The Alaska daily empire., 1921-12-02
WATER PATROLS : ARE ASKED FOR
 THIS DIVISION
Only Means of Enforcing Laws, Saws Grand Jury in
 its Final Report.


 
 A better law enforcement" is the : central plea of the final report of : the Federal Grand Jury. which was : presented in the U. S. District Court : this morning before Judge T. M. : Reed, at which time the Grand Jury : stated that it had concluded it's : work and was discharged from fur fther service. The report urges the establishment of a water patrol to curb rum running" and a floating onstabulary" to deal with "organ- ized outlawry" which the report de- clares is indicated by cases of al legged fish piracy" and robbing of fox ranches and footing of ware houses
 : The report follows in full: !. We, the Grand Jury, summoned to attend the special October, 1921, : term of the District Court for the : District of Alaska, Division No. l, having completed our labors for the : said term and concluded the busi- : ness brought before us, now. beg leave to report to this Honorable : Court as follows: -.t. We were in session from Octo- Der 10. 1921, ito October "A, 192L and again from November 28, 1927. to this day; we have acted upon i3 hind-over cases; have conducted a number of ether investigations; have found 40 true bGs and four not true bills and have examined ST wit . ncsses. f4 -r We have had various matters pre- sented for our consideration, among them being the condition of the Fed eral jail at Juneau, matters of more effective law enforcement and CO., ordination of Federal activities in this Territory, and venture to make the following recommendation re- gardng the same:
 Federal Jail at Juneau We recommend that the wood ceilings in the main tank and cell rooms of the United States Federal : jail at Juneau, Alaska, be covered : with steel plates and that in each : window a steel Screen of small mesh : be installed and made permanently : secure. On investigation of the jail : register we find that in the past prisoners have escaped from jail by means of saws passed in to them : through bars of open windows, and that attempted escapes have been made by burning through the wooden ceilings of the jail
 We recommend that padded cell be installed in the United States Fed eral jail at Juneau, Alaska, in which insane patients who become violent and dangerous can be confined to : prevent them from doing injury to : themselves and fellow inmates dur ing their confinement in the Federal
 jail awaiting hearings and transpor-
 tation to the Mornihgside Hospital at
 Portland, Oregon.
 We recommend that the floor in
 the kitchen of the culinary depart
 ment of the United States Federal
 jail at Juneau, Alaska, be covered
 with linoleum for .the purpose of
 maintaining more sanitary condi-
 tien, and for the reason that owing
 to the severe cold weather during
 the winter months and the wind and
 frost pass through the floor due to
 the construction of the cook house
 foundation
 Upon investigation we find that
 the towels and blankets used in the
 United States Federal jail at Ju-
 neau, Alaska. and the towels used in
 the various offices of the United
 States Federal building are laundered
 by the cook instead of by the local
 laundries for the reason that the
 laundries destroy the government
 property. We, therefore, recommend
 that an electric washing machine be
 purchased and made part of the
 equipment of the culinary depart
 ment. t
 Better Law Enforcement
 Rum running or the importation
 of intoxicating liquor from British
 Columbia to Alaska is, we believe,
 very extensively carried on This,
 we think, could be stopped, or at
 least very materially curtailed, If
 our government maintained a water
 patrol on the border between British
 Columbia and Alaska. Without such
 a patrol. this Grand Jury does not
 believe it will be possible to mate
 rially abate this specific law viola
 tion.
 Organized Outlawry
 >"It has also come to the knowi-
 edge of the Grand Jury that fish
 piracy or trap robbing is extensively
 carried on during the fishing seasons
 by well organized and well equipped
 outlaws. We also have knowledge
 that numerous robberies of cannery
 buildings, mine warehouses and fox
 farms have occurred. Such out
 lawry in sparsely settled districts could be restricted. if not entirely
 stopped. by the esta blishment. of a
 floating constahulary. and we earnest ly recommend such constabulary. The United States already has nu-
 merous law enforcement officers in