Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-10-02
BY BEN NcKELWAY.

Washington's House of Detention
has been one of the city's most abused
and least understood institutions. For
one thing. it's foundation, in 1900. was
an experiment, the first attempt by
police department in the United States
to provide a place separate from a
police station or Jail for the temporary
incarceration of women and children
fallen into the hands of the law.
The House of Detention idea has been
followed with varying results in other
cities. 1t has been successfully oper-
ated here. But 81 years have not
lifted it above the suspicion which
always surrounds new experiments.
There has been some difficulty in as.
signing a convenient category into
which it might fall. 1t is neither fish
nor fowl nor good red herring. 1t
bears in some particulars the ear
marks of a jail. In others it re-
sembles a municipal lodging house. In
one room it may house a hayward
girl picked UP by the police; in another
1t provides a place of refuge for
women stranded and alone in a
strange city who seek safety and
shelter overnight. 1t comes under the
jurisdiction of the Police Department,
but it's actual administration is in the
hands Of the city's largest single
group of social workers. 1t plays an
active part in sending men and women
to Jail. 1t takes care Of lost children
found on the street and locates their
parents.
But, in addition to the confusion in
the public mind concerning what the
House OF Detention is supposed to do,
1t has never been wholly free from
critical attack. Not many years ago
conditions under which it was run
threatened public scandal. The
place was dirty and infested with YER
min. AS many as four and five chill
dren slept in one bed. Two meals
daily were brought from a nearby
restaurant and served cold and greasy.
A prisoner brought in too late for
one meal went hungry until the next.
Somebody always seemed to be escap-
ing from the House Of Detention.
Young newspaper reporters, running
afoul for the first time of the principle
that even women seized by the police
have right to some protection from
morbid prying. were wont to intimate
that the House of Detention held it's
victims incommunicado. Charges of
cruelty and Illegal detention were fire.
quently heard. Inmates of the place
were always willing to expand upon
it's evils.
But much of this is changed today.
Her most severe critics must grant
that Lieut.. Nina G. Van Wrinkle has
accomplished wonders with the House
of Detention. That institution now
will defy the most careful inspection
by those who seek dirt in cubbyholes
or dust in corners. It's bed linen,
vrfA <l- kaI IL
sanitation, preparation and even the
quality of it's food are on a par with
standards of a good hotel. Soap and
water, still cheap, are used without
stint. Unlucky and unwashed young
sters brought to the House of Deten-
ton are soundly scrubbed and bathed
not once, but twice, every day. Their
skins, il not their souls, are cleansed
anew and made to see the shining
light of day.
It was only natural that the Bureau
Of Efficiency should pounce with glee
upon the House of Detention and sub
ject it to microscopic analysis. 1t un-
doubtedly turned up some material
which. must have aroused suspicious.
There was the matter of spanking, for
instance. Two young men, charged
with the task of keeping a score or
more of wild and woolly youngsters
under control. unfortunately lost their
tempers some time ago and admins
tered a series of sound spankings.
The episode was uncovered by officials
of the House of Detention and the
two young men were dismissed. Later
there was the man who stole the
cream-the children's cream. One of
A.
prunes. and he liked them best with
cream. In addition, he was sorely
tempted by dried apricots-in fact, he
could not resist any sort of dried fruit