Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-04-09

prevents the discussion before Con-
gress by welfare employees Of matters
not in the budget.
These two facts kept the penal
superintendent absolutely out of
touch with the men responsible for
action he commented, The money
Is what counts. The only people
who could give it to me were the
commissioners.
On the green cloth of the COM
mittee's table, Mr. Gill dumped
bag of heavy metal he found in
search at the Jail following the es-
cape of five prisoners on November
"a
He reported finding enough junk
in the attic to arm at least Is men
for a mass Jail break two weeks
after eight Jail employees had con-
Quoted their own search.
Suspended for Disciplinlng.
Chairman Hebert asked Mi Gill
if any disciplinary action was taken
against the guards for their poor
"shakedOWn.'
i was suspended for threatening
TO suspend them" Mr.. Gill shouted.
He explained that he called the staff
officers together December ) and
told them that they ran poor Jail,
but was himself suspended Deem
Der 6 and no action has been taken
against them,
The District prisons, leading the
United States in 1916, have fallen
steadily behind the procession, he
remarked, They could be the model
for the United States, as the Federal
Bureau of Prisons is the model for
the world Mr.. Gill said.
He was expected to recommend
that the penal system be turned
over TO the Federal Bureau of
Prisons before he concluded his
testimony.
Lacks Industries Program.
One reason why the Nations best
penologists avoid service in the Dis
trict, he declared, is that the penal
system has no prison industries
program and no vocational training
for prisoners. The District Parole
Board repeatedly has requested it.
and the Commissioners could have
included 1t in their budget, he said
The Board of Public Welfare was
willing, he added in answer to a
question.
Mr. Gill coo,r,1, ir,er too,evor that
when he asked the city heads for q
prison industry program to keep
the inmates constructively occupied
"a high District official" told him
that the Federal Bureau of Prisons
included bunch of pantyWaists
Mr.. Gill has blamed the Welfare
Board for "intolerable conditions in
the penal institutions. and has told
an inquiry board hearing charges
filed against him by the Welfare
Board that committee of laymen
canot run a penal system.
Houses Dangerous Cases.
Lorton Reformatory, he recalled,
was established as Wall-less insti-
tuition for hopeful cases. Since then,
however, dangerous cases belonging
in a maximum security institution
have been housed there, he noted.
Mr.. Gill pointed out that a prison
section of the reformatory. on which
construction began years ago, never
has been completed
In answer to criticism made yes
terday of appointments by the
United States Civil Service Com
mission, Mr.. Gill said that one of
the finest things Mr. Huff did for
the Jail was to put it under civil
service in 1941.
Representative Simpson. Repub-
lican, of Illinois wanted to know how
the accumulation of metal junk
which Mr.. Gill had described as &C
cumulated in the Jail attic had
escaped the war salvage drives, Mr..
Gill said he didn't know, but he did
know that some of the Jail employees
knew the junk was there, because
they told him so,
Rebuked Captain Of Guard.
Mr. Gill described how on last
December he learned that