The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-02
WANT COUNTIES TO. CARE FOR PAUPER BY JOINT SCHEME
Bill Seeks Establishment Of Four District Poorhouses
 In State
STATE CAPITAL BUREAU l
 THE AGE HERALD ! Montgomery, Ala, Sept. 1

Montgomery, Ala, Sept.
 In an effort to improve the com dition of the states paupers. ad- ministration bills were introduced in the legislature during the week pro- Viding system whereby a group of counties may construct a district aims house, governed by board of supervisors and equiped with facili- ties for the care and protection of the unfortunates. The bill was in- troduced in the house by Represent tative c. B. Werner of Tuscaloosa and In the senate by Senator George W. Randall of Bibb. It was drawn at the request of Governor Brandon.
 Under the terms of the bill coun- ties will not be required to abandon their present aims houses, but they will be permitted, by vote of the boards of revenue, to join with other counties In the construction of dis trict aims houses. Any county join ing In the construction of a district aims house would be permitted to dispose of its county aims house
 The bill provides for four aims house districts in Alabama In the nope that ultimately four district aims houses will take the places of the 67 county aims houses now main- tained in the state. The districts are fixed and any county which desires to join with other counties must place it's aims house within the dis- trict. Two counties may construct an aims house. Other counties In the district will be permitted to join at any time. The cost will be assessed against the counties in direct propor- tion to the taxable values of the counties.
 To Name Officials
 The district aims house will be To- cated in any county in the district by the board of supervisors. Each board of revenue or court of county com missioners will elect one of its mem bers as a member of the board of supervisors and this board will have control and supervision over the aims house and will name superintend- ent who will be required to reside in the aims house and devote his per- sonal attention to the supervision of the home and the inmates of the {. home.
 The board will be required to meet at the aims house at regular in tervals and must make reports to the board of revenue of the various coun- ties interested in the aims house.
 Each county will be required to pay the cost of upkeep of only the persons sent to the aims house rom that particular county. The basis for the payment of expenses will be the percentage which the aggregate cost of keeping the inmates at public charge from each such county bears to the aggregate cost Of Keep ing the inmates at public charge from all such counties, adopting as the uint of cost the total average cost per capita per week of keeping all the inmates. at public charge and otherwise. in said institution"
 The districts established by the bill for the aims houses will include the following counties;
 District l. Colbert, Cullman, Franklin. Jackson, Lauderdale, Law renee, Limestone, Madison, Marion Marshall, Morgan, Winston.
 District 2-Blount, Calhoun, Chero- kee, Clay, Cleburne, DeKalb, Etowah, Fayette, Jefferson, Lamar HanaoIph' St. Clair Shelby, Talladega, Walker.
 District 3--Autauga, Barbour, Bull lock, Butler. Chambers, Chiffon, Cot- fee, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw' Dale, Elmore, Geneva. Henry Hous- ton, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgom- cry, Pike, Russell, Tallapoosa.
 District 4-Baldwin, Bibb, Choctaw' Clarke, Conecuh, Dallas, Escamoia' Greene, Hale, Marengo. Mobile, Mon- roe, Perry Plckens. Sumter, Tusca- loosa, Washington, Wilsox.
 O O O
 Dr. Andrews Approves PIDn
 In the last biennial report of the prison inspection department sub mitted to Governor Kilby, pr. Glenn Andrews, state prison inspector, con demned the aims house system Tn Alabama and declared that better fa- cilities should be provided Tor the indigent of the state.
 "The provision made for the in- digent is, In many of the counties or this state. to say the least, indit- ferent, crude and productive of eVli results, and reflects neither creolt upon our generosity or Chrlstlan civilization" said the report. lt IS not enough to say that we are doing equally as well as most other states
 Tn most of the counties of the state the aims house property con sists of a farm varying from a small tract of land in some to quite a1 extensive acreage in others ana bonses for the superintendent and inmates The buildings generaily ara very cheap box affairs, com structed of rough lumber, and are nrovided with no conveniences. Ine furnishings are in keeping with tne structures and the surroundings arg uninviting. In large majority oL instances water for all purposes IS obtained from surface wells, drawn in buckets. No bathing facilities pe ing provided, the inmates use snlall tin tubs or basins for this purpose ar 20 without ablutions for inderl- nite periods of time
 Governor Brandon believes tunos now invested in county aims houses u,iI eo far in constructing district aims houses and that the cost or maintaining paupers in the dlstrlct houses will be less because necesssiy