j.^'-:jf'p-^ 1 X. 'i LIBRARY University of California. Gl FT OF .|Aa^\a/v-......./1 m/!a.<<-<*ji^^ 1 Class ..r> \^' a^ A BULLETIN ON THE CONDITION OF HE COUNTY JAILS OF MISSOURI CHARLES A. pLLWOOD, Ph. D. Professor of Sociology or THE ^ UNIVWSITY PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI June, 1904 A BULLETIN ON THE CONDITION OF THE COUNTY JAILS OF MISSOURI. I. The Condition of the County Jails of Missouki. Statistics. The following statistics of the county jails of Missouri were obtained largely through the county sheriffs. In about ten per cent, of the cases con- ditions were investigated directly by student investiga- tors. It was found possible to obtain information from only eighty-two counties, as no reports could be secured from the remaining thirty- two. However, in spite of the relative crudeness of the method by which the statis- tics were gathered and in spite of their relative incom- pleteness, there can be no doubt that they present a fairly accurate picture of the jail system of the State. The error, if any, must consist in the failure to reveal all the evils of the system, since the information in most cases was furnished by the officers in charge of the jails, and since the eighty-two counties reporting rep- resent four-fifths of the population and wealth of the State. Two of the counties reporting (Morgan and Ozark) have no jails, but send their prisoners to neighboring counties. The chief statistics of the jails^of the eighty remaining counties are herewith presented in tabular form. I 59792 ON < < CO »— I < O CO O CO O t— I H CO H CO Max. No. of pris- oners in one cell . Matron. Jailer other than sheriff Provisions against fire Cost of I'ail Serving sentences Awaiting trial Colored. White. Serving sentences Awaiting trial . . Colored . White. I I Total ^■vMe^^T-iNeorfTfi . O TO «-! O ri eC 1^ O* •^WJ^ZZ>hZZZ2ZZ>>Zz; • wowo:^ •OOOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO© :>^z>>'> :zzz>zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz> ZZZbuZZ^Zfc.^Z[x.gZ&:. o o • o o c o o • o o o V. U b * ^ w u ^ oo.i:.-.r -oo.h.hoo^oo.irooooo CC'iiCCWcCCCCCCCCCCCC*'-'" h.-^r -oo.h.hoo^oo.irooooooooooooo^oi: Z Z^ti.^ ZZb.fe.ZZgZZ&:.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ^ "-' J5S , 1^2.2 I u Ji >» iS ^ ^'O ii ^ M ■g^»■sis^tll|S:||^s.■Jl^i The total population of these eighty jails on Jan- uary 1, 1904,* consisted of 843 prisoners, exclusive of six witnesses detained and two insane persons. Of these 843 prisoners 486 were awaiting trial, and 357 serving sentences. The relatively small proportion of those serving sentences is to be accounted for through the fact that Kansas City and St. Louis have municipal workhouses, and to these nearly all prisoners serving sentences longer than a few days are sent. If we consider the rural jails alone, the ratio between those awaiting trial and those serving sentences is reversed. Of the total number of prisoners 537 were white and 306 were colored. This makes the proportion of colored pris- oners in our jails a little over 36 per cent., while the col- ored element constitutes but 5.2 per cent, of the whole population of the State. The number of female pris- oners in these eighty jails was fifty-eight, of whom twenty-one were white and thirty-seven colored. The number of prisoners under eighteen years of age was forty-two, of whom twenty-two were awaiting trial and twenty serving sentences. This very small number of prisoners under eighteen is without doubt due to the operation of the Juvenile Court and Probation Law, as no prisoners under eighteen were reported in either the St. Louis or Kansas City jails. The total number of jail prisoners in Missouri, say on an average winter day, may be estimated on the basis of the returns from these eighty county jails. In addi- tion to the thirty-two county jails not reporting, there are the jails and lock-ups of 553 incorporated cities, vil- lages and towns, and the workhouses of Kansas City and St. Louis. It would seem reasonable to estimate the number of prisoners in these institutions on a given day, at the least, at twice the number in the eighty ♦The date January 1st, is somewhat arbitrarily taken. While a majority of the reports were received about that date many came in several weeks later. jails reporting. If this is done the estimate of the total jail population of the State on an average winter day would be about 2,500. Construction of the Jails. The average cost of a Missouri county jail, outside of the three large cities of the State, is $6,540. This estimate is based on the re- turns from fifty-six counties. It is worthy of note that this is about $2,000 more than the cost of the average Missouri almshouse, a fact which is to be explained, probably, by the greater difficulty in keeping prisoners under restraint and the costly construction consequently required. Of the fifty-six jails whose cost of construction is reported, twenty-four cost less than $5,000, and three of these less than $1,000 ; twenty-three cost from $5,000 to $10,000 inclusive; and nine cost over $10,000. In the cost of these jails is usually included the cost of the sheriff's residence, where this is furnished. It must be borne in mind that the jails of Buchanan and Jackson counties and of St. Louis city are not included in the fifty-six reporting. Seven out of the eighty jails rejwrting are built of wood, while either brick or stone is the material used in the remaining. The material of the cells is in nearly all cases iron or steel, although in five jails the ceUs are of stone and in two jails wooden cells exist along with steel ones. The danger of fire is one of the chief things to be guarded against in jail construction. Of course, the only adequate provision against fires is to have the jail fire- proof. Twenty counties report that they have fire-proof jails, namely, Atchison, Bollinger, Buchanan, Caldwell^ Clay, Cooper, Daviess, Franklin, Howard, Jackson, La- fayette, Livingston, Marion, Moniteau, Nodaway, Ore- gon, Pettis, Pike, Ripley, and St. Louis city. Eight other jails report that they have special provisions against fire in the shape of water tanks and other sim- ilar arrangements. In the remaining fifty-two jails no special provisions against fire of any sort are reported. A jail may be fire-proof and yet be antiquated. Probably the best test of the adaptation of a jail to its work is its sanitary arrangements, that is, its arrange- ments for heating and lighting, ventilation, drainage, bathing, and water closets. Of seventy-nine jails re- porting as to their sanitary arrangements twelve report fully modern arrangements, twenty-nine partially mod- em, while thirty-eight have only the primitive con- veniences of half a century ago. On the whole, this is a good showing— fully one-half of the jails being equipped with partially or fully modern sanitary ar- rangements. It is relatively much better than the show- ing made by the county almshouses— probably because the close confinement of prisoners makes more necessary the employment of modern conveniences. One of the worst charges made against Missouri jails is that they fail to hold their prisoners, especially criminals of the desperate or professional type. Cer- tainly reports of jail-breaking by this type of prisoner are frequent enough in the newspapers of the State. Ac- cordingly one point upon which information was sought was the provisions against jail-breaking. It was found that only five of the eighty jails maintained a night watch, namely, those of Buchanan, Greene, Jackson and Pike counties and St. Louis city. Four other jails re- ported especially strong construction designed to pre- vent jail-breaking. Two reported that bloodhounds were used to prevent the escape of prisoners, a device which in practice, we may remark, has often been shown to be ineffective. The remaining jails report that they have no special provisions to prevent jail-breaking. 8 Jail Management. A rough measure of the stage / of development of jail administration in a State is the extent to which jailers and matrons are employed. Eighteen jails, according to the reports, have jailers other than the sheriff; while in sixty-one counties the sheriff acts as jailer. Sixteen jails, according to the reports, have matrons, while sixty-three have no ma- trons. In many of the cases where matrons are re- ported the matron is the jailer's or the sheriff's wife— a practice to which there is no objection, provided that it is officially understood that the duties of matron are to be so performed and provided that the number of female prisoners is not large. On account of insufficient help the officers of many of our county jails (twenty-eight out of the whole num- ber reporting) are forced to employ ** trusties." This practice oannot— be too strongly condemned, as the ** trusties" are almost certain either to aid in the escape of prisoners or to smuggle whiskey and other contraband articles into the jail. The best measure of the development of jail ad- ministration in a State, however, is the extent to which classification is employed. By this is meant the abso- lute separation of different classes of prisoners in dif- ferent apartments of the jail. This requires separate apartments for women, for children, for young first of- fenders, for old hardened offenders, and for witnesses and the insane. As in the case of our almshouses, it is too much to say that classification does not exist in the majority of our jails; but the returns show that there is actually no classification in thirty-three jails out of seventy-seven reporting. This is due largely to the fact that the jail often consists of a single large apart- ment or room, ^o that the only separation of sexes or races which is possible is that of putting them in differ- ent cells. Twenty-six counties report that there is en- 9 tire separation of the sexes in their jails, but that this is the only classification attempted. Ten counties report that there is separation both of sexes, and races. Two report separation of races only and five have a classifica- tion according to sex and age. Eighteen jails report that they have apartments for the temporary confine- ment of the insane. The management of the jail upon the *^ separate system'' (the system most highly indorsed for county and city jails) appears to be unknown in Missouri. Solitary confinement, it is true, is often resorted to as a means of discipline, but the idea of separate cellular isolation for each prisoner both by day and by night is unthought of. This is largely due to the fact that the construction of the jail usually does not favor such a system. Indeed, in only a very few county jails is there a separate cell provided for each prisoner. Usually the jail is so built that several prisoners have to be kept in each cell if the jail is at all full, while the open, barred doors of the cells face each other. Out of sixty-eight jails reporting only seven reported that not more than one prisoner was confined in one cell ; twenty- three gave two as the maximum number confined in a cell ; twenty- five gave either three or four as the maximum number ; while in not less than thirteen jails of the State the max- imum number of prisoners confined in a cell was above four. Some jails report as high as twelve, fifteen, and even eighteen prisoners confined in a single cell. In such cases, however, the cell is really a room, the jail consisting of a single large apartment not divided into cells. In addition to the inevitable commingling of the prisoners brought about by faulty structure of most jails, there seem to be no rules in Missouri jails against the intermingling of prisoners in the corridors. All sheriffs without exception report that when prisoners are well behaved they are allowed to leave their cells 10 and intermingle freely in the corridor. The result is that we have in our Missouri jails that association of the vicious and depraved with the comparatively inno- cent, and the moral contamination necessarily resulting, which has rightly led to the jail being called a ** crime- breeder.'^ The remedy must be sought in a stricter classification of the prisoners and in the construction of jails which can be administered upon the separate plan. Another matter of great importance in the manage- ment of a jail, is the employment of prisoners. Work should be required of all prisoners serving sentences, and should be furnished to those awaiting trial if they desire it. This is all the more necessary when the sep- arate system is not employed, as it is the association of prisoners in idleness which makes the jail a center of moral corruption in society. Of seventy-three jails re- porting as to the matter of the employment of prisoners, twenty-one require work of all prisoners serving sen- tences ; in thirty-seven work is optional, being usually in the nature of chores about the jail; while fifteen state definitely that no work of any sort is furnished the pris- oners. Only forty-four jails report on the nature of the work furnished. In nine of these the work is breaking- rock ; in eighteen it is road work, either on city streets or on county roads; in seventeen the work is cleaning and doing other chores about the jail. As regards these different kinds of employment, it must be said that road work is the least suited to produce a good effect on the prisoner. Because it takes the prisoner from the jail, exposes him to the public gaze, and necessitates the * * chain gang, * ' it negatives any good effect which labor in itself may have. Chores about the jail are usually not sufficient of course to keep employed more than one or two prisoners, and generally such work is not hard enough to have a deterrent effect. Probably the break- 11 ing of rock for the roads is the best, and at the same time the most available, form of labor for jail prisoners. Very little provision seems to be made in the county jails for caring for sick prisoners. Four jails, located in cities, i. e., those of Buchanan, Jackson, and Pettis counties and St. Louis city, send their sick prisoners to the city hospital. The jailer of the Osage county jail reports that he has sick prisoners cared for in private families. Seven jails, according to the reports, are pro- vided with special cells or apartments for sick prison- ers. This latter plan is to be especially commended for rural jails ; where the sick prisoner cannot be sent to a hospital, the jail should always be provided with an apartment which may be used for the sick. Of the eighty jails but twenty-four have any sort of religious service for the prisoners. In all except two or three of these the services seem to be held only oc- casionally. The jails seem entirely destitute of other moral or reformatory influences, except that about a dozen sheriffs and jailers report that they enforce upon their prisoners a rigid discipline and methodical rules of living. In conclusion, it might be well to quote at length from the report of one investigator as to the conditions which he found in one county jail. These conditions, to be sure, are not typical, but they show us what our jails are when they are poorly constructed or of inadequate capacity. ^^On the morning of January 22d, when I visited the jail, there were forty-two men confined, thus giving to each man 225 cubic feet of space [500 cubic feet for each individual should be the least amount of space allowed]. During the fall, the jailer told me, he had as high as seventy-five men in there at one time, and that would give to each one 125 cubiq feet. And he further said that he had seen as many as eighty-five men in there at one time, which would give to each man 12 112 cubic feet. The steel cells are about 6x6 and 5x7 feet, or contain about 273 cubic feet of space. The jailer said they had been compelled to put six men to sleep in one of these cages at a time when the jail was full. That would give each man 45.5 cubic feet of space, with the only advantage that one side of the cage is bar instead of solid steel." Progress During 1903. Probably the most note- worthy change brought about in oui" jail system during the past year was effected through the Juvenile Court Act passed by the last Legislature. The result of this act was to take the children entirely out of the jails of St. Louis and Kansas City. As will be seen by refer- ence to the table of statistics, there are now no offenders under eighteen in the jails of either of these cities. This is a great step in advance. Unfortunately the law ap- plies only to St. Louis and Kansas City; there is no reason why the next Legislature should not extend its most general provisions to the counties and the smaller cities. Another important law passed by the last Legisla- ture which will gradually work a transformation in our jail system is the act creating County Boards of Visitors to visit the county's charitable and correctional institu- tions. Such boards of visitors have now been appointed in twenty-eight counties. A list of these counties and the terms of the law have already been given in the Bul- letin on the Almshouses. It is enough here to note merely that reports from several of these counties indi- cate that the boards of visitors are doing good work in bringing about improved conditions in the jails as well as in the almshouses. Several counties have erected new jails during the past year. Among these are Atchison and Moniteau, both of which erected good jails along modem lines. 13 Perry county reports that a new jail will be erected this year. In several other counties the matter of erecting a new jail is being agitated. Here should perhaps be mentioned the work of the Pauley Jail Building Com- pany of St. Louis. This company, though wholly for commercial reasons, has always used its influence to se- cure the erection of the best type of modem jails in the State. To this company is due, therefore, not a little of the credit for whatever good jails we possess in Mis- souri. II. A SUMMAEY OF THE PeINCIPLES WhICH ShOULD GoVERN THE Construction and Management of County Jails. The county jail has been called ' * a school of crime. ' ' The promiscuous herding of prisoners of all ages, both sexes, and of all degrees of criminality which so often obtains in county and city jails is certainly in the highest degree demoralizing to the prisoners, spreads the contagion of crime among them, and so makes the jail an instrumentality in the propagation of crime. So bad has the county jail been generally in this country that many experts have not hesitated to advocate its entire abolition, while others would make it merely a place of safe custody for those awaiting trial. Both of these courses are, however, impossible with our present political institutions. Moreover, the reform of the county jail is entirely practicable if a knowledge of the principles which underlie its correct administration can be widely diffused. The vital point in jail administration, all experts agree, is adequate provision for complete classification and separation of the prisoners. It is the promiscuous 14 association together of prisoners in idleness which is the source of their corruption in our present jails. Classi- fication and separation of prisoners is, therefore, the remedy for most of the evils connected with the jail system. An adequate classification should provide separate apartments (1) for women, (2) for children, (3) for witnesses and for insane persons, (4) for first offend- ers, and (5) for old or habitual offenders. These five classes of prisoners should be entirely separated from one another ; hence their apartments should be in separ- ate rooms of the jail, or at least separated by partitions which render communication between them impossible. If the jail has two stories the first story may be divided into two apartments for men (for first offenders and for old offenders), while the second story may be divided into apartments for women, children, insane persons and detained witnesses. The department for children should be as remote as possible from the rest of the jail, and should consist simply of a number of well-guarded rooms rather than of a series of steel cells. Children, indeed, should never be committed to jail if a place of safe custody can be found for them elsewhere; especi- ally is this true of children under twelve years of age. But it will often be necessary that children under six- teen be confined in jail, and hence a suitable apartment must be provided for them. Insane persons also should not be committed to jail except under exceptional cir- cumstances as when extremely violent or inclined to commit criminal acts, and then detained only pending their examination or the making of arrangements for their removal to a hospital. In most cases a siogle room, properly safe-guarded, will be sufficient in a county jail for both the insane and the detained witnesses, as the number of these classes who have to be dealt with is small except in large urban communities. 15 The above classification of prisoners should be supplmented and reinforced by the separate confinement of each prisoner. That is, only one prisoner should be allowed to occupy a cell, and communication between cells should be rendered difficult if not impossible. This ** separate system'' of confinement as it is called, is unanimously recommended by experts for city and county jails. It is the distinguishing feature of the English jail system, and English jails are the best in the world. The following are some of the chief advan- tages of separate confinement in county jails: (1) It secures the salutary effect of a first arrest upon inex- perienced o:ffenders, which is dissipated by association ; (2) it prevents the contagion of crime which results in making our jails schools of crime; (3) it prevents the escape of prisoners and at the same time protects the jailer, making the government of the jail an easy mat- ter; (4) it is wholesome discipline for the vicious; (5) it protects the better class of prisoners who do not wish to associate with the vile and depraved, and saves them from recognition and annoyance by other prisoners after their discharge. The usual objection to separate confinement is that it is injurious to health. But English experience has amply demonstrated that solitary confinement for a period of less than nine months does not seriously affect health, and ninety-nine per cent of the jail sentences of this country are for periods of less than nine months. The best jails in the United States, as those of Eng- land, are managed upon the separate system. Sheriffs who have tried separate confinement for each prisoner say that they would not return to the old system. It is the only system which makes jail-breaking practically impossible, the management and control of prisoners easy, and which effectually prevents the moral contam- 16 ination of prisoners by one another and giyes to each ample opportunity for reflection and repentance. The only serious objection to the separate system for jails is that it makes the furnishing of employment for prisoners difficult. But the labor of jail prisoners is never a matter of profit, as it is clearly impossible to employ profitably a small number of prisoners who are constantly changing. The labor of jail prisoners is, therefore, chiefly a matter of discipline. On this ac- count it is important and should be required of every prisoner serving a sentence, even though it be only a short one; but on this account it can also easily be adapted to separate confinement. Either piece-work can be given to the prisoner in his cell, or he can be put to work alone upon the rock pile, so many hours each week. Sev- eral rock piles may be used if there are several courts to the jail. In the case of old, hardened offenders it would be permissible to set a group of them at work on the same rock pile under the rule of strict silence; but this shoulcj never be done with the young first offenders or those awaiting trial. Of course the separate system cannot be adopted at once by the jails of this State, as that would involve the remodeling, if not the rebuilding, of most of them. But every jail can introduce it to some extent. All jails, e. g., can prohibit the promiscuous intermingling of prisoners in the corridor. Nearly all jails can introduce the five-fold classification of prisoners, spoken of above, with little expense, while the better equipped jails can easily provide for the separate confinement of first offenders, the class which most needs protection from the demoralizing influences of the jail. Finally every new jail can be erected on the principle of a separate cell for every prisoner and separate apartments for each class of prisoners. As regards the number of prisoners confined in a 2 17 single cell, there seems to be little excuse for the large number confined in one cell at present in some counties except antiquated conditions. If it is demoralizing for even two prisoners to occupy a cell in common, it must be worse for three, four and even six prisoners to be thus confined together. Such a practice, as well as the permitting of promiscuous intermingling continually in the corridor, is utterly subversive of all the ends sought by imprisonment. The matter of the employment of prisoners in jails has already been incidentally noted. It should be an axiom in jail management that idleness, especially idle- ness in association, puts a premium upon crime and gives opportunity for every evil to flourish inside the prison walls. County courts, therefore, should make every effort to furnish prisoners in county jails with em- ployment. But one form of employment furnished jail prisoners in this State is of doubtful character ; that is, work upon the public roads. This necessarily takes the prisoners in gangs far from the jail, exposes them to public gaze, subjects them to degrading treatment by armed guards, and has so many other objectionable features that experience has everywhere condemned such work as a rational way of employing prisoners. Methodical rules of living should by all means be enforce upon prisoners in jails; that is, they should be required to rise and retire at definite hours, to devote so much time to work, to meals, and (if possible) to study and reading each day. This discipline is good for the prisoner and is what his moral nature especially needs. Above all, the prisoner should be forced to keep himself and his cell scrupulously clean ; f or ^ * cleanliuess is always akin to godliness'' and has a reformatory ef- fect upon the prisoner. Books and papers for prisoners should always be rigidly inspected and excluded if they are not of the 18 highest moral character. Games of chance should not be permitted except under exceptional circumstances. Regular religious services should be held if possi- ble, but better yet would be the encouragement of regu- lar visits to the prisoners in their cells by sensible per- sons who wish to do personal religious work with them. As regards the proper construction of the jail the principal points have been already dealt with in discuss- ing the management. The chief matter is the provision for the classification and separation of prisoners through having a number of rooms or apartments in the jail and separate cells for each prisoner. Another mat- ter of great importance is security against jail-breaking. This is best accomplished by the use of the steel-cell con- struction. Open steel cages are however not desirable, but the cell should be constructed of steel plate. The walls, ceiling, and door of the cell should be of heavy steel plate, while the window should be protected by three-quarter inch round steel bars braced by cross bars. If the floor of the cell is not of steel it should be of solid concrete several feet in thickness. In order to prevent jail-breaking tools being passed to the prisoners through the outside windows it would be well to cover them with a heavy wire screen which would give clear evidence of any attempt to introduce such articles. Another important matter in the construction of a jail is protection against fire. Eveiy jail should be so constructed as to be practically fire-proof. This can be easily accomplished if the steel-cell construction with brick or stone walls is used. If the sheriff's residence is attached to the jail there should be a fire-proof parti- tion between the two. The matter of sanitary arrangements in the con- struction of a jail, as already noted, is of the highest im- portance. There should be a plentiful supply of water and in each cell there should be a modern improved 19 water-closet and wash bowl, both properly vented. In connection with each apartment there should be ade- quate bathing facilities. Heat should be provided by a steam or hot water system. Ventilation and drain- age should be perfect. Finally, the jail should be well lighted both by day and by night. Jails constructed and managed as this paper has de- scribed will be but little, if any, costlier than our pres- ent jails. In the long rim they will be much cheaper, for they will not be crime-breeders, as our present jails are, but they will aid in the repression of crime and the re- clamation of the criminal class. 20 1 59792 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW UMafSOBG AN 1 6 1956 L(/