Evening star., 1933-09-04
Prisoners Overflow Cell Block
and Are Herded Like Cat
tie in Yard.
291 JAM ACCOMMODATIONS
FORMERLY BUILT FOR so.
Majority of Week End Arrests
Were for Intoxication and
Disorderly Conduct.

The need for a new and modern
Police Court Building was re-empha-
sized today when 291 prisoners, the
largest number ever before taken into
the court on a single day, overf1owed
the small cell block and had to be
herded like cattle in the small court
yard to await trial.
Designed to accommodate so pris-
oners, the cell block was jammed by 7
o'clock and before court convened the
court yard was nearly filled with a
milling, disheveled group of men, both
white and colored.
The 291 prisoners had been arrested
over the week end. the majority of
them for such misdemeanors as intoxi-
cation, panhandling and diSorderly con-
duct. Most of them had been locked
up in police precinct stations since Sat
urday night and then had to go into
court to face such conditions.
Former Record 276.
The last record-breaking crowd of
prisoners to go into court on a single
day totaled 276.
The lack of accommodations for prls-
oners is only one of the conditions in
the Police Court Building which have
provoked the repeated criticisms OF the
judges Two of the court rooms are so
small that witnesses often are forced to
stand in the narrow, dark corridors.
The building is without elevators, which
imposes hardship on old and crippled
persons who have to climb to the United
States branch of the court on the third
floor. Probation officers have been
- sd ft, II
tioned-off sections in the narrow cor
ridors and witness rooms. In the jury
and witness rooms there is only one
toilet. which must be used by both men
and women.
The Police Court will get new &C
commodations, if and when the pro-
posed new courts building is erected in
the municipal center area. The Dis
trict Commissioners now are vigorously
pushing the Public Works Administra
tion for a grant of S4600,000 to erect
the courts building, which is to be the
first unit in the development.
To House Other Courts.
The courts building would house not
only the Police Court, but the Juvenile
and Municipal Courts, the Office of
recorder of deeds, the Police Depart
ment and the Department of Vehicles
and Traffic. All of these agencies, with
the lone exception of the Traffic De-
partment, are urgently in need of more
modern and adequate accommodations
New accommodations for the Police
Court, however, is one of the most Sc
riouS needs. Some years ago Congress
recognized this need and passed legis-
lation providing for new court build
ing, but construction was held in abey-
ance on account of the proposed NUM-
cipal center development.
The Police Department, likewise, is
sorely in need of more adequate ac
quartered in the old District Building
at 462 Indiana avenue, which lacks
many of the requisites of modern po-
lice department.
Building in Bad Shape
The building itself is in such bad
shape that it leaked seriously during
the recent tropical storm Janitors
spent one entire day mopping up the
rooms on the top floor The Detective
Bureau is without private rooms in
which to interview witnesses and the
room in which the prisoners are housed
awaiting the morning and afternoon
line-ups is so small it will not accom-
modate more than dozen at time.
The building does have elevator
service, but not on Saturday afternoons,
Sundays or holidays. AS a result Mai
Ernest W. Brown, superintendent, and
other officials must climb five flights
of stairs to their Offices when the eleva-
tors are not running. The prisoners
also are forced to walk several flights to
the Detective Bureau