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 pan prison assooiation 
 
 Semi-centennial, 1870-1920
 
 AMERICAN 
 PRISON ASSOCIATION 
 SEMI-CENTENNiy^ 
 1870-1920 3 
 
 COUNTY JAILS 
 
 "IN THE LIGHT OF THE DECLARATION 
 OF PRINCIPLES OF 1870" 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MONOGRAPHS 
 
 I. Quotations from Declaration of Principles by the Con- 
 gress of 1870 Applicable to the County Jail. 
 
 II. The Abolition of the County Jail by Frederick 
 Howard Wines, LL.D., 191 1. 
 
 III. Report of Special Committee on Jails by Charles R. 
 
 Henderson, LL.D. 
 
 IV. Report of Special Committee on Jails, Lockups and 
 
 Police Stations by H. H. Shirer, 1913. 
 
 V. Abstract of Report of Committee on Jails, Lockups 
 and Police Stations by John L. Whitman, 1914. 
 
 VI. Abstract of Report of Committee on Jails, Lockups 
 and Police Stations by William T. Cross, 191 5. 
 
 New York City 
 1920
 
 %. 
 
 \
 
 
 A 
 
 / ^ 
 
 COUNTY JAILS 
 
 "IN THE LIGHT OF THE DECLARATION OF 
 PRINCIPLES OF 1870" 
 
 By Hastings H. Hart, LL.D. 
 
 I gladly consented to discuss county jails at this Semi-Cen- 
 tennial Meeting because I believe that no more important subject 
 will be considered here. 
 
 The prisoner usually has his first experience behind the bars in 
 
 a jail, and that is the time of greatest opportunity for his reclama- 
 
 co tion. He has received a shock. He realizes for the first time the 
 
 cry , . 
 
 2 mevitable consequences of his reckless course. That is the time 
 when the sheriff, the jailer, the doctor, the psychiatrist, the social 
 "^ worker, and the Christian teacher should unite their wisdom and 
 < their effort for his redemption. 
 
 ^ Every person here present knows the difficulty of reclaiming 
 
 those who have become fixed in criminal habits. This is espe- 
 
 >t cially true of certain forms of crime, for example, theft and gamb- 
 
 X ^'ling. The hope of reforming a beginner in the early stages of 
 
 \ these destructive habits is ten times greater than that of reform- 
 
 V? ing a repeater. 
 
 f In a paper read before this Association in 1907 I said: "I 
 
 ^ candidly believe that we have reached the point in the develop- 
 
 Q ment of prison reform where the National Prison Association 
 
 Vjought to address itself systematically and faithfully, for a series 
 
 of years, to the reformation of the county jail system." This 
 
 ^ declaration was quoted with approval by the Committee on Jails 
 
 ^_ in their report of 1916. 
 
 75 In this program of one hundred and twenty minutes I am given 
 five minutes — one twenty-fourth of the allotted time. I suspect 
 that this assignment represents the estimate which the Associa- 
 tion holds of the relative importance of this subject. 
 
 I have examined the 26 volumes of Proceedings from 1883 to 
 1919. They contain about 14,000 pages. Of these, about 170 
 pages — a little over i per cent. — are devoted directly to the sub- 
 
 3 
 
 248849
 
 ject of county and municipal jails. In the nine years from li 
 to 1897 I can find only one page of direct discussion of jails. It is 
 true that the subject of county jails is referred to incidentally in 
 reports on prison discipline and in numerous papers and addresses, 
 but these 170 pages are all that I can find dealing directly with 
 the subject. 
 
 Jail papers were presented by Dr. Frederick Howard Wines 
 in 1877; General R. BrinkerhofT, 1884; Mr. Eugene Smith, 1885; 
 Mr. E. A. Meredith, 1887; Mr. Joseph P. Byers, 1898; Pro- 
 fessor W. F. Blackmar, 1901 ; Mr. Alexander Johnson, 1906; 
 and Mr. W. Almont Gates, 1909 — all of which have permanent 
 value. Dr. Wines pursued this subject from 1863 until 1912. 
 Almost his last utterance was his splendid appeal, at the Boston 
 Conference of Social Work, for the abolition of the jail system. 
 But these notable efforts, as I have indicated, have represented 
 only a little fragment of the great mass of discussion in this 
 Association. 
 
 The United States Census Bureau has treated this subject with 
 the same scrupulous economy which has prevailed in this Associa- 
 tion. In the Census Volume on Prisoners and Juvenile Delin- 
 quents, 1890, prisoners awaiting trial were included, but in 1900 
 and 1910 only sentenced prisoners were included, and those await- 
 ing trial were entirely left out of account. Surely the American 
 people ought to be interested in the question of how many prison- 
 ers awaiting trial, witnesses, insane people, and young children 
 were confined in the jails of this country, but that information is 
 entirely lacking. 
 
 In 1906 a committee was appointed to "investigate the char- 
 acter, methods, and influence of the county jail system of the 
 United States," with Dr. Charles R. Henderson as chairman. 
 This committee made an elaborate study of the entire jail system 
 and accumulated a very large amount of valuable material. Dr. 
 Henderson presented a summary of 20 pages which was published 
 in the PrcKcedings of 1907, but the general report was never pub- 
 lished and its invaluable material was lost to the world. 
 
 In 1909 a resolution was adopted for the appointment of a 
 special committee on jails, of which Superintendent Leonard, of 
 the Ohio State Reformatory, was chairman. This committee was 
 renewed from year to year. The special committees on jails sub- 
 milted three excellent reports: one in 1913 by H. H. Shirer,
 
 chairman; one in 1914 by John L. Whitman, chairman; and one 
 in 1915 by W. T. Cross, chairman. 
 
 In 1916 the special committee on jails was not renewed, and I 
 find no mention of jails in the indexes of the annual Proceedings 
 since 1915. 
 
 In preparation for this paper I sent a questionnaire to more 
 than 50 students of the prison question. I asked them to give me, 
 in 50 words, their idea of what a jail should be, and then I asked 
 them to mention five jails which reasonably met the standards 
 thus prescribed. One man only, Dr. Emory T. Lyon, of Chicago, 
 was able to mention three "which approximate the better stan- 
 dards in most respects." Not one of these, however, was located 
 in Dr. Lyon's state of Illinois. 
 
 All these correspondents agreed that the use of the county jails 
 should be restricted to prisoners awaiting trial ; but outside of the 
 states of Indiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Alabama, 
 only a few jails conform to this rational and necessary standard. 
 I asked each correspondent to state what improvement had been 
 made in the jail system of his state within the past ten years. 
 With one accord they described improved lighting, heating, feed- 
 ing, cleanliness, and kindly treatment, but not one of them indi- 
 cated any intelligent movement for reformatory dealings with 
 prisoners awaiting trial beyond occasional religious services. 
 
 Men and women of the American Prison Association, I charge 
 you with fifty years' neglect of the most hopeful and most deserv- 
 ing part of the prison population. I beg you to repent and, from 
 this day forward, to attack the jail problem with the same interest 
 and intelligence whereby such great results have been accom- 
 plished in the reformation of convict prisons and the develop- 
 ment of the modern adult and juvenile reformatory system. 
 
 I suggest that, from this day forward, there be a standing Com- 
 mittee on Jails, Lockups, and Municipal Prisons, and that the 
 first undertaking of this committee be to elaborate a definite pro- 
 gram for the reformation of the county jail. 
 
 Such a program might include such features as the following: 
 
 I. The organization, in every county, of a county jail commit- 
 tee, including a lawyer, an educator, a business man, a representa- 
 tive of the labor union, a Protestant clergyman, a Roman Catholic 
 clergyman, and two women, the duty of this committee to be to 
 provide for the case study of each prisoner committed to the
 
 county jail, and to secure in behalf of each prisoner who is not 
 a confirmed criminal such wise and friendly influences as shall 
 tend to restore him to good citizenship. 
 
 2. The elimination of the political control of county jails. This 
 might be done by making them state institutions, administered by 
 a state board, by relieving the county sheriff of responsibility for 
 their administration, by the selection of jail officers under Civil 
 Service rules, solely on the ground of fitness, and by establishing 
 schools for their training. 
 
 3. The exclusion of all sentenced prisoners, insane patients, and 
 children from county jails, and committing misdemeanants to 
 state farms, or district farms under state control, with reforma- 
 tory discipline. 
 
 4. The making of public provision for physical and psychologi- 
 cal examinations, and medical, surgical, and psychiatric treatment 
 of prisoners. 
 
 5. Public provision for thorough case study of the personal, 
 family, and criminal history of each person committed to the 
 county jail as the basis for the reformatory work of the county 
 jail committee and the public officers. 
 
 6. Provision of opportunity for outside employment, on the 
 plans now pursued at Montpelier, Vermont, Dayton, Ohio, and 
 Wilmington, Delaware, for such prisoners awaiting trial as may 
 safely be permitted so to work. 
 
 7. Securing honorable employment for discharged prisoners. 
 
 8. Development of a better type of jail architecture, adapting 
 it for these reformatory purposes. 
 
 I submit herewith the address of Dr. Frederick Howard Wines, 
 at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections of 191 1, 
 on "The Abolition of the County Jail," together with the report 
 of the special Jail Committee of 1907, prepared by Dr. Charles R, 
 Henderson, and abstracts of the reports of the special Jail Com- 
 mittees of 1913, 1914, and 1915.
 
 I 
 
 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES BY THE CONGRESS 
 
 OF 1870 
 
 QUOTATIONS APPLICABLE TO THE COUNTY JAIL 
 
 II. The treatment of criminals by society is for the protection 
 of society. But since such treatment is directed to the criminal 
 rather than to the crime, its great object should be his moral 
 regeneration. Hence the supreme aim of prison discipline is the 
 reformation of criminals, not the infliction of vindictive suffering. 
 
 VI. The two master forces opposed to the reform of the prison 
 systems of our several states are political appointments, and a con- 
 sequent instability of administration. Lentil both are eliminated, 
 the needed reforms are impossible. 
 
 VII. Special training, as well as high qualities of head and heart, 
 is required to make a good prison or reformatory officer. Then 
 only will the administration of public punishment become 
 scientific, uniform, and successful, when it is raised to the dignity 
 of a profession, and men are especially trained for it, as they are 
 for other pursuits. 
 
 XI . In order to effect the reformation of imprisoned criminals, there 
 must he not only a sincere desire and intention to that end, but 
 a serious conviction, in the minds of the prison officers, that they are 
 capable of being reformed, since no man can heartily maintain a 
 discipline at war with his inward beliefs; no man can earnestly 
 strive to accomplish what in his heart hedespairsof accomplishing. 
 
 XII. A system of prison discipline, to be truly reformatory, 
 must gain the will of the convict. He is to be amended; but 
 how is this possible with his mind in a state of hostility? No 
 system can hope to succeed which does not secure this harmony 
 of wills, so that the prisoner shall choose for himself what his 
 officer chooses for him. . . . 
 
 XIV. The prisoner's self-respect should he cultivated to the utmost, 
 and every effort made to give hack to him his manhood. There is 
 no greater mistake in the whole compass of penal discipline than 
 its studied imposition of degradation as a part of punishment. 
 Such imposition destroys every better impulse and aspiration.
 
 8 
 
 XX. It is the judgment of this congress that repeated short 
 sentences for minor criminals are worse than useless; that, in fact ^ 
 they rather stimulate than repress transgression. 
 
 XXII. More systematic and comprehensive methods should he 
 adopted to save discharged prisoners by providing them with work 
 and e7icouraging them to redeem their character and regain their lost 
 position in society. 
 
 XXXI. The construction, organization, and majiagement of all 
 prisons should he hy the state, and they should form a graduated 
 series of reformatory establishments. . . . 
 
 XXXII. As a general rule, the maintejiance of penal institu- 
 tions, above the county jail, should he from the earnings of their 
 inmates, and without cost to the state. 
 
 XXXIII. A right application of the principles of sanitary 
 science in the construction and arrangements of prisons is a point 
 of vital importance. The apparatus for heating and ventilation 
 should be the best that is known; sunlight, air, and water should be 
 afforded according to the abundance with which nature has provided 
 them; the rations and clothing should be plain hut wholesome, com- 
 fortable, and in sufficient but not extravagant quantity; the bed- 
 steads, bed, and bedding, including sheets and pillow-cases, not 
 costly hut decent, and kept clean, well aired, and free from vermin; 
 the hospital accommodations , medical stores, and surgical instru- 
 ments should he all that humanity requires and science can supply; 
 and all needed means for personal cleanliness should he without 
 stint. 
 
 XXXVI. As a principle that crowns all, and is essential to all, 
 it is our conviction that no prison system can be perfect, or even 
 successful to the most desirable degree, without some central 
 authority to sit at the helm, guiding, controlling, unifying, and 
 vitalizing the whole. We ardently hope yet to see all the depart- 
 ments of our preventive, reformatory, and pejial institutions in each 
 state moulded into one harmonious and effective system; its parts 
 mutually answering to and supporting each other; and the whole 
 animated by the same spirit, aiming at the same subjects, and 
 subject to the same control; yet without loss of the advantages 
 of voluntary aid and effort, wherever they are attainable.
 
 II 
 
 THE ABOLITION OF THE COUNTY JAIL 
 
 An Address by Frederick Howard Wines, LL.D. 
 
 At the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, Boston, 191 1 
 
 Of all the reforms included under the general title of prison 
 reform in the United States, none is so urgent as the overthrow of 
 our existing system of dealing with misdemeanants. We have 
 made substantial progress in the reconstruction of our peniten- 
 tiary system. But are you aware that in each year the number of 
 commitments to prison for terms not exceeding one year is four 
 times as great as that for any longer period? In other words, 
 even though all our prisons, great and small, were reformatory in 
 their aim and influence, the major prisons would reach and touch 
 only one-fourth of the criminal and quasi-criminal population in 
 custody of the law. Three-fourths of those in custody are, in 
 fact, held in institutions, the practical effect of which is to train 
 an unascertained percentage of their inmates for the penitentiary. 
 
 When, a few months since, that distinguished group of foreign 
 criminologists and experts in prison administration in attendance 
 upon the sessions of the international prison congress in Wash- 
 ington accepted the hospitality of the government and made a 
 hurried tour of inspection of some of our leading and typical penal 
 institutions, they were good enough to express their admiration 
 of our reformatories, both for children and adults, but they could 
 with difficulty find language at once sufficiently severe and de- 
 cently diplomatic with which to voice the amazement and horror 
 awakened in them by a casual glance at the municipal and county 
 prisons of this great republic. And when they spoke to us about 
 it, they seemed to think they were telling us what we did not 
 know. 
 
 On the contrary, there is not an habitual visitor to our county 
 jails, official or philanthropic, who is not alive to the evil condi- 
 tions that prevail in most of them. In any library that makes a 
 specialty of collecting public documents I could show you scores 
 or hundreds of reports in which attention is called not only to the 
 generally unsatisfactory state of these minor prisons, but to the 
 peculiarly repulsive and dangerous conditions existing in some of
 
 10 
 
 them. Certainly all are not equally bad. It is no part of my pur- 
 pose to indulge in exaggeration for the sake of exciting a momen- 
 tary sensation, or to represent as typical what is really excep- 
 tional. But the best jail that was ever built, although the physical 
 treatment accorded to its unfortunate inmates may be perfectly 
 humane and just, fails to subserve any of the ends of a prison 
 except that of confinement. There is in it no organized, intelli- 
 gent, thorough effort to reclaim the men and women committed 
 to it. Such effort as may be made, in certain prisons, is apt to be 
 sporadic, spasmodic, and it is ordinarily neutralized by the con- 
 tamination of unrestricted communication and mutual inter- 
 course between prisoners. 
 
 The number of what may be called good jails is relatively small. 
 Most of them are unsanitary, owing to their location or to their 
 architectural construction. Many of them are overcrowded, al- 
 most to suffocation. They are often horribly filthy. They are 
 centers of tuberculous and syphilitic contagion. 
 
 Wheie one finds filth one is apt to find disease and immorality. 
 The moral atmosphere of the average county prison is even more 
 foul than the physical odors that often assail the nostrils of the 
 visitor with nauseating effect. The associations, the language, 
 the practices in vogue are vile beyond description. The inmates 
 are corrupted by compulsory association in enforced idleness. 
 The worst of these prisons are cesspools of moral contagion, prop- 
 agating houses of criminality, factories of crime, feeders for the 
 penitentiary, public nuisances, the disgrace of modern civilization. 
 
 And yet all the effort put forth to change these conditions for 
 the better has thus far proved almost wholly unavailing. 
 
 Why this indifference, this inertia, this immobility? Doubtless 
 it is partly attributable to ignorance. The county officials do not 
 know what a jail should be, and the people do not know what 
 their jails really are. The evil effects are scattered over an im- 
 mense territory, and they are subdivided until the aggregate 
 amount is hidden from sight in an almost endless mass of details. 
 But in plain Anglo-Saxon, the truth is that wherever there exist 
 local graft and political dishonesty, the county prison is its center 
 aiul its stronghold. The sheriff or the jailer makes a personal 
 [Molit from crime by charging a per diem for board for prisoners, 
 anfl by the receipt of fees for locking and unlocking the jail doors. 
 That profit is a li\(' wire; no local politician, possibly no member
 
 11 
 
 of the legislature, or even of the state administration, dares 
 monkey with it. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of laying the axe to the root of the tree, 
 would-be reformers resort to compromise measures, and under- 
 take to "improve" the jails, or, as the Illinois Charities commis- 
 sion phrases it, to "standardize" them. Ladies and gentlemen, 
 there can be and will be no material improvement in these estab- 
 lishments, so long as they continue to be regarded as local insti- 
 tutions and remain subject to local control. Strange, is it not, 
 that the smaller communities should be so anxious, as they often 
 are, to unload the burden of their poor, their sick, their insane, 
 their helpless and forlorn, of all ages, upon the shoulders of the 
 commonwealth, where it does not belong, but fight to retain that 
 of their criminals, which by right the state alone should bear. 
 
 This is, in my judgment, the secret of our failure and defeat. 
 We have substantially won the fight for the reformatory prison 
 and the indeterminate sentence, because we concentrated our fire 
 upon a vulnerable point and made every shot tell. We made use 
 of siege guns and loaded them with shell. In attacking the county 
 jail system, we have pursued the opposite policy: we have scat- 
 tered our fire and placed our reliance upon buckshot. We have 
 addressed our arguments and remonstrances to the county au- 
 thorities, of whom there are, in round numbers, twenty-five hun- 
 dred sets, instead of to the legislative bodies, of which there are 
 less than fifty. We have pleaded for new jails, better jails, when 
 we should have insisted upon their replacement by prisons owned 
 and controlled by the state, thus emancipating them from local 
 political control, with its petty and selfish interests. 
 
 There was a time when local control was necessary and proper, 
 but that was long ago. Today the county prison is an anachron- 
 ism. We imported it, with other British institutions, from Eng- 
 land, the mother country. But conservative England has out- 
 grown it, and dates the dawn of her regenerated prison system 
 from the year of its abolition. We still lag behind in the march of 
 modern civilization. 
 
 The Washington international prison congress awakened much 
 dormant interest in all phases of the prison question throughout 
 the world, but especially in the United States. We succeeded in 
 the attempt to modify the mental attitude of Europe toward our
 
 12 
 
 reformatory system in its application to felons. Five years from 
 now we shall meet our European friends in London to renew this 
 great debate. Meanwhile they point to us with polite scorn, and 
 tell us that, until we change our method of treatment of mis- 
 demeanants, we have no right to arrogate to ourselves the posi- 
 tion of leaders in the great work of prison reform. The best 
 answer to this taunt is to give heed to it, with ready recognition 
 of the friendly intent of their warning and admonition. "Let 
 the righteous reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, that will 
 not break my head." We thank them for it, and trust that it 
 may do us good. Is not this the opportune moment for efTecting 
 a complete change of base, for the adoption of a new plan of 
 campaign, and for the inauguration of an evolutionary or, if you 
 please, a revolutionary program? 
 
 The relative importance of this burning question rests not alone 
 upon the numerical preponderance of misdemeanants in our 
 prisons, but upon the more favorable prospect of a reduction in 
 the volume of crime, through the wise and skilful application to 
 them of a reformatory prison discipline, than is to be anticipated 
 from the attempt to reform more hardened and daring culprits. 
 Let me give you a modern, sociological version of that hackneyed 
 quotation from Juvenal, Maxima debetur puero reverentia. "In 
 prison discipline, the misdemeanant, not the felon, should be our 
 first and chief concern." 
 
 Mine is a poor, weak voice: it will not carry very far. This 
 right arm is not the arm of a giant, nor even of an athlete: it 
 will not deliver a smashing blow. For the sake of the human 
 derelicts languishing in merited or unmerited confinement, I could 
 wish that both were stronger. Still more earnestly do I wish it 
 for the sake of our common country and its honor. An old man 
 suffers in many ways that a young man hardly understands. One 
 of my secret griefs is the shame I feel that my country has so 
 long tolerated, and continues to tolerate, a wrong which disgraces 
 it in the eyes of the world, and which, unless it is redressed, must 
 sooner or later bring down upon it the vengeance of Almighty 
 God.
 
 13 
 
 III 
 
 REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON JAILS 
 
 By Charles R. Henderson, D.D., Chairman 
 
 Chicago, 1907 
 
 In accordance with the terms of this resolution, your commit- 
 tee has faithfully labored, during the year, to collect, tabulate 
 and consider all procurable facts and competent judgments on 
 the subject. In this investigation we have been materially aided 
 by Superintendent Whittaker, of Indiana, who printed the 
 schedules, and by Charities and The Commons, whose vigorous 
 agent, Mr. L. G. Palmer, selected a list of reliable visitors and 
 sent out the schedules. Most of the visitors have been intelligent 
 and careful in their inspections and reports, and we are greatly 
 indebted to them and would be glad to recognize them publicly 
 and by name, if permitted. 
 
 The scope of the investigation was determined by the resolu- 
 tion creating the committee; we were to report (i) upon the 
 actual conditions of county jails and workhouses in the United 
 States, and (2) to offer recommendations for improvement. 
 
 The schedules used were based on forms successfully em- 
 ployed by the authorities of Indiana in a similar inquiry into con- 
 ditions in that State. There are over forty questions in this 
 schedule, calling for detailed information on all aspects of jail 
 conditions. 
 
 The results were carefully tabulated under the following 
 heads: (i) Security of the jail as a place of restraint; (2) 
 conditions affecting the health of prisoners, as of food, under- 
 clothing, beds and bedding, cleanliness of building, ventilation, 
 heating, light, water, sewage, bathing, exercise, recreation, medi- 
 cal care, crowding; (3) occupation and idleness of prisoners; 
 
 (4) personal contact and influence of inmates on each other; 
 provision for separation and classification by sex, age, character; 
 witnesses, debtors, tramps, abnormal persons, children, youth; 
 
 (5) educational and religious influences; (6) administration — 
 fees for feeding, receiving and discharging prisoners; (7) dis- 
 cipline — rules of conduct and measures of control; (8) popula- 
 tion of jail and its classification.
 
 14 
 
 We have also collected and made abstracts of the laws of all 
 states relating to jails. We have gathered over 289 schedules 
 from 37 states and territories, including the District of Colum- 
 bia. Every geographical division is fully represented in this 
 collection, and from some states a large number of counties have 
 reported. We have materials for a picture of the conditions in 
 city, town, village and wholly rural jails, east and west, north 
 and south. The reports are intelligent, impartial and honest, 
 and the information is as exact as can be obtained without per- 
 sonal inspection by trained experts. In several cases the inves- 
 tigation is reported by trained experts. We may regard the tes- 
 timony as substantially correct and reliable. 
 
 Of course only government statistics could pretend to be 
 complete for the whole country; but our intensive study of fewer 
 institutions gives a more definite and searching picture of the 
 facts than the government census itself. They should be studied 
 together. 
 
 In addition to the other facts furnished by the reports on 
 schedules, the committee has studied former discussions of the 
 National Prison Association, reports of State officials and boards, 
 and studies of various intelligent investigators. It will be im- 
 possible to present all the facts and opinions considered, and we 
 must select some of the most significant materials bearing upon 
 the recommendations which we offer for further discussion. 
 
 CONDITIONS OF COUNTY JAILS IN THE UNITED 
 
 STATES 
 
 The tables themselves cannot be reproduced in this report, on 
 account of space and cost involved; but the summarized results 
 of a study of all the materials, with minute accounts of particu- 
 lar typical jails, will not give a false impression. 
 
 When it is possible to give a really statistical form of the 
 data, we shall do so. 
 
 1. Conditions of Security 
 The primary purpose of a jail, according to general practice, 
 is to retain arrested persons, and, in the case of convicted misde- 
 meanants, to punish them by a period of restraint of liberty — es- 
 pecially if they are too poor to pay a fine. 
 
 I 
 
 4
 
 15 
 
 A few jails are reported to be too badly constructed to hold 
 dangerous criminals; but, apparently, nearly all are secure or 
 contain steel cages for special cases. There does not seem to be 
 pressing need of attention and reform in this matter. 
 
 If the only or chief purpose of jails were to keep wild beasts 
 in cages, most of them are well enough adapted to this purpose. 
 
 II. Conditions of Health 
 
 Your committee has a very large mass of reliable infor- 
 mation in respect to the physical conditions affecting the health 
 of the inmates and the public. Recent discoveries have more 
 clearly revealed the fact that communicable diseases cultivated in 
 jails are a menace to the public. John Howard, with very in- 
 ferior scientific knowledge, tried to make England realize this 
 point in the eighteenth century, and neglect of it has been the 
 responsible cause of thousands of deaths — of sheriffs, jailers, 
 judges and honest work people. Even if the unconvicted pris- 
 oners, many innocent of crime, could be disregarded, public in- 
 terest in the hygienic conditions of jails is involved. 
 
 I. Food. — The majority of investigators seem to be satis- 
 fied with the food furnished the prisoners, and few express dis- 
 satisfaction with quality, quantity or mode of serving. 
 
 But they furnish dietaries which compel your committee to 
 believe that the food usually, or at least often, supplied, is by 
 no means up to a modern standard, is not a "balanced ration," 
 containing, in proper proportions, the elements necessary for the 
 human body. The dietaries often reveal an excess of stimulant, 
 in coffee, too little milk and cereals, too much meat. It is not un- 
 usual to read that idle prisoners are fed meat two or even three 
 times a day. 
 
 This whole matter should be placed in the hands of a medical 
 commission in each State, with power to fix a standard diet, 
 adapted to the climate, the season, the activity, the age and the 
 sex of prisoners. Speaking with all due respect of county of- 
 ficials we affirm, upon our evidence, that they are not usually 
 competent persons to draw up a dietary for prisoners of any kind. 
 
 And as to the customary mode of serving food, we can use no 
 milder phrase than that it is revolting and demoralizing and 
 often dangerous to health. It would seem that the average 
 county authorities think that anything is good enough for a
 
 16 
 
 prisoner, and that the word "prisoner" practically means a con- 
 demned criminal. 
 
 We have grave doubts about the wisdom of permitting friends 
 of prisoners to bring them food. It is difificult to prevent the 
 surreptitious introduction of tools for escape and even weapons 
 of assault in the food. 
 
 All the hygienic rules of a well-ordered establishment are dis- 
 turbed by this permission; discipline is made more difficult, be- 
 cause of the partiality shown favored persons. The State should 
 furnish suitable food to each prisoner and no outside interference 
 should be permitted. Differences of food may properly be made 
 with various classes of prisoners — as persons waiting trial, con- 
 victed misdemeanants, prisoners under disciplinary punishment, 
 children and women. It is scandalous when a sherifif or his 
 friends are permitted to make money by trading with prisoners. 
 
 Our conclusion is that food is generally sufficient, sometimes 
 excessive in quantity; but that in variety, balance of elements of 
 nutrition, and mode of serving, serious reforms and State central 
 control are much needed. 
 
 2. Clothing, and Especially Underclothing. — The supposed 
 brevity of term in a county jail and the fact that many inmates 
 are simply in temporary detention, awaiting trial, are factors in- 
 fluencing public care for clothing. The jail differs, in these re- 
 spects, from a State convict prison or reformatory. 
 
 In jails (as distinguished from local houses of correction, 
 workhouses and penitentiaries) there is no thought of uniforms. 
 The prisoner wears his own outer clothing as a matter of course, 
 unless it is absolutely too tattered and filthy even for the society 
 of a jail. 
 
 The questions which called for data relating to clothing 
 were: "Underclothing changed how often?" and "Does county 
 furnish underclothing?" The general rule seems to be that 
 underclothing is changed once a week. 
 
 The custom of supplying or not supplying underclothes dif- 
 fers not only from State to State, but from county to county in 
 the same State. We think it would be approximately correct to 
 say that usually the county authorizes giving underclothing 
 when it is imperatively required for health and decency, and 
 that the prisoner is recjuired to furnish his own underclothing 
 when he is ai)le to do so.
 
 17 
 
 Naturally the authorities vary considerably in their judgment 
 of what is necessary and in their generosity to poor prisoners. 
 
 Only central State regulation, supervision and control could 
 secure reasonable and uniform treatment of inmates. At pres- 
 ent, the replies reveal inequality and partiality which shock the 
 sense of equity and justice. 
 
 3. The conditions relating to beds, bedding and cell furni- 
 ture may be considered together. The questions asked were: 
 "Kind of beds?" "Kind and cleanliness of bedding?" "Bed- 
 ding washed how often?" "Other furniture?" 
 
 Spartan simplicity reigns in the furniture of cells: a table, 
 a chair, an iron frame, hinged to swing against the wall or a 
 canvas hammock, occasionally a shelf and a mirror. Often we 
 must imagine bunk over bunk, in the same cell or cage, crowded 
 until the horrors of stench and suffocation are indescribable. 
 Simplicity is desirable; there is no call for luxury; but there is 
 no reason or fairness in subjecting unconvicted citizens to dirt 
 and crowding, and thus punishing them more severely than the 
 felons sent to a State prison, and that even before trial, while 
 they are legally and presumptively innocent. 
 
 So far as we could learn, the prisoners rarely suffer from 
 cold, since the building, in cold weather, is usually artificially 
 heated, and light bed covers are adequate. 
 
 It must be confessed that jailers should not be hastily blamed 
 for the dirty condition of blankets, coverlets and sheets, of which 
 many inspectors report. The clothing of vagrants, tramps, in- 
 ebriates after debauch, and of disorderly women, is not often im- 
 maculate, and very frequently is densely inhabited. The board- 
 ing houses and dens, from which many come, are alive with ver- 
 min and charged with germs of communicable disease. The life 
 habits of many prisoners are on a level of those of savages, with 
 a certain civilized refinement in the art of accumulating the con- 
 ditions of disease. 
 
 What can be expected, when we are told, as we often are, that 
 prisoners are graciously permitted to wash their own bed covers, 
 inside the jail, when the dirt becomes unendurable? When the 
 bath tub is the only laundry, the chance of spreading disease is 
 increased. 
 
 But under an open jail system, the filthiest, vilest prisoner 
 punishes and tortures those who have not yet sunk to his level,
 
 18 
 
 for the vermin crawl from him to others and the stench from his 
 dirty bedding defiles all other cells and corridors. Under an 
 isolation cell system, this could be prevented; with the open 
 structure, practically universal, it is impossible to prevent it. 
 This is true of the lockups of many cities as well. 
 
 What can you look for in cells where unclean persons roll in 
 their beds, both day and night, often lying down with clothing 
 and shoes on? Cleanliness would be a miracle, and therefore it 
 is rare. The best the visitor dares to write is "the bedding is 
 fairly clean, considering the situation." The situation is vile. 
 
 We have no information in the schedules about the methods 
 of cutting hair and shaving faces; but we have seen and heard 
 enough to convince us that, at this point, there are innumerable 
 opportunities of conveying disease. 
 
 4. Cleanliness of Building. — One of the questions asked in 
 the schedule was: "Cleanliness of building?" In respect to 
 corridor floors and walls, and the halls leading to the jail, the 
 jailer has a better chance and more control; and therefore the 
 most frequent answer was that these parts of the building were 
 clean. Possibly, in a few cases, there was a special revival of 
 scrubbing, whitewashing and painting, in anticipation of a visit 
 of some distinguished lady or gentleman, representing a learned 
 profession and the American Prison Association; but this was 
 not common. We can say that the floors and walls of most jails 
 inspected were tolerably clean, so far as the naked eye could see. 
 None of our visitors reported the use of an immersion lens micro- 
 scope in his examination of the scrapings of floors and walls. 
 The bacteriologist, alone, could render a strictly scientific verdict. 
 
 County officials generally do not profess to be bacteriologists; 
 but a State central board of supervision might well take up the 
 study by employing an agent with fortified eyes. Some of the 
 most dangerous and numerous enemies of humanity are not de- 
 tected by a casual visitor, and do not affect the sense of smell. 
 
 5. Ventilation. — The visitor was requested to report of the 
 jail: "How ventilated?" The answers are not often satis- 
 factory and this is not surprising. Ventilation is a complicated 
 subject. The adequate and constant supply of fresh air depends 
 on several factors: the cubic contents of an inhabited space, the 
 number of persons residing in this space, the methods of influx 
 and exit, the character of the air outside the edifice and in the
 
 19 
 
 cellar, the methods of setting up currents as by open grates or 
 fans. The art of ventilation and the hygienic necessity for it 
 are not always understood even among educated people. Science 
 is not yet popular, nor well taught in schools; and science is 
 supposed to be too good for "jail birds." So long as the super- 
 stitious dread of "night air" fastens down windows in palaces, 
 and so long as tuberculous children cough out bacilli behind 
 double glass windows of mansions, what can we look for in jails? 
 The answers are often vague. Mention is made of windows, 
 rarely of ventilating pipes from cell through roof. But are the 
 windows open? Are the pipes stopped up with newspapers "to 
 prevent draughts"? We do not know. We cannot trust to in- 
 stinct and the sense of smell. The most deadly bacteria are odor- 
 less, as well as invisible to the unaided eye. A State bacteriolo- 
 gist or sanitarian would examine the air with microscope and 
 other instruments of precision, and he would order changes, dic- 
 tated not by mean local politics, but by the universal demands of 
 science. 
 
 6. Heating. — Each visitor was asked to report on the jail: 
 "How heated?" The replies indicate, so far as can be judged, 
 that the heating is generally adequate. As the county jail is 
 generally near the court house, often in the same yard, the one 
 steam heating plant provides warmth in cold weather for sheriff's 
 or jailer's residence, for the jail and for the court rooms and 
 county offices. 
 
 We should like to know more of the connection of the heating 
 arrangements with those for ventilation; but on this important 
 point we have comparatively little information. 
 
 7, Light. — The question was: "How lighted?" We frankly 
 confess this question was not a good one; the special inquiry was 
 not thought to ask about sunlight, and the usual answer re- 
 lated only to the minor matter of artificial light for evenings. 
 It is very interesting to note the large number of jails using elec- 
 tric light, even in villages. This light does not defile the air, is 
 cooler in summer and can be better controlled by the jailer. 
 
 The plans of the jails reveal what the answers do not, for the 
 places of windows are often shown. So far as we can judge 
 from the plans and descriptions, the window space may be large 
 enough, but the position of windows in relation to cells is inex-
 
 20 
 
 cusably bad. It is simply impossible to furnish adequate sun- 
 light in cells with the customary style of building. 
 
 The very structure of the ordinary jail is radically wrong 
 and offends against the laws of health. From ocean to ocean 
 one uniform plan has been slavishly copied from bad models — 
 a cage of cells surrounded by a corridor. Into this corridor are 
 emptied the foul breath and foul language of the occupants of 
 darkened cells. It becomes a common reservoir of deadly ele- 
 ments. The light of windows and the pure outer air do not enter 
 the cell directly, but only through this corridor. No man builds 
 a pig pen or a hen coop on such a monstrous plan. The jailer's 
 residence, adjoining, always admits sunshine and air directly into 
 each sleeping and living room. 
 
 8. ''Source of Water Supply?'' — The answers are fairly satis- 
 factory. The typical jail is supplied from the city, town, or 
 village water works, whatever that may be. But frequently this 
 water needs to be sterilized to be safe for drinking purposes. On 
 this point we have not sufificient information; and the problem 
 is one for special investigation. Here, again, a scientific inspec- 
 tion by a central State sanitary authority, with vigilant super- 
 vision and rigid control, are imperatively demanded. Local 
 supervision and regulation are farcical. There is too much faith 
 placed in filters; boiling the drinking water is seldom, if ever, 
 mentioned. 
 
 9. Sewage. — The questions were: "Closets: How many? 
 Condition? Are night buckets used? Condition of plumbing? 
 Kind of sewerage? Condition?" 
 
 Our table shows quite full and clear information on these 
 points, and we are in a position to speak with a degree of definite- 
 ness on the conditions relating to disposal of human waste. 
 
 One remark in the reports requires comment. It is occasion- 
 ally announced, with a note of boastful pride, that the building 
 is clean and the closets sanitary, and that "disinfectants are 
 freely used." We can quote the highest medical authority for 
 saying that the smell of carbolic acid or chloride of lime is sus- 
 picious; for where plenty of hot water and soap are used, and 
 where sunshine and air freely play in every corner, and where 
 the plumbing is perfect, disinfectants are not needed. 
 
 10. Bathing. — We sought information on this important point
 
 21 
 
 by asking: "Are there bathtubs or showers? Number? Where 
 located? Condition? Bathe how often?" 
 
 It is generally conceded by public sanitary authorities that 
 the bath tub, in a promiscuous crowd of persons, many of them 
 having venereal skin diseases, is a vehicle of contagion which 
 ought to be abolished. The shower bath, passing warm water 
 over a well soaped man, on a well drained cement floor, is more 
 effective and far less dangerous. It costs less to supply warm 
 water. The reports seem to show that there are very few shower 
 baths in our jails, and that where any facilities are provided, 
 they are tubs, which are easily made dirty and dangerous, and 
 are hard to keep really clean and safe. 
 
 11. Exercise. — "Prisoners' Exercise: How conducted?" For 
 answer, we hear, in almost all the reports, the dull, monotonous, 
 maddening tramp of prisoners aimlessly walking up and down 
 the corridor of the county jails of our land . Of course this tramp 
 is not at the specific command of the jailers; the slouching march 
 over the same dead level of stone floor is the only means of exercise, 
 and in that sense is compulsory. In Frangois Coppe's story, 
 Le Coupable, we have a vivid and dramatic picture of the physi- 
 cal and psychical effects of this irrational, aimless, maddening 
 form of exercise. 
 
 The problem of exercise cannot be separated from that of oc- 
 cupation and industry. To some slight extent the deplorable 
 situation is partly relieved by the fact that trusties are sometimes 
 set to work on lawns or other outside Vv^ork; that here and there 
 a stone pile furnishes rude music and the faint hint of useful 
 labor; and that generally the prisoners must give a few minutes 
 of their tedious days to making beds and cleaning floors. 
 
 But let anyone of us imagine himself waiting, perhaps for many 
 months, perhaps even for years, with no exercise but the tramp, 
 tramp in the close and dark corridor of a county jail. It is the 
 path straight to lunacy. Why not have walled yards in the open 
 air, partly sheltered from rain, covered over with steel wire to 
 prevent escape? It is simple; it is easy; it is human justice; 
 it is social interest and wisdom. But it is rarely thought of. 
 Anyone who has seen French jails of the better sort knows how 
 easy it would be to correct this defect. 
 
 12. Recreation. — A certain amount of diversion is necessary 
 for sanity, especially with idle men. In a very few jails some
 
 22 
 
 attention has been paid to this matter. When Mr. Whitman was 
 jailer in Cook County, Illinois, he developed some interesting 
 plans in connection with his Moral Improvement Association and 
 his library. We fear that the reading of prisoners and their 
 conversation are seldom helpful to character. Card playing is 
 the universal resource for passing the dull and anxious waking 
 hours; it is better than nothing and probably aids mental sanity; 
 but too much of it is stupid and stupefying. 
 
 13. Of medical care of prisoners we learned little from the 
 schedules, chiefly because no specific question called for infor- 
 mation. In a few large urban jails, a ward is set apart for a 
 hospital. Occasionally it is reported that a physician, paid by 
 the county, makes regular visits or comes at call. 
 
 14. The facts about crowding are fully and clearly brought 
 out in the schedules, which called for answers to the questions: 
 "Number of cells? For men? For women? Size (of cells) ? 
 Where are children kept? Inmates present — men, women, boys, 
 girls?" 
 
 Here we have to do with population and its crowding, with 
 reference to health. It is evident that a crowded jail or a 
 crowded quarter of a jail must have vitiated air, must depress 
 vitality, must increase tendencies to low vice and hence physical 
 and moral degeneration. 
 
 All stages of occupation of space are reported, from the en- 
 tirely empty rural institution, in a prohibition county of Kansas, 
 where the only inmate was a man who had kept a "blind pig," 
 to the ill-smelling city jails, where, at times, the cells are packed 
 at night like the lower deck of a slave ship, and where the cor- 
 ridors afford scant room for the crowd of men who swarm in 
 there during the day. An average for the whole country would 
 mean nothing. A few illustrations of jails, where conditions cry 
 out for reform, would be more instructive. 
 
 Our standard of crowding is that a cell is crowded when it con- 
 tains more than one inmate, and less than the necessary cubic 
 feet of air space and less than the desirable current of ventila- 
 tion, day or night. 
 
 Let us take some examples from jails in urban counties: 
 
 In Birmingham, Alaljama (first in alphabetical order of States), 
 we find reported, 240 men in 72 cells and 25 women in 10 cells. 
 The cells are 8 by 9 feet. There was one boy.
 
 23 
 
 In Denver, Colorado, there were 189 men in 90 cells and 22 
 women in 20 cells, 6x9 feet. 
 
 In Los Angeles, California, there were 135 men in 88 cells; 
 there were 30 cells designed for four men each, and 48 cells de- 
 signed for two men each, 8x8 feet and 8x6 feet. 
 
 In Colorado Springs, Colorado, there were 55 men in 19 cells, 
 and 4 women in one cell room. 
 
 In Stockton, California, there were "6 drunks" in one cell, 
 15x18 feet, and 46 prisoners in 26 cells. 
 
 In Washington, D. C, the total capacity claimed by the 
 authorities was 320, while the total population was 474 — a bad 
 example for the capital city of the nation. 
 
 In Chicago, Illinois, there were 434 men in 368 cells, with 39 
 boys in a congregation by themselves. 
 
 In Indianapolis, Indiana, 143 men and 16 women in 54 cells. 
 There were 2 boys, and children are kept in the women's depart- 
 ment. 
 
 In Terre Haute, Indiana, there were 73 men in 35 cells, and 
 the visitor says there have been 1 10 at a time in this jail. 
 
 In Marion, Iowa, a small jail, built with 4 cells for men, had 
 20 men. 
 
 No jail in Kansas is reported as crowded. Is that because it 
 is virtually a prohibition State? But the jails of Kansas are not 
 models. Rural and village jails usually have space enough for 
 health, but they are among the worst for vile familiarities of 
 association. The ordinary standard for judging whether a jail 
 is crowded or not is too bad for a stable or cow shed, much less for 
 human beings. This common standard is that, so long as men 
 can find room in bunk, hammock or on stone floor, with a news- 
 paper for a mattress, the place is spacious enough. This is man- 
 slaughter. 
 
 The modern, up-to-date, scientific standard is that each pris- 
 oner, awaiting trial, must have a decent and spacious cell to him- 
 self, without corrupting and degrading contact with criminals; 
 and that when two inmates are in company, there is crowding in 
 the hygienic and moral sense. Judged by this modern standard, 
 almost every jail reported to us requires to be rebuilt on a new 
 plan; almost all are liable to be crowded, if there are more than 
 two or three prisoners at one time.
 
 24 
 
 III. Occupation of Prisoners 
 
 The inmates of jails are chiefly of two classes— those await- 
 ing trial and convicted misdemeanants. Sometimes there are 
 tramps and abnormals. 1 1 is not necessary to offer proof to the 
 American Prison Association that useful work is a necessary con- 
 dition of physical and moral soundness. 
 
 We already know that the inmates of our jails are generally 
 idle. 
 
 In certain places there is some attempt to connect a stone pile 
 or some such makeshift and make-believe employment with a jail, 
 largely for the discouragement of tramps. 
 
 In 143 jails no occupation is reported for men, and in 155 
 jails women are said to be entirely idle. In 26 jails the men do 
 a little housework, and in 33, the women help with cooking, scrub- 
 bing and other routine tasks. Perhaps many of the men and 
 women reported idle may be required to keep their cells in some 
 kind of order, though this is not reported in the schedules. In 
 7 jails, the women do sewing. Workshops for men are mentioned 
 in 7 jails. City prisoners are worked in chain gangs in two 
 prisons in Colorado, and in three other jails, work on streets or 
 roads is mentioned. Idleness is the rule. In only 2 jails could 
 we find any custom of encouraging labor by payment of gratui- 
 ties or wages. 
 
 In Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, some 
 systematic arrangement for industries is made. 
 
 Under the present jail system, and the laws relating to jail 
 population, we are satisfied no considerable improvement can be 
 made. The disease is too deep to be cured by mild remedies. 
 
 The ordinary term of imprisonment of convicted misdemean- 
 ants, vagrants and inebriates is too short for any sort of indus- 
 trial training or systematic production. 
 
 The local county jail has too small a population to justify 
 systematic arrangements for rational and productive employ- 
 ment under competent direction. 
 
 A careful study of the situation in all parts of the land has 
 already driven many of our members long ago to the conclusion 
 that we must have district labor colonies or workhouses for those 
 convicted of offenses, and that the term of degenerates must be at 
 least two years, if we really intend to fit them for useful lives.
 
 25 
 
 IV. Personal Contact and Influence of Prisoners Among 
 
 Themselves 
 
 Useful labor and good company are two of the most essential 
 factors in forming a good character; idleness and vicious com- 
 panions inevitably destroy fitness for social conduct. 
 
 Our investigation has brought together all the essential facts 
 relating to the conduct of prisoners with each other. Under 
 present conditions and laws, the county must provide for males 
 and females; children, youth and adults; first offenders, habitual 
 criminals, vagabonds, prostitutes; witnesses held for their testi- 
 mony; poor debtors whose crime is their poverty; idiots, im- 
 beciles, insane, epileptics; persons arrested on suspicion and 
 apoplectics whom the sapient policeman could not distinguish 
 from drunkards. Often all these, under one roof and manage- 
 ment, in a building so built that cries and whispers travel along a 
 corridor with cages open at the side. 
 
 We are strongly tempted to specify particular cities where 
 nameless abuses exist; where vile men find their way to the door 
 behind which prostitutes stand; where little children are kept in 
 rooms with polluted and diseased adults; where a thoughtless 
 lad is thrust by the hand of our country's laws into the school of 
 vice and crime, taught by trained scoundrels; where a girl for 
 venial fault is shut up with her damnation for a night with some 
 strumpet; where a poor insane victim of brain disorder howls all 
 night in company with rufifians; where an honest fellow, unable 
 to pay a fine for a spree, is locked in with burglars and thieves. 
 
 These are not pictures from novels; they are bald, prosaic 
 facts set down by honest eye-witnesses in answer to printed ques- 
 tions. 
 
 V. We have inquired, just now, how prisoners help each 
 other to perdition by association in idleness. 
 
 What does the State do to furnish counteracting influences 
 of a higher character? What is the Church doing, in remem- 
 brance of Him who said, "I was in prison and ye came unto 
 Me"? 
 
 We are ashamed to print the truth, and yet we are afraid to 
 conceal it! We asked our faithful and competent visitors to in- 
 quire and answer these specific questions: "Reading matter? 
 Religious services?"
 
 26 
 
 Some sort of reading material is supplied in 253 jails of the 
 289 jails reported, and none is reported in 25. Mention is made 
 of visitors in 7 jails. Religious services, in all degrees of regu- 
 larity and efficiency, are held in 183 jails; while in 88, no sort 
 of exercises of this class is known. 
 
 VI. Administration 
 
 It was not necessary to ask our visitors to describe the system 
 of official administration of county jails, for that we find in the 
 laws of the States to which we have given as much attention as 
 time permitted. 
 
 The system is fairly uniform and is familiar to the American 
 Prison Association. The county commissioners represent the 
 taxpayers in making regulations and caring for public buildings. 
 Ultimately, as elective officers, they must obey their masters, and 
 so they reflect the popular opinion of the county — its knowledge 
 and its ignorance, its wisdom and its meanness, its humanity and 
 its brutal indifference. Sometimes, let us hope, they make some 
 efforts to educate their masters; but that is slow work, and a 
 very important part of their duty is to exploit their office while 
 they hold it, rather as a sinecure than a trust. We give full 
 praise to commissioners who try to know and do their duty. 
 Only the other kind has any reason to wince at our description of 
 reported facts. 
 
 The sheriff is also elected by the people — so it is set down in 
 the law. The inside facts, as told in confidence by "The County 
 Chairman," often have the appearance of a selection by a 
 "ring." Sometimes the sheriff is jailer — the rule in rural com- 
 munities; sometimes he is a boss and hires a jailer. The method 
 is indifferent. The essential fact which concerns us is that the 
 State law against crime is not executed by State officials, but by 
 local officials. Is this logical? Is it safe? 
 
 We did ask one innocent-looking question: " In and out fee?" 
 Some of the visitors did not understand the question; they had 
 never studied the "fee vs. salary" controversy, or it had been 
 settled long ago in their neighborhood. We turned up plenty 
 of ugly testimony to the effect that when a county sheriff is paid 
 for his services in fees, rather than by salary, he must have the 
 sturdy virtue of a Cromwell or a Lincoln to preserve his soul in 
 a .state of grace. Most county sheriffs are too honest to f)retend
 
 27 
 
 to know what a "state of grace" signifies. That much to their 
 credit! But we are attacking a system, not particular indi- 
 viduals, unless they defend the old system; then they come out 
 in the open as public enemies. 
 
 The testimony from all parts of the land demonstrates that 
 the fee system tends to injustice, to false imprisonment, to de- 
 lay of trials, to plunder of the public treasury, coming and going, 
 in and out, to partisan corruption, to ofificial robbery, to the de- 
 filement of the character of the agents of justice. 
 
 VII. Discipline Within Jails; Rules of Conduct and 
 
 Methods of Enforcing Them; and the 
 
 "Kangaroo Court" 
 
 We find explicit mention of self-government among prisoners, 
 with some degree of control by the jail authorities, in several 
 jails of the Western and Southern States. This self-government 
 is sometimes called the "Kangaroo Court"; whether it was im- 
 ported from the British South Pacific colonies, along with other 
 strange marsupial animals, we have not discovered information. 
 It seems to be an American revival of a vicious old English cus- 
 tom; its persistence is thought, by experts, to be a proof of the 
 incapacity of the authorities to govern as their duty requires and 
 as one more evidence that the crowding of offenders and suspects, 
 of all grades, in one hall, gives power of tyranny to the basest 
 bullies of the herd. This singular and dangerous institution 
 must be discussed by itself, with further facts. 
 
 We have made a collection of rules for the conduct of pris- 
 oners by courts, commissioners and other authorities, and these 
 cover the care of cells, cleanliness, order, propriety and personal 
 treatment of officers and fellow prisoners, etc. 
 
 These rules are enforced by penalties. Usually these discip- 
 linary punishments are graded according to the offense and the 
 attitude of the prisoner. In 83 jails, special punishment cells 
 or dungeons are used; in 2 the offender is handcuffed to the door 
 of his cell; in 11 jails reprimand or loss of privileges may be ap- 
 plied; in 6 the diet is restricted; in 8 the offender is confined 
 in his cell and not allowed to walk in the corridor; in i jail work 
 is prescribed; in 14 the measures are not specified; in i the lighter 
 penalties are applied by the prisoners' court; in 61 jails, no
 
 28 
 
 punishment seems to be employed. Here, also, is a large subject 
 for special treatment. 
 
 VIII. The Population of Jails 
 
 The schedules called for information, on the data named, of 
 persons of the following classes, each class being subdivided into 
 men, women, boys and girls: (i) Awaiting trial; (2) enduring 
 a jail sentence or detained because of unpaid fine; (3) sentenced 
 to State prison; (4) sentenced to reform school; (5) epileptics; 
 (6) feeble-minded; (7) sentenced to reformatory; (8) insane, 
 waiting; (9) insane, chronic; (10) tramps; (11) witnesses; (12) 
 city prisoners. 
 
 Those awaiting trial and those serving short sentences are 
 naturally the largest number. Only those of the first class should 
 be in a jail; all the others should be placed elsewhere, save those 
 on their way to State prisons and places of correction. In these 
 first two classes we discern a large number of boys and also many 
 girls, many of whom, under a good system of juvenile courts and 
 detention homes, might be spared the demoralizing influences of 
 the place. 
 
 Boys sent to reform schools figure in these columns. 
 
 Under the head of "abnormals," we find epileptics, feeble- 
 minded and insane. The authorities are not always, nor often, 
 psychiatrists, and the returns sometimes show hesitation whether 
 a party should be classed as epileptic, insane or just plain drunk. 
 The number is not very large — not large enough to make it a 
 burden to the State to give them decent care in suitable institu- 
 tions, yet too large for the honor of our country. Manifestly, 
 all members of these classes are out of place in jails. 
 
 Of "witnesses" detained for their testimony, 61 are noted in 
 the replies. The reasons for their detention are not given in de- 
 tail and the whole problem of their presence in county jails re- 
 quires a separate study. 
 
 The column given to "tramps" in county jails reveals the fact 
 that they arc foiiiul in jails, in almost all parts of the Union. As 
 anf;ther special report is devoted to this subject, at this session 
 (by Mr. O. F. Lewis), we omit a discussion of this aspect of our 
 problem.
 
 29 
 
 Proposed Improvements 
 
 A standard of requirements for a really modern jail; recom- 
 mendations of the committee. 
 
 Some of the requirements cannot be met simply by changes in 
 the structure and administration of the jail itself. Modern con- 
 ditions and knowledge call for radical changes in laws and in the 
 entire State system of correction and punishment. But some of 
 the improvements demanded could be made at once in any county 
 by an enlightened public and a vigorous county board. 
 
 I. The jail must be strong and safe. There are architects and 
 jail builders who can easily and economically construct a jail to 
 meet these conditions. 
 
 II. The jail should be so built and its alTairs so administered 
 that the health of prisoners and officers shall not be impaired. 
 Among the conditions of health are: 
 
 (i) A sufficient supply of simple, wholesome food. The best 
 way would be to have the dietaries regulated by a State commis- 
 sion of physicians. Laymen have not the knowledge to arrange 
 balanced rations, suitable for all classes of prisoners. Local phy- 
 sicians may be authorized to direct diet, in the absence of a State 
 commission. 
 
 (2) Clean underclothing is essential to health, and it should be 
 furnished by the county if the prisoner is too poor to pay for it. 
 This underclothing should be washed in a laundry and not in 
 bath tubs, as sometimes occurs. 
 
 (3) The bedding should be clean when furnished and kept 
 clean; no prisoner should lie on his bed in the daytime, unless 
 sick, in which case he should be in a hospital ward. 
 
 (4) Ventilation should be secured by providing a large cell, 
 with a window opening directly to the outside air; and the air 
 should be renewed constantly by forced currents through pipes 
 to the roof from each cell. 
 
 (5) Each cell should be heated from a central system and the 
 foul air removed by forced drafts. The air of one cell should 
 never be breathed by anyone except the single occupant of that 
 cell. 
 
 (6) Lighting. For artificial light, electricity is best, because 
 it does not foul the air, in summer it does not heat the cell, and 
 it is most easily controlled by the officers on guard.
 
 30 
 
 Natural light is necessary to purify the air and destroy bacteria, 
 and it should come into the cell directly from the outside. A cell 
 without sunlight is a center of infection for the whole jail. 
 
 (7) The drinking water should be analyzed by competent ex- 
 perts, and, if necessary, boiled to prevent intestinal disease. 
 Filters are generally dangerous. 
 
 (8) The waste water, with human excrementitious matter, 
 should be disposed of through approved plumbing drains and 
 sewers. Cesspools are dangerous as well as disgusting. Night 
 buckets cannot be kept clean. 
 
 (9) Provision for bathing should be made by means of shower 
 baths, in screened compartments, and the waste water conveyed 
 by cement floors to the sewer. Tubs are means of communi- 
 cating venereal and other diseases. 
 
 (10) Provisions should be made for at least one-half hour's 
 exercise, daily, in the open air. Still better, if convicted prisoners 
 must be retained, by some useful industry in the open air or in 
 well-ventilated sheds or rooms. 
 
 (11) Recreations are essential to health if prisoners are held 
 for some months. 
 
 (12) A jail should be provided with a hospital ward for the 
 sick, or with special cells. A physician should call, at least once 
 a week, to inspect sanitary conditions and should be ready to give 
 advice and aid to the sick at all times, at the expense of the county 
 where the prisoner cannot pay. 
 
 (13) The prisoners should not be crowded , for crowding vitiates 
 the air and increases peril from contagious and infectious diseases. 
 Each prisoner should be in a cell alone. 
 
 III. Occupation. Idleness is injurious to health and morals of 
 the prisoner and burdens the public. Prisoners awaiting trial 
 should have an opportunity of working for wages; and if con- 
 victed persons must, for a time, be kept in jail, they should be 
 compelled to work at some useful and productive industry. 
 
 IV. Personal Contact of Prisoners. 
 
 I. Classes of persons who should never be placed in a jail or 
 a lockup. The sick, those suffering from sunstroke or apoplexy, 
 the insane, the feeble-minded, the epileptic — all who are abnor- 
 mal or ill — should be sent to a hospital, never to a prison. 
 
 Boys and girls who have committed some offense, or are in
 
 31 
 
 trouble, should be sent to a detention home and placed under the 
 care of school officers. 
 
 First offenders and many drinking men who are now committed 
 to jail on sentences might better be disposed of by suspending 
 the execution of their sentences, on condition that they secure 
 employment, use their earnings for the support of their families 
 and keep out of vicious company. If the court has a probation 
 officer, the man should be placed under his supervision. If there 
 is no probation officer, the man should be required to report to 
 the court, or to some person designated by it, at stated periods. 
 If work on public roads is in progress, it might furnish employ- 
 ment for men released on suspended sentence. (W. F. Spalding.) 
 
 2. Every convicted person, the moment sentence is pro- 
 nounced, should be taken immediately to the proper reformatory, 
 penitentiary, district workhouse or labor colony. 
 
 Thus the number of persons in county jails in idleness would be 
 greatly reduced. 
 
 3. Only persons charged with serious offenses and crimes and 
 awaiting trial should be left in the county jail; and each prisoner 
 would be saved from contamination by being placed in a cell so 
 constructed that he could not see nor converse with any other 
 prisoner, but he would be under the watch and influence of proper 
 persons appointed by the authorities. 
 
 V. Outside Influences. Suitable provisions should be made, in 
 the character of sheriffs, jailers and guards, and by visitors from 
 without, to influence the prisoners in confinement by conversa- 
 tion, reading and proper recreations. 
 
 VI. Administration. All officers who come in contact with pris- 
 oners should be paid adequate salaries, and the fee system should 
 be abolished as a source of corruption and injustice. No one 
 who has to deal with prisoners should be permitted to sell them 
 food or luxuries. 
 
 VII. Discipline. Rules of conduct of prisoners should be drawn 
 up by a State central authority to prevent arbitrary treatment of 
 prisoners. Disciplinary measures should be defined and limited 
 by the same authority.
 
 32 
 
 IV 
 
 REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON JAILS, 
 LOCKUPS AND POLICE STATIONS 
 
 By H. H. Shirer, Chairman 
 
 Indianapolis, 1913 
 
 This committee was created several years ago for the purpose of 
 submitting reports from time to time upon the subjects referred 
 to in this title. This report will be limited almost exclusively to 
 county jails — particularly those used as places for detention of 
 persons convicted of crime. 
 
 The chairman directed a letter to all members of the committee 
 and received replies from five. Each of the correspondents gave 
 suggestions which are incorporated in this report. Inasmuch as 
 some members of the committee did not respond, it seems proper 
 that those assisting in the preparation of this report should be 
 mentioned. Helpful suggestions were received from Prof. Arthur 
 J. Todd, University of Illinois; W. A. Gates, Secretary Cali- 
 fornia Board of Charities and Corrections; C. L. Stonaker, Gen- 
 eral Secretary of State Charities Aid and Prison Reform Associa- 
 tion of New Jersey; Dr. W. H. Oates, Prison Inspector of the 
 State of Alabama, and William T. Cross, General Secretary of 
 the National Conference of Charities and Correction. 
 
 The time allotted to this committee necessitates a brief report. 
 Without going into a detailed argument, the following recom- 
 mendations are set forth: 
 
 1. In states where there is no definite form of inspection or 
 supervision by a state board or an official a law to that effect 
 should be passed so as to have a comprehensive report on county 
 jails. 
 
 2. Wherever possible, place full power in a state board or an 
 official to make inspection and issue orders of such a character as 
 to make the recommendations effective after an inspection has 
 been had. 
 
 3. The establishment of state farms for misdemeanants, or dis- 
 trict workhouses, in order to prevent convicted offenders from 
 being confined in cf)unty jails or other local institutions. 
 
 4. Modify court procedure by permitting the suspension of an 
 orfler to cfMnmit to jail for failure to pay a fine, provided that
 
 33 
 
 wherever possible restitution against the offended person shall 
 be made by the offender and a frequent report be made to the 
 trial court or to an official thereof. 
 
 5. The establishment of an habitual offender act so as to per- 
 mit long term imprisonment of persons repeatedly found guilty 
 of minor offenses. 
 
 6. The almost universal custom of placing the county jail in 
 charge of the sheriff should be radically changed so as to provide 
 that some designated authority appoint the keeper of the jail. 
 He may or may not be the sheriff. 
 
 7. Abolish all features of the fee system of compensation for 
 care and custody of prisoners in county jails. 
 
 8. Inasmuch as many of the inmates of county jails are held 
 awaiting trial for offenses against the laws of the state rather than 
 ordinances of the local community, county jails must in time come 
 under the direct control of the state, and ultimately the buildings 
 should be owned by the same governmental unit. 
 
 In regard to the first two recommendations, it is sufficient to 
 say that in a number of states certain boards now have authority 
 to investigate and inspect county jails. Their reports are pub- 
 lished in full, but it seems that these investigations and reports are 
 not very effective in producing desirable changes in equipment 
 and management. At the Prison Congress last year there was 
 read a paper, prepared by Dr. W. H. Oates, State Prison Inspector 
 of Alabama, who described in detail the very practical and 
 effective plan in that southern state. The state prison inspector 
 has power to transfer the inmates of a county jail to another insti- 
 tution when he finds an insanitary jail. The inspector can also 
 order the construction of a new building or the radical remodeling 
 of an old one, as well as issue rules for the general conduct of any 
 prison. 
 
 The Legislature of Pennsylvania, at its last session, passed an 
 act conferring upon the Board of Public Charities express au- 
 thority to examine certain institutions, including jails, and to 
 recommend changes in structure and management. Upon failure 
 of the responsible officials to give proper attention to such recom- 
 mendations within ninety days, the Board of Public Charities 
 shall notify the district attorney of the county in which the insti- 
 tution is located, whose duty it shall be to proceed by indictment 
 or otherwise to remedy the objectionable conditions.
 
 34 
 
 In the matter of special institutions for the confinement of con- 
 victed misdemeanants, the desirable solution would be farms 
 owned and controlled by the state, with a provision that the per- 
 sons committed thereto shall be under limited indeterminate 
 sentences and shall be released only after a specified minimum 
 term of custody at the farm. This method already prevails in the 
 Reformatory for Women in New York, and is provided for in 
 relation to a similar institution now under construction in Ohio. 
 These recommendations would be somewhat difficult to carry out 
 in certain states where there is a number of city and county 
 workhouses, unless these workhouses are so far in advance of the 
 average institution of that name that in some way they can be 
 continued as a part of the state farm plan. Where the state farm 
 seems to be impracticable, there should be established a scheme 
 for district workhouses or farms, each district to include a suffi- 
 cient number of counties so as to afford a reasonably large number 
 of inmates to make the institution practicable in its operation. 
 In the establishment of state farms and district workhouses spe- 
 cial care must be taken to provide definite forms of labor for all 
 of the inmates. While farm labor alone may be sufficient in a few 
 instances, it will generally be necessary to provide for some other 
 forms of occupation in addition to general farm work. 
 
 The recommendation for the modification of court procedure is 
 already gaining recognition through the enactment of suspended 
 sentence laws with a provision for an adequate number of proba- 
 tion officers. Such laws should contain a definite provision requir- 
 ing the offender to make restitution in cases of petit larceny and 
 other offenses against property, subject to such terms as the court 
 may impose. The payment of fines upon the instalment plan is 
 also desirable. 
 
 In regard to the habitual offender act, one illustration will be 
 sufficient: "The sheriff of a county in New Jersey went over his 
 records for five years and found that he had six men who had 
 spent during those five years one-half their time serving short 
 sentences in the county jail. He presented his facts to a grand 
 jury, whf) promptly brought indictments against these six men 
 under the habitual offender act. Two of the men reformed and 
 became good citizens, and the other four disappeared from the 
 county. That county has not been troubled in the last year or 
 two with rounders."
 
 35 
 
 The sixth and seventh recommendations concerning placing the 
 jail in charge of an appointed person who has a special fitness for 
 the position and the abolishment of the too-common fee system 
 need no further comment before the members of this association. 
 
 The last recommendation — state ownership and control — is the 
 ideal toward which persons interested in prison reform should 
 strive. Effective state inspection may be sufficient for a time, but 
 in some states bonding laws are so rigid that no state official can 
 order a local community to make expensive changes without a 
 referendum vote. Other elements of home rule may serve to 
 make state inspection very difficult: probably not without con- 
 siderable friction between state and local authorities. 
 
 The most critical period in a first offender's life is the time of 
 his commitment prior to trial. This is the time when the state 
 should, through direct ownership and control, provide very care- 
 ful supervision and watch over such men in their hours of greatest 
 need. Many of these men are not convicted and they have a 
 right to expect and to demand reasonable care and consideration 
 prior to the time at which they are declared to be innocent of the 
 offenses for which they had been accused. 
 
 The committee leaves it to others to report upon recommenda- 
 tions concerning lockups and police stations, a problem which is 
 as great as the county jail, or even more so. 
 
 V 
 
 ABSTRACT OF REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON JAILS, 
 LOCKUPS AND POLICE STATIONS 
 
 By John L. Whitman 
 
 Of Chicago, Chairman, 1914 
 
 Intelligent inspection has in many cities or communities been 
 made, and recommendations followed, which, when carried out, 
 resulted in improving conditions in some respects — possibly in 
 reconstruction, or even new construction, where old, dilapidated, 
 or antiquated buildings had previously been utilized as places of 
 detention for those charged with having violated the law. These 
 improvements, in most instances, have been made along approved 
 lines, and are more or less permanent in their character, but are
 
 36 
 
 not radical enough to even approach ideal conditions that should 
 prevail in houses of detention, which are intended only to house 
 those who are suspected of being misdemeanants or felons. 
 
 In reality it is here that exhaustive research work should be 
 done looking to the solution of the great problem, The Cause of 
 Crime, which has occupied the attention and been discussed very 
 seriously by experts and specialists in their scientific study of the 
 subject. 
 
 Before preparing this report the chairman communicated with 
 the entire membership of the committee and received statements 
 from most of them, from which it can be deduced that the con- 
 sensus of opinion is that the jail system, as Mr. Leonard called it, 
 is not productive of the sort of results that the public have a 
 right to expect from it. 
 
 Our present system, which provides, in some instances, only for 
 the imposition of a fine and imprisonment in case of non-payment, 
 has not proven to be a cure. Our probation and parole laws have 
 been operated successfully only in a limited number of cases, 
 probably because there has not been a complete and exhaustive 
 study made of the cases that would mean a good diagnosis, enab- 
 ling the administrators of the law to prescribe a curative treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Houses of detention will not be performing their natural func- 
 tions to the fullest extent until facilities are provided in them, 
 and they are manned by those competent to use those facilities in 
 making a proper diagnosis of the cases committed to them, so 
 that intelligent treatment may be accorded the individuals there 
 or in institutions better fitted to administer a curative remedy, 
 which will either mean rehabilitation of the patient or a protection 
 for the public. This would also be assisting those who are 
 attempting to solve the problem as to "The Cause of Crime." 
 
 Mr. Thomas, Secretary of the State Board of Charities and 
 Corrections of Colorado, said: "Throughout the United States 
 we are following the most expensive and least effective system of 
 dealing with petty misdemeanants. The absolute absence of 
 reformatory influences in jails, lockups, and police stations is a 
 sad commentary on public economy, as other organizations must
 
 37 
 
 expend the people's money to counteract the physical demoraliza- 
 tion caused by the carelessness of the divisions of public adminis- 
 tration. It is to be regretted that there is a dearth of literature 
 on jail architecture and management. It seems physically and 
 financially impossible to remodel the existing jails, or their man- 
 agement, to conform with present-day ideas; but much can be 
 done to improve conditions. 
 
 "Public officials should be educated to the necessity of seeking 
 expert advice when new jails are to be erected. The average man 
 who has to do with letting contracts for the erection of jails 
 knows little or nothing of what is required in such a place; nor 
 is the average architect competent to present properly designed 
 plans for such an institution. In the future there should be a 
 definite policy pursued in relation to the requirements of jails, 
 and the architectural details of same should conform to the policy 
 adopted. 
 
 "The question of location should also be carefully considered. 
 Trained men should be in charge of the jails, and a reformatory 
 influence be thrown around the inmates immediately they are 
 received. It is here the regeneration of the lawbreakers should 
 commence, and the discipline of the place should be a part of a 
 well-considered and approved system, beginning with the jail and 
 ending with the penitentiary." 
 
 If, upon examination, some are found to be mentally deficient, 
 then a careful study should be made to determine to what degree, 
 if at all, they could be benefited by any kind of professional treat- 
 ment, or how they should be handled while restrained of their 
 liberty after conviction, or awaiting the judgment of the court 
 before trial. 
 
 When the courts learn that such information is at hand as 
 experts and professional men can give in a report after examina- 
 tion has been made by them of mental deficiency or physical ill- 
 ness, the courts will undoubtedly be anxious to secure it and be 
 guided thereby in determining what judgment to render; if the 
 accused is guilty of a crime, what sort of care he should get, and 
 what sort of an institution should restrain him, the diagnosis in 
 his case following him to that institution. If released by the court, 
 those in whose care he is placed should be informed, if not in- 
 structed, how he should be handled or assisted so as to make him 
 
 248849
 
 38 
 
 self-supporting and non-criminal. Most mental defectives can as 
 easily be made non-criminal as criminal. 
 
 I will not attempt to discuss in this report how the criminal code 
 might be changed so that it would be considered a part of the 
 application of the work of the jail system to provide efficient 
 medical service; the application of the conclusions of an indus- 
 trial psychologist to vocational placing or training with the view 
 of determining the vocations inmates are most adapted to, as 
 well as the exercise of reformatory influence, which is spoken of by 
 other members of the committee, which means public welfare and 
 social service work that has already been taken up by commissions 
 and bureaus under the direction of municipal or state govern- 
 ment in public institutions. 
 
 If the signs of the times are read correctly, all this will be done 
 in the near future ; in fact, is being done now in some form in some 
 localities, especially in large cities. 
 
 The policy of having jails, lockups, or police stations under 
 city, county, or state control might and probably should be con- 
 sidered alone and separate from the policy above outlined. 
 
 The conditions in rural districts, where there are lockups in 
 villages, and the county jail the only intermediate place between 
 it and the state penitentiary, constitute a situation somewhat dif- 
 ferent from the large cities, where the police stations take the 
 place of lockups. But in both the rural districts and the cities 
 the same policy should and can be adopted, providing for scientific 
 care and treatment of those coming under the ban of the law. 
 
 The fact is now being recognized that only a comparatively 
 small percentage of offenders are wilfully following a criminal 
 career, that a large percentage will, when studied, reveal an under- 
 lying cause for their apparent criminal tendencies, over which it 
 will be found they have had but little, if any, control. This cause 
 can be determined and often removed while they are in houses of 
 detention awaiting the action of the law, and no great amount of 
 legislation or added expense will be necessary to provide the facil- 
 ities to clo this, either in rural districts or the cities. 
 
 Thereff)rc" the following may be offered as the program of a 
 psychological research laboratory in a suggested centralized sys- 
 tem for unconvicted offenders.
 
 39 
 
 The work naturally divides itself into two divisions: First — 
 Diagnosis. Second — Treatment. 
 
 Diagnosis. — Under this heading are included the social, the 
 physical, and mental examinations. In the mental examination 
 modern scientific apparatus would be used, such as the Binet 
 scale, form boards, construction puzzles, the dynamometer, ergo- 
 graph, algometer, among other experimental material, for the pur- 
 pose of determining a subject's capacity and development in sen- 
 sation, perception, attention, concentration, association, memory, 
 imagination, discrimination, connotation, affection, reasoning, 
 suggestibility, besides determining the ideational type, the reac- 
 tion type, and so on. Besides what has already been enumerated, 
 the mental age, special abilities, predilections, likes and dislikes, 
 and moral development will be determined. Here, also, will be 
 estimated the psycho-physical power of the individual, his general 
 strength and that of specific body parts; his fatigue index, his 
 power of endurance, his daily work-curve, his efficiency type. 
 
 Under the caption "Physical" will be included an examination 
 of all organs, internal and external, both as to development and 
 function. For this latter purpose biochemical analyses will be 
 made to determine any disorders of metabolism, any abnormali- 
 ties in body secretions and excretion. A systematic diagnosis will 
 be made of the condition of the eyes, ears, heart, lungs, kidneys, 
 liver, etc. The reflexes will be examined and the blood pressure 
 noted. 
 
 The social examination will include the subject's personal his- 
 tory; his education, employments, arrests, difficulties, diseases, 
 habits, ideals; his family history, his heredity, and the condition 
 of the environment in which he at present finds himself. 
 
 Treatment. — On the basis of this diagnosis a plan for individual 
 treatment could be much more accurately and much more satis- 
 factorily stated. The treatment will cover five different fields: 
 industrial, physical, educational, recreational, and environmental. 
 
 Under the Industrial will be included vocational guidance and 
 vocational training. An attempt will be made to adjust more 
 closely worker and industry, for the purpose of preventing, as far 
 as possible, any human or economic waste. 
 
 Under Physical Treatment will be included the removal of all 
 physical factors tending to make the individual less fit, and the 
 development of those powers tending to make him more of an
 
 40 
 
 economic asset. Hygiene of body and of mind will be the goal 
 toward which all efforts will be aimed. 
 
 The Educational Treatment will include specific trade training 
 as well as the assimilation of that necessary knowledge and infor- 
 mation which go to make an American citizen more and more 
 efficient. 
 
 The Recreational and Environmental Treatment will be more 
 in the hands of social workers and public welfare agents after the 
 inmate leaves this centralized institution. 
 
 Throughout all this work a close cooperation will be main- 
 tained between this laboratory and all social agencies. 
 
 One of the most important features of this program will be an 
 efficient "follow-up" system, to check up the hypotheses and 
 conclusions of the laboratory psychologists and physicians by an 
 actual observation of the released cases. 
 
 VI 
 
 ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON 
 JAILS, LOCKUPS AND POLICE STATIONS 
 
 By William T. Cross 
 
 Of Chicago, Chairman, American Prison Association, 1915 
 
 The following table is derived from statistics given in Bulletin 
 121 of the United States Census: 
 
 
 In Institutions 
 January i, 1910 
 
 Committed during 
 1910 
 
 ' 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 State prisons, penitentiaries and 
 
 reformatories 
 County jails, workhouses and chain 
 
 gangs 
 Municipal jails and workhouses 
 Institutions for juvenile delinquents 
 
 67,871 
 
 35,008 
 
 8,619 
 
 24,974 
 
 49-7 
 
 25-7 
 
 6.3 
 
 18.3 
 
 27,732 
 
 275,658 
 
 176,397 
 
 14,147 
 
 5.6 
 
 55-8 
 
 35-7 
 
 2.9 
 
 Total 
 
 136,472 
 
 1 00.0 
 
 493.934 
 
 1 00.0 
 
 Editor's Note: The foregoing table does not include prisoners awaiting 
 trial, witnesses, insane persons, or children.
 
 41 
 
 Statistics, such as the Federal census has been able to gather, 
 including the general classification of offenses, show fairly well the 
 magnitude of crime, but only in a limited way can they be ex- 
 pected to portray the quality of such problems as those under the 
 consideration of the committee. For the latter purpose a much 
 safer guide is the experience of any state in which the subject has 
 had considerable attention. This is natural, for the treatment of 
 crime is chiefly a state function. 
 
 But the essential character of the problem appears only with a 
 knowledge of the individual cases involved. 
 
 Our chief regret in the preparation of this report is that there 
 is not sufficient space for copious illustration with case descrip- 
 tions, as it is our conviction that all reforms in this field must be 
 based on a more systematic and intelligent effort to understand 
 the peculiar condition and needs of the individual delinquent. 
 
 The local jail has long represented the entire process of treat- 
 ment of the misdemeanant. Incidental to the main thesis of this 
 paper, however, it is intended to demonstrate that (i) the old- 
 fashioned jail is unsuccessful as a means of reformation of the 
 petty criminal, and (2) the making over of this institution is only 
 part of a larger scheme of treatment whereby we may hope to 
 reduce the burden of crime. It would be manifestly illogical at 
 this stage, when the more comprehensive plan has not been 
 brought home with sufficient emphasis to the consciousness of 
 those who are dealing with the problem, to devote our attention 
 exclusively to the administration of jails, narrowly conceived as a 
 problem of prison science. The functions and duties of jailers 
 should, to be sure, be limited sufficiently for purposes of practical 
 administration. The natural limitations of official action in any 
 department of government must not be lost sight of. But if the 
 historic jail is in a state of evolution, we can neither give much 
 encouragement to the well-intentioned jailer who has long wanted 
 to see better results from his efforts, nor hope to halt the process 
 of training criminals for the future unless there is a better under- 
 standing of the entire new system toward which we are tending. 
 
 To demonstrate and record the important change that is be- 
 lieved to be taking place in the aspect of the local jail question is 
 the main object of this report. From the literature of the subject, 
 from conversation and correspondence with representative offi-
 
 42 
 
 cials concerned with jail administration, and from personal expe- 
 rience and observation, we are convinced that the principles and 
 practical issues involved in handling this subject twenty-five years 
 ago and now are widely different. Under two such different 
 regimes an identical procedure should not be expected. Many 
 authorities dealing with the jail question today are confessedly 
 discouraged. Yet why should they be if there is a sign of hope on 
 the horizon? It would be a matter of chagrin to us to discover 
 that we are postponing the ideal day by too long consorting with 
 outworn principles, that we are lingering in sight of the " promised 
 land." 
 
 The literature of this local jail question holds in store for the 
 student of social reform a disappointing experience. The matter 
 has not been under discussion so long without our learning many 
 facts and principles. Nevertheless, President Byers truly summed 
 up the situation in his address before this Association in 1898, 
 when he said: " If we are to judge from what has been said and 
 written in the past ten or twenty years regarding the county jails 
 of our country, we are today little, if any, in advance of our 
 model of more than a century ago." Mr. Byers came to the con- 
 clusion that what progress has been made ha^ been along mate- 
 rial lines. The late Dr. Fred. H. Wines, in his masterful address at 
 the Boston meeting of the National Conference of Charities and 
 Correction on "The Abolition of the County Jail," said: "Of all 
 the reforms included under the general title of prison reform in 
 the United States, none is so urgent as the overthrow of our exist- 
 ing system of dealing with misdemeanants. Three-fourths of 
 those in custody are in fact held in institutions, the practical effect 
 of which is to train an unascertained percentage of their inmates 
 for the penitentiary." But, notwithstanding such scathing ar- 
 raignments, this subject has not had the continuing intelligent 
 attention which it deserves. Perhaps a partial explanation can be 
 found in the fact, for example, that in Dr. Wines' splendid review 
 in 1890 of "Twenty Years' Growth of the American Prison Sys- 
 tem," the jail question is scarcely more than mentioned. Only 
 recently have authorities in a few states begun to demonstrate 
 that the work of jails is part of a complete system by which the 
 state undertakes to combat crime. A committee on this subject 
 in tliis Associatifjn has been continuous only since 191 1, and it is 
 still (ailed "spcci.'il."
 
 43 
 
 The appeal of Dr. Hastings H. Hart at the 1907 meeting may 
 well be recalled: "I candidly believe that we have reached a 
 point in the development of prison reform when the National 
 Prison Association ought to address itself systematically and 
 faithfully, for a series of years, to the reformation of the county 
 jail system." 
 
 In contrast with the standstill we have reached with the jail 
 question, recall the progress we have made in the solution of other 
 social problems. The sister institution of the jail, the county 
 almshouse, has been, in many states, fairly well reclaimed from 
 its early deplorable catch-all character. Children have been re- 
 moved by legal prohibition, the insane have been taken for spe- 
 cialized care to state institutions, the number of feeble-minded in 
 almshouses, as shown by the last two census reports, was reduced 
 in six years by almost 50 per cent. Within a very few years we 
 have made great headway in the solution of the problem of com- 
 munity recreation. Remarkable improvements have been made 
 in the last two decades in the administration of voluntary charity. 
 Organized effort has, within ten years, been amazingly effective 
 in the reduction of the child labor evil. While in some instances 
 needed reforms have come about too slowly, perhaps no other 
 problem can be named for which methods of partial solution have 
 been so long and so well known, with which we have made so 
 little progress as in the treatment of minor offenders. 
 
 It would be an unfair representation of developments in this 
 field to make a clear distinction between ideals of the present and 
 of the past. Nevertheless, a somewhat arbitrary division is nec- 
 essary in order properly to portray the trend of present-day 
 thought and action. Thus, in a general way, it may be said that, 
 for the most part, the following principles and ideals have been 
 developed and emphasized in respect to local jails up to the last 
 five or ten years: 
 
 I. Security 
 This was the primary principle in the development of jails in 
 the early days. It explains the massive, medieval structures 
 everywhere to be seen, so impossible to administer according to 
 modern standards, and so difficult to modify.
 
 44 
 
 2. Cleanliness 
 This has been an important consideration since the days of 
 jail fever. It is to be secured chiefly through the adoption of 
 sanitary devices and through persevering administration. 
 
 3. Food 
 
 While the opportunity of improvement of the criminal through 
 the adoption of better dietary standards has received scarcely any 
 attention, a comparatively negative aspect of the food question — 
 the method of furnishing meals to prisoners — has made it one of 
 the chief issues in jail reform. A member of this committee 
 writes: "The per diem system of dieting is the curse of the jail." 
 In a few states, after hard struggles, laws have been passed re- 
 quiring that food be furnished prisoners on the basis of competi- 
 tive bids. 
 
 4. Moral Supervision 
 
 From the earliest days this has consisted mainly of the conduct 
 of religious exercises by persons who have little contact with or 
 conception of the jail problem, frequently under the eyes of an 
 indulgent but skeptical jailer. An effective scheme of practical 
 moral supervision has yet to be invented. 
 
 5. Classification of Prisoners 
 This principle, first emphasized for the sake of the most ele- 
 mentary requirements of decency, has had great attention in the 
 last twenty years. It is possibly the most fruitful one of the entire 
 list, for, logically carried out, it will mean the complete individ- 
 ualization of treatment on the basis of the offender's mental 
 make-up and social condition. But classification is shamefully 
 neglected in a great majority of jails. An indication of the possi- 
 bilities of the principle is to be seen in the effects of establishing 
 the star-class system (for first offenders) in the English local 
 prisons. It is reported that during the first twelve years of its 
 operation only 9.1 per cent, males and 14.2 per cent, females, 
 first offenders, were recommitted. 
 
 6. AnoLiTioN OF the Fee System 
 It has been known for many years that the political connections 
 of sheriffs are a constant obstacle to reform measures and that the
 
 45 
 
 evil is intensified by the fact that the sheriff's office is generally 
 supported on the basis of fees. The movement, fast gaining 
 strength, for putting the sheriff's office on a salary basis, is an 
 important part of the program of jail reform. With this ideal is 
 usually combined that of better selection of and more permanent 
 tenure for jailers. 
 
 7. State Inspection 
 The period under review includes the establishment of the 
 principle of inspection of local jails under state authority, with 
 power to enforce the abandonment of jails below a certain stan- 
 dard. New York, Indiana, and Alabama afford good examples in 
 this respect. . . . 
 
 8. Standardized Jail Rules 
 In some states it has been attempted to supersede prisoners' 
 moot-court rules and the personal inclinations of sheriffs in the 
 management of jails with standardized rules promulgated by 
 state authority. . . . 
 
 9. Standardized Specifications for Construction and 
 
 Repairs 
 Such standard specifications have been adopted in a few states 
 where supervision is furthest advanced, in connection with the 
 approval of plans made by local authorities. 
 
 The foregoing are principles that have been evolved in handling 
 the jail question, rather than ideals. Until quite recently we 
 have had no conscious policy in the treatment of the misdemean- 
 ant. . . . Scarcely any of those services which the state ought 
 to render in the effort to turn the novice in crime into paths of 
 righteousness does the old-time jail system perform, and many 
 conditions directly subversive of character are perpetuated. To 
 quote Dr. Wines: ". . . the best jail that was ever built, al- 
 though the physical treatment accorded to its unfortunate in- 
 mates may be perfectly humane and just, fails to subserve any of 
 the ends of a prison except that of confinement." 
 
 In the last decade there have come into prominence, under 
 widely varied leadership, a series of measures and principles which 
 are completely changing the nature of this issue. . . . For the
 
 46 
 
 most part they represent ideals of a new period. The newer sys- 
 tem includes: 
 
 /. Methods Involving a Change in the Plan of Incarceration. — 
 (a) State penal farms. . . . The plan has developed out of 
 successful experiments in outdoor work for convicts, and in the 
 removal of municipal houses of correction to the country. . . . 
 {h) Payments to prisoners in the nature of wages. . . . Pay- 
 ments to convicts are optional with prison authorities in a number 
 of states, and the way seems clear for the adoption of the prin- 
 ciples with respect to the misdemeanant class. . . . (c) Re- 
 vision of sentences. The principle of systematic revision of sen- 
 tences on the basis of more complete knowledge of the criminal 
 and his action subsequent to his conviction has been established 
 through the success of the indeterminate sentence acts. . . . 
 (e) Educational work and mental examination. . . . Both 
 school work and classification within the institution should be 
 based on thorough mental examination of the prisoner. . . , 
 
 II. Methods Involving Supervision Under Conditional Libera- 
 tion. — (a) Adult probation . . . ; {b) Parole . . . ; (c) 
 Out-work for local prisoners. , . . (There is an earlier in- 
 stance of the adoption of the same principle without legal authori- 
 zation at Montpelier, Vermont.) . . . {d) Employment of 
 prisoners without guard, an aspect of the so-called honor system 
 . . . ; (e) Restitution . . . ; (/) Change in system for com- 
 mitment for fines; . . . 
 
 III. Rehabilitation of the Offender. — (a) Special treatment for 
 special classes. ... In most communities it is still common 
 to find the jail the chief means of handling inebriates, vagrants, 
 cases of wife desertion and non-support, prostitutes, and even the 
 feeble-minded. {b) Cooperation with community agencies; 
 . . . (c) Case work. One of the greatest contributions made to 
 the science of social betterment is the method of case work devel- 
 oped in the charity organization societies . . . whether as 
 leader or cooperator, the penal institution ought definitely to take 
 part in this process. 
 
 IV. Improvement in the Process Preliminary to Conviction. — 
 (a) Psychopathic study. Recent studies of the feeble-minded 
 delinquent, the establishment of bureaus of psychopathic re- 
 search in connection with courts and penal institutions, with 
 such results as the production of Ur. William Healy's epoch-
 
 47 
 
 making work, The Individual Delinquent, may be regarded as 
 heralds of the ultimate establishment of psychopathic study as a 
 basis of judgment and treatment of criminals, {b) Reforms in 
 legal procedure and police administration ... as exemplified 
 partially in the Chicago Municipal Court. . . . 
 
 v. Supervision. — (a) State supervision and control. . . . 
 A permanent policy of this kind would facilitate in many ways 
 the adoption and operation of principles enumerated in this re- 
 port, would establish confidence and respect on the part of the 
 people in the efTectiveness of penal administration and increase 
 the respect of would-be criminals for the law, and probably would 
 result in huge financial saving, {h) Statistics. The meagerness 
 and useless quality of statistics of misdemeanants in America 
 is notorious. 
 
 The system which has been suggested should be taken as a 
 whole, for there is not time to describe adequately all the ways in 
 which our treatment of the petty ofTender is being made over. 
 The principle of punishment is not eliminated from the new sys- 
 tem, but rather is it made more effective. . . . The local 
 jail is left virtually a place of detention only, and that elusive 
 ideal of our penology, separate confinement for the unconvicted 
 prisoner, is brought a step nearer. 
 
 It may be asked. Is not the new system more attractive to the 
 petty criminal? To this the reply may be given that efifective 
 measures — relentless follow-up work — is most objectionable to 
 him. The present haphazard arrangement" comes much nearer 
 being his ideal. 
 
 The secretary of the Pennsylvania Prison Society calculates 
 that the present net cost of about $1,000,000 yearly for the main- 
 tenance of county jails in that state could be reduced one-half 
 through the establishment of state farms. . . . 
 
 Many questions of policy relating to local jails are yet to be 
 worked out; differences in the requirements of the various types 
 of institutions included in the title of this committee, the estab- 
 lishment of standards of administration for lockups and police 
 stations, perhaps an adjustment of the state farm idea to the re- 
 quirements of large urban populations, and so forth. . . .
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 UBBLARY
 
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