The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-11-28
FIND CROWDED
CONDITIONS
PREVAIL
Personal Inspection
Shocks Four From
Police Court

standing proposals to enlarge the
Districts penal facilities will be
Forthcoming from it's four Police
Court judges, it was indicated to-
day, as a sequel to a personal
inspection late yesterday of condi-
tions at Occoquan.
After having seen prisoners at
the workhouse crowded shoulder
to shoulder at supper and destined
thereafter to sleep in dormitories
where cots, no more than IL
inches apart, were placed in the
aisles to accommodate the grow
ing prison population, the judges
whose sentences sent them there
freely acknowledged that "some-
thing will have to be DONE"
First View for Two
Judges John P. Mcmahon, Isaac
R. Hit, Walter j. Casey and Ed
ward M. Curran made the camille
journey down the river. They
were accompanied by J. A. Nolan,
secretary of the corrections COM
mittee Of the Council Of Social
Agencies. who helped arrange the
trip.
For the two younger judges
Judge Casey and Judge Curran-
it was their first glimpse Of the
workhouse from the inside. To
their elders the plea for larger
quarters was an old story.
Capt. M. M. Barnard, Superin-
tendent of District penal institu-
lions, chaperoned the judges, az
fording them every opportunity
to see exactly how prisoners are
handled. He said he had COM
piled for the Board Of Public Wei
fare and Senator William H.
King Of Utah, chairman Of the
District Committee Of the Sen
ate, a list Of 400 repeaters who
had been sent to Occoquan from
three to a score or more times
in the space Of five years.
Back Second Day
Captain Barnard declared:
I'VE have let men out of here
Saturday, only to have them get
drunk, Sunday and be sent back
here Monday"
At the woman's dormitory the
judges were told by Mrs. L. E.
Holland, in charge Of women priS-
onerS, of a regular visitor who
spends an average Of 10 months
each year in the workhouse, while
other repeaters keep coming back
at such frequent intervals as
greatly to complicate the problem
of caring for them.
In the mems quarters the judges
were told 1,178 prisoners were
housed in eight dormitories IN.
tended for a maximum of 1000.
The women'S quarters were so
crowded it was necessary to keep
Is women prisoners in the in
Urinary, where their outbreaks
disturbed those who were i'll. A
maximum of 1920 prisoners, in.
GLIDING ITO women, were confined
In the WorkhouSe two weeks ago.
About 100 were Federal pris-
oners sent to Occoquan from Lor-
ton Reformatory nearby because
of crowded conditions there.
Arthur L. Petit, superintendent
Of Occoquan, was supported by
Captain Barnard in complaining
that they did not have enough
guards in the workhouse to allot
one man to every dormitory, with
the result that nightly some OF
the dormitories are at times left
entirely unguarded.
Informal expressions indicated
that the judges found themselves
in agreement with the prison
authorities on these points:
l. There is a pressing need
for enlargement of the mems
quarters, constructing one or
more dorrnitories.
2. More modern and comno-
dious quarters should be pro-
vided as soon as possible for
women prisoners, now housed in
windsWept wooden barracks
built in 1908.
3. Provision should be made
for segregating first offenders,
making it unnecessary for them
to associate as at present with
habitual criminals and other
repeaters.
4. The possibility of medical
treatment for DRINKS in a Sepa'
rate institution and with a regl-
men of their own should be
studied.
Split On Drunk Cure
On the last point the judges
we're more nearly in agreement
among themselves than with Cap
tain Barnard who questioned the
effectiveness of prison "cures" for
DRINKS.
Judge Hit and Judge Curran
expressed themselves freely as IA
voring an experiment with prison
farms or separate institutions for
DRINKS. Judge Mcmahon and
Judge Casey were more reserved.
The judges were recognized by
many of their customers" In
solitary" the judges were inter
ested to discover white prisoners
on cots without mattresses and
colored prisoners sleeping between
blankets on the concrete floor.
One young prisoner, who said he
had never been in jail until sent
~ Noooo,1oy fo,. on douc &c q FiYSt