The Washington herald., 1921-09-28
Describes Jail Conditions.

To the EDITOR. The Washington Herald:
Passing along the street -yester-
day was an old colored man. a
full-blooded negro-there was no
doubt OF it-charcoal would have
made a white mark on him. From
the Old South. too. for touching
his cap he began, Look a yeer
white man. amt you de one what
wrote to de newspaper about the
pest house and signed yourself "A
Former Guest" / acknowledged
that / was, and he continued. you
and DAT editor man. you-all done
started something. Won't you write
again about the feed there. Just
tell 'em the truf. dats all you got
to do, just tell 'em the truf"
/ would gladly write a series of
them II / thought they would be
published.
Society through its agents, the
courts, sentences men guilty Of vio-
lating its rules of conduct to those
bulwarks, the prisons, which IL has
built up for its own protection and
for whose conduct they are respon-
slble. All commitment papers a6-
saying, Receive into your keeping
the body Of John Doe for a period
of - years" Society, through
the State or national government
depending on the classification Of
the prisoner, retains a propertr
right in the labor of John Doe. so
1t is the policy Of all warden5 to
say to these men, IF you don t
work you don eat" Ninety-nine
and nine-tenths per cent OF all pris-
on riots are based on the, reverse
English of that theDry, nameIy IF
We don't eat. we don't work"
Not long ago. after a riot in the
Maryland penitentiary, the Depart
ment of Justice, acting on the rec
ommendation of its agents who had
investigated, ordered all Federal
prisoners removed. the national gov
ernment having been paying Ire
State government for keeping thesn
men. Then you have the many GEN.
turtles old proposition of capital Va. =
sus labor even in prison. There are
always those more daring spirits
there ready to start a strike" IL
wages are reduced too much.
The social status of these men is
described as follows: Its dealings
with the criminal mark, one may
say. the zero point in the scale of
treatment which society conceives
to be the due Of its various mem
bers. If we raise this point we
raise the standard all along the
scale. The pauper may Justly ex-
pect something sbetter than the
criminal, the self-supportipg poor
man or woman than the pauper.
Thus, IL it is the aim Of good civili-
zation to raise the general standard
Of life, this is a tendency which a
savage criminal law will hinder
and a humane one assists. T.
Hobhouse, Morals In Evolution"
1t is to be borne in mind that
many Of these men in this Jail have
been convicted of no crime but are
simply awaiting trial. Six months
to a year Is not an unusual period
of waiting and I am told there are
men who have been there for eigh-
teen months or longer. There is
many Micawber district attorney:
the less evidence he has, the weaker
the case, the longer the man awaits
trial in his hope that something
will turn up" or that the man will
be goaded into pleading guilty. The
district attorney will see that he
gets the minimum penalty or is
placed on probation. thereby saving
his reputation black eve by having
the man discharged or found not
guilty. even though innocent.
There seems to be a ruling at
this Jail that some few men who
have influence can be asked for
by the warden OF the Jail and the
sentence changed by the court from
a prison to Jail sentence. These
are supposed to DE needed at GER
tain classes Of work, such as
clerks inft the front ONCE. The
cook In charge of the food for all
the men is usually a long term
man. ~
There 10 another class who are
| supposed 10 be doing the work OF
maintenance and who receive a spe-
cial line of food on. the strength Of
1t about six men doing one mans
work. In reality they are the men
-, Lox