Imperial Valley press., 1936-01-26


the courts are in the main. dis
heartening and tragic class, in the
opinion of Mrs. Mildred Cox, day
matron, and Mrs. Lottie Mason,
night matron. The matrons agree
that if all girls and women could
see the effects of crime upon the
! feminine mind and body. they
would not choose or let life force
| them into unlawful ways.
Furtive, defiant, sullen, hyster-
ical or fearful as Jail may make
| the women. Mrs. Cox and Mrs.
! Mason declare weakness of char
| acter is the basic cause of Difficult
! ties.
Many stories are told concern
| ing the reasons for being lodged
in Jail Almost invariably, the ma
irons said, the women will insist
love played some part in it. They
were deserted, disappointed or
angry because of the treatment
cf a sweetheart or husband. The
matronS seldom know whether
the stories are true or not.
II a woman has children, she
will take care of them some way.
Mrs. Cox said: No matter what
kind of a life they lead, the moth
er usually arrangeS fer the support
| of her children. She said she
knew of several instances where
women serving time would send
money to pay the tuition and
board of their children in privat2
schools. Crime of the worst type
| apparently cannot quite kill the
instinct to care for their children.
Always Deny Guilt
Ordinarily the first thing a wo-
man says when she is that she is not
brought to Jail is that she is not
guilty and never has been in jail
before. A check of fiGgerErint
records sometimes reveals the wo-
man is using an assumed name and
has a criminal record Usually
they stick to their first story until
the records are produced. Then
they admit it. Sometimes, how
ever they still insist it is all Z
big mistake and tell a big story
about taking the rap for someone
else"
Sometimes a good man may ge:
in JAIL" Mrs. CCx remarked, but
a good woman almost never does
A man can be partly good and
partly bad but women don't know
how to do things half way"
Drunken women usually are
brought to Jail at night. Mrs. Ma
son says they often come fighting
and screaming as they try to es-
cape arresting officers. If they
are too violent they are locked III
a cell
There are some women who
create as much trouble as they
! can. One woman talked constantly
of suicide and in order to strength
en- her remarks, would bite pieces
off mirror and grit them be-
tween her teeth
Usually women prisoners are in
dustriCus and ask for work to do
in order that time will pass more
quickly. They wash, iron and mend
their own clothes and keep the
women's section of the Jail clean.
They like to enhroider and sew
and spend many hours manicuring
their fingernails. One woman
washed her clothes when she first
was imprisoned and then wrapped
herself in a blanket in order to
keep the clothes clean until she
was released.
The womens quarters occupy
the southwest section of the Sec
ond floor of the big gray building
on the corner Of Ninth and State
streets in El Centro. They are
steam heated in winter ana oc-
cupy the coolest spot in the build
ing in the summer. Seventeen is
the largest number ever housed
in the women's quarters at one
time.
Small Dining Room
The quarters consist of a long,
narrow room with a row of cots
three cells with two hunks each
and a small dining room. The
whole place is concrete, the win
dcWs heavily barred and the cells
built of heavy steel and concrete
There is a shower for bathing and
tubs for washing clothes.
Meals are cooked by the male
prisoners in the kitchen down
stairs and brought upstairs by
TRUSTEES. Food is served twice daily
The women wash their own dish
eS.
Friends and relatives keep the
women well supplied with daintics
which are locked in separate COM
partments. They are permitted TO
have the gifts but every package
is searched.
Mrs. Cox and Mrs. Mason are
firm believers in mixing kindness
with discipline. The only prisoners
who ever complained about the
treatment were Emma Cutler and
Dorothy Ray, Communist agita-
tors, who indicated a strong dis
like and complained bitterly. The
Cutler woman, according to Mrs
Cox, said the food was not fit to
eat, but gained IA pounds during
her stay.
Sewing machines are to be in
stalled in the Women's quarters
and the women will make clothes
for the men TRUSTEES and uniforms
for themselves. They will make
as much of the bedding as pcs
sible and do all the mending, Of
bedding and clothing. This will
constitute a savings to the county
A laundry, equipped with d
washing machine from the county
farm, soon will be installed in the