Norwich bulletin., 1921-11-26
PUTNAM

Judge Ma1tbie, who in the superior court fos Windham county at Williman- tic recently heard the case of pr. James F. MeKenna of Providence vs John ". Whipple, Allen A. Averill and Sergeant George Laird, police department, of this city, has rendered a verdict in favor of the defendants.
 against the defendants that attracted much attention here and which resulted from the arrest of Dr. Mckenna in this town on March 2S last on charge of in- toxicatfon, of which he was found not guilty the next day In thes Putnam city court, the arrest following collision be- tween a ear driven by pr. McKenna and John Whipple, on the state highway lead ing to Pomfret at point just east of the Gary scho olhouse.
 In his information filed for considera- tion in the. superior court Dr. Mckenna set up the claim that he was maliciously proceeded against when~he was arrested and presented in the city court here fol- lowing his arrest on the night of the crash between the two cars.
 The case when tried recently in Willi- mantle resulted in the whole episode that transpired in- Putnam being thoroughly gone into before Judge Maltbie- Since the
 
 awaited with general interest throughout the city, In view of the fact that 1t in- yolved three well known citizens, one of them of the Putnam police department. who arrested Dr. McKenna on the night of March 2S last as an incident connected with the discharge of his duties as a po- | lice officer of the city.
 In the action in the superior court, Dr. Mckenna was represented by Attorney P. l J. Danahey of Willimanttc, while Attor- ney Charles L. Torrey of this city was counsel for the defendants, Mir Torrey all so being corporation counsel for the city. l Abstracts from the annual report of 1 the comm issioners of/Windham county,
 John A. Dady Of this city, E. H. Cortts l of Thompson and Urgele LaFrance of Plainfeld-show that the Windham coun- 1 ty jail at Brooklyn has lost its place as
 a self-supporting and profit-earning in- i stitution and has deteriorated into a defi- cit producing liability, the loss to the county at the jail during the twelve
 months covered by tho report being s1o,- 1 S90.95. For this no responsibility is to 1 be attached to the county commissioners,
 who have performed their duties as care | fully and efficiently as ever in the past | as in the days when the pail was show 1 ing yearly profit of sufficient size to 1 be talked about not only throughout Con- necticut. but in adjoining comnonwealtfs 1 as well.
 In analysing that portion of the com i missioners report dealing with the county jail citizens of the county will regard tie figures from two diametrically op2os- ed viewpoints. The wets-those who have never become reconciled to a dry na- tion, and who never will, may be expected to seize ucon the jail figures to show what a financial loss prohibition has in flicted on Windham county, the jail def- cit being only one instance of this This large group never lose sight of the fact that there was a profigt for the county in the indiscretions that landed many men and few women in jail, where the men were employed to revenue producing ad- vantage. The result was a profit-earn- ing jail such as could be matched in few communities in the United States The Windham county jail and the money that it earned has been boasted about many times by many residents of the county ] who never stopped to figure that the source of the revenue was from many forms of misery.
 | The drys who study the commissioners report and learn from it that the county
 lost nearly $11,000 In operating the jafl l during the twelve months covered by its 1 figures will be inclined in many in. 1 stances cheer over the loss in view o the fact that the number of prisoners al
 the jail has been so greatly reduced un- der prohibition compared to the wet
 and money-earning days in the instru. tion's history. This group seems to have entirely forgotten it's predictions tha l there would be no more need of a coun.
 ty jail within year after the comins
 of prohibition.
 1 It so happens however that human na
 ture has not been materially changed a. yet by the dry laws. At least a sufficient
 number of people are managing to ge
 sent to jail to infiict a loss of nearly II, 1 900 annually on Windham county, ant 1 the criminal list at the October term O
 the Windham county superior court va. ] the longest in many years
 The vets and the drys will both ge more or less satisfaction out of the com
 nissioners' figures dealing with the coun | ty jail account, but the satisfaction wil | be derived from viewpoints as wfdel,
 separated as the polls, and all of then | who are subject to taxation, from whici
 neither vets or drysy are exempted ol
 such grounds alone, will share in meetin
 the deficit which appears 10 the vets a
 penalty and to the drys as a consola
 tion.
 Some figures from the jail account shoy
 that the state paid during 12 months
 total Of $4,413.S1 for the board of pris