Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-01-22
Police Court Brings Money
To City Treasury As Jail
Hides Woes of Many People

authorities behind the bars with the
parents
Men and women, no matter what
their relation, are never placed in the
same cell This is according to law
One instance of the overlooking of this
law is noted and that was in a case
recently IN which AMIN and 'lhis wife
were jailed and the wife was very sick
and needed the care of someone con-
stantly. In this case both were locked
in the same cell marking the exception
which proves the iron clad rule ofSall
jaiIs in this country
There IS lietlc notice taken Of race,
color or creed i'll a Jail. In one cell will
be found well dressed, neat appearing
white men Mexican laborers in Their
working clothes, colored. fellows and
now and then Chinanan There are
many types and all classes in a Jail
Rather one might say, persons. who
have ct sor1c time represented all
classes.
Jail Stay Means Misery
One sees misery and suffering in the
jail The cells are kept clean and they
ere steam heated Then beds are only
iron strips but arc not uncomfortable
hut aside from the suffering of being
locked up and in many cases facing
years behind the bars or the uncertain !
ty of trials, the average person in Jail
brings IN with him The trouble which
caused his incarceration.
Probably the most dissolute and al
together revolving type which one sees (.
in the Douglas city Jail or in any other
Jail is the American drug addict. U.s.
ually the American who has become a /
drug user is not Of an uneducated class |
Many of them have possessed college !,
cducations. Some have been profess
SIGNAL men, The women in many in |
stances have been of good family and
have drifted. They all alike claim that /
sickness and suffering drove them to /
use drugs and nearly all, when pinned +
down to it will admit that they were
probably weak to begin with or they
would not have succumbed to the ter
rible habit.
Serves AS Hospital Use
The Douglas city Jail is not only a !
place in which criminals are confined
and in which persons are detained
pending trial but it is, nearly all year
round where drug addicts, suffering
C1lC vi LOIC VI Dl1C OdI1Il1CO dOUC111DU
with the aid of steel bars and rigid de- !
nial of all drugs, to cure themselves of
the awful habit. Many succeed and
men and women who have been half
dragged to the cells, weak and appar
emily ready to die have walked forth
after three or four months strong and
fat and fit to face life anew.
Many of these remain away from the
drugs for long time but it is a sorry
truth that most of them finally go
back for no apparent reason to the use
of the thing which damns them utterly
in body, p1ind and soul for it is agreed
among physicians and police officers
that the real, confirmed, drug addict is |
a curse to himself and a burden to
mankind,
To see these men and women when
they have been in Jail "a hours and
when they would barter away their
very lives for a dose of the drug is pic I
tured by some as looking straight into
the depths of hell An addict, unless
he is peculiarly hardened will confess
crime which will send him to the gall
lows if he be deprived of drugs for a
long enough period and the confession
will secure him just one little thinble
full of narcotics, it is claimed by some.
No record of the number of aug adj
diets that are milled through the city
jail is kept for they are jailed on all
manner Of charges but all are marked
as addicts before they have been in the
Jail day if it does not show in their
manners when they are arrested. No
addict has ever beerl known to stay in
jail "a hours without becoming sick
and pleading for stimulant.
Takes Work to Clean Cells
The Jail is hard to keep clean. Sup
posing that one of the big cells that
will hold IL men is scrubbed and white
washed from floor to ceiling The place
is saturated with insect killing spray
and the blankets which are the only
bedding, are steam cleaned.
The cell is prepared for use and in
the course of one night, five men in
toxicated unto death1y sickness are
locked in it. In addition to these, two
Italian immigrants from the slun1s of
Naples are deposited behind the bars.