it's counters We believe this is contrary to an ordinance of the city of Birming- ham and to the spirit, if not the letter, of the laws of the state, and we recom-
 mend that the two races be not allowed to eat from the same counter.
 PRAISE FOR CORONER We are advised that the coroner, un- der the existing law. IS paid but $100 per month for his services, and that all the expenses of his office, such as of flee assistant, travelling expenses, etc., much be paid from this meagre sum. The board of revenue advises that it has no authority under the law to as- sist the coroner, even to the extent of furnishing him the use of a small car in which to get about to the various parts of the county where homicides have been committed. We consider it of the utmost importance to the prop jer enforcement of the law against mur- der that the coroner should make a prompt and thorough investigation of each homicide occurring within the coun- ty, in order that witnesses may be ex- amined before they have had time to drift away or be spirited away. By this means the blame can often be fixed and the guilty man held, and his chances of escape are thereby rendered more remote. Our coroner has shown himself to be an earnest. industrious and capable official. However, he must live, and he should be provided in some way with the means to fulfill the duties of his office without the necessity of
 donating his own services to the coun- ty without recompense.
 We find that criminal cases are often sent up to the grand jury by inferior courts or justices of the peace without lists of witnesses to be summoned in such cases. We found a number of such cases on the docket in which the ac-
 cused were in jail, and yet we were
 unable to investigate them because no witnesses could be had
 TOO MANY WITNESSES We found that in large proportion of the cases investigated by us there
 were many witnesses subpoenaed to appear who had no knowledge of the guilt of the accused. At times several police officers were summoned and ap- peared, and none of them knew any thing of the case except that they had arrested the prisoner upon complaint Since each of these useless witnesses
 must be paid $1 per day and mileage
 for his attendance, the amount thus
 uselessly expended by the county in
 the course of a year, in the grand jury
 investigations and in the regular court
 trials, must be enormous
 We complied with your instructions in Investigating the matter of the com pliance with the law requiring power head lights to be used on railroad loco-
 motives. We find that all railroads hav-
 ing trunk lines in this county are com plying with the law, with the excep- tion of one, against which we brought an indictment. This company is still
 using the old style of oil lamp head lights on its road engines, with a few exceptions. We found true bill against this road.
 In concluding our report we would recommend that the next grand jury be instructed to investigate the matter of fire escapes on buildings in this city. Many buildings exist in this city, we believe, which are occupied both