The Board Of Charities And The Washtenaw County Jail

To the Citizens of Washtenaw County : Last Thursday, in accordance with my iluty as a member of the State Board of Corrections and Charities, I visited your jail and poor-house. The Ann Arbor jail has had a reputation for some years,at least with the Board with which I am connected, for being one of the worst in the State. Pontiac and Jackson are its rivals. Shortly prior to my visit the Ann Arbor jail had been whitewashed and somewhat cleaned, so that I imagine I saw it at its best. When this jail was built Ann Arbor was a small f routier town, Washtenaw county was comparatively a wilderness, and such a juil was probably considered ampie for the purpose for which it was constructed, Novv Ann Arbor has grown to be a beautiful city; the State has made it a metropolis of Wrning, the Athens of the west, where are gathered more than a hundred professors and two thousand students. The University and the Normal School at Ypsilanti, with their wonderful prosperity, have not only brouglit wealth and population, but they havr imposed extra duties and increased responsibilities upon the inhabitants of the county in which they are situated. Students are but human and occasionally need correction, and I have sotnetimes feared that a professor or a regent would be bencütted by a personal appl teation of the luw. The science ot government is one of the branches taught in both institutions; cleanliness is urged to be next to godliness, and industry an absolute necessity for the well-being of man and society. The State is justly proud of both University and Normal ; they are frequently shown to foreigners as samples and exánimes of rapul growth and progress undera free and republican government. Butsupose the visitor be interested in our social development and ehould desire to examine our correctional as well as our educational institutions; how humiliating to conduct him to a juli such as yours! Of all counties in the State, Washtenaw should not set up a rival school where indolence and filtliy habits are enforced, and all descriptions of crime are iuculcated and encouraged. Your jail is such a school. It is filthy in the extreme, though, I am told, it is in etter condition than it wad a month since. Their cells are without the least partiële of ventilation, except the air which comes from the corridor through the grated door. A short stay inside a closed cell will convince the dullest smeller that for n series of ears human Üons aud exUulutlons have been stoned up with in ït from which lie s drawing at every breath. There are no facilities for batliing, and none for washing clothing. " He that is filthy let him bc filthy stlll." No sheets are furnished, as the supervisors, I was informed, woultl pay for no such luxuries, and even a small bill for fresh straw was objected to by them last year. I saw blankets and bed-ticks so filthy that few farmers in your county could be persuaded, I imagine, to cover their horses with them. Rats and vermin of every description infect the prisoners coutiuiially. The jail is of brick, lined with plank, the cellsre oí wood, faced with boiler iron. In the crack and crannies these little enemies of decency nest and congrégate, and I should judge it impossible to dislodge them except by fire. The privies are in horrible conditioii. Their foul odors must disseminate disease not only among the prisoners bilt throughout the neighborhood. No law authoiizes a community to iuflict death by slow poison, or infect prisoners with the.foul diseases which spring from inhaling excremental fumes. Whether lawful or not it is neither humane noreconomical. By this condition of things prisoners are not only accustomed to fllthiness and lilthy habite, but they are forced into that condition of life which it is the chief interest of society that they should be as far removed from as posslble. There is no provisión for any healthy exerclses. The only opportunity for occupation, for the male prisoners, which I discovered, was a greasy pack of cards. A yard in which the prisoners could saw wood, break stone, or do any kind of lahor, would be a blessing; and until the legislature shall more fully provlde workhouse facilities for prisoners, a city ordinance enforcing hard labor on vagrants and tramps would be a sovereign remedy for the disease which besets them. Probably a sheriff with a fair.amount of executive ability and application, even without any special law to enforce labor, might utilize the few privileges at his disposal so as to obtain considerable work from prisoners,if he had a safe place to employ them and soinething for them to do. If It be true that Satan always flnds work for idle hands to do, to enforce idleness is to assist the devil. It was told that as many as forty or fifty prisoners are sometimes confined in this jail at once. There were only a dozen at the time of my visit. I touiid two boys, Henry Delanoand John Cristie, conflned in direct contraventiou of the statule, oot. o, oi Act 260, laws 1881, in the same ward with the men. If among those coniined with them there should chance to be a professor of burglary or three-card monte, or a " shover of the queer," these boys would be ready to gradúate in one of these professions and set up In business for themselves by the lime they are released. The majorit3' f prisoners were awaiting trial. The law presumes a man innocent until proven guilty, and before conviction the least punishment consistent with securing attendance for trial should be inflicted. In your jail suspects are treated far worse than convicted felons in any prison of my acquaintance. What a terrible wrong is committed on every innocent person who is incarcerated in such a foul den. Is it well to teach that society can be more unjust and lawless than the law-breaker? Your jail is unsafe. It would not protect your citizens from an ordinarily educated burglar for a single night. Every thing about it tempts to escape, and I cannot but feel that those who are responsible for the condition of this jail are responsible for the recent killing of an ininate who atternpted to escape. Had the jail been a strong one, and a man instead of a boy been in charge of the prisoners I very much doubt whether a homicide would have been committed. To hold out in inducements to a prisoner to escape, and then shoot him for being induced, is neither creditable nor humane. The sheriff and bis family occupy the front of the building. He is elected to sufflciently onerous and hazardous duties without being subjected to extra dangers from diseases or failure to supply those facilities which are now considered necessary for handling dangerous men. Washtenaw is one of the wealthiest and most prosperous countles in the State. It has been more highly favored by the establishment of the University and Normal School than any other county by the location of public institutions. It is a curious fact that the counties most protected by State benefaction have done the least for themselves. Washtenaw has suffered no devastation by flre, flood or famine; its people have been especially prosperous, and have the reputation of being most highly cultured, liberal, and enterprising. Certainly it can aflord a respect able jail, and its public spirit ought to be equal to the deniand. In behalf of the Board of Corrections and Charities Iask all respectable citizens to investigate this matter thoroughly. It demands your earnest attention and I have no doubt that thereupon proper action will be taken to insure voting a sufficent sum for a new jail in a more desirable locality. On the same occasion, in company with, Mr. Davis, I visited your poor-housej andl am very happy to commend its management. The family in charge are kind and: attentive, the food seemed good and abandant, the room neat and clean, the farm well conducted. Detroit, July 2, 1883.