The County Jail

The following report of Dr. W. F. Rreakey. who was pjyloiati 10 thecountj juil for the year 1883, ve about as good a description of that institution as any one could possibly write up at this date, as is respectfully referred to the tax-payersof thecounty: The diseases mogt prevalent have been inlerniittnt, remittent, and other forma of malarial fevers, rheuniatistn, broncliilis, pneumonía, tonsilitis, diseases of the renito-urinary organs, and diarrlicea, together with some minor cases of illnees and injury. Fortunately no case of contalous disease has ocourred though thero have boen numeroug cases of diseñes more or les communie ible. Betwoen tlfty and. sisty vlsits to these were made, frequently prescriblng for und dlgpenslng medicine forseveral patiënt at eaou visit. Though perhaps all I can teil you as to the insanitary condition of the jail is we!l thati. neglected a mwL dïïSïJ&H an oppoitune occasion toetrengthen public opinión upon the need for some marked change for the better it I did noturgently cali attention to thig subject, whicli, to speak of it in no othcr light (I do not propose to consider the morul and humanitarian aspect of tUe question), is Inseparable from the question of sickne39 and medical attendance. That there is not more sickness is probablydueto the short time tliat most of the piisoners are conflaed at one commitnient and to the eflbrts of the authorities in charge to disinfect as thoroughly as practicable, and destroy geims of endemlc disease before they can becoine active. I11 the lower or mon's ward it is next to impossible to keep the air at all pure at the best, and t is soraetiraes .'o foul as to le sickening, particularly wlien it is crowded as It ofteu is, when too cool to have the wliidws open. There is no hospital facilities, not even a room to whicli a prisoner taken sick in this place can be removed or in vhicU a caseof suspected orcontiigious diseasc can be isnlated or in which youthful nffenders can be separa ted frera those hardened in crime; and it is seldom that thu woineu's ward above is available for sucli purposes. I do not wish to be understood 8 having a morbid eympathy with lawbreakers, such as would provide them better quarters ind living tlian are possessed iy the average Citizen who bas to support them in ulleness (on the contrary I would udvise fur the convioted prisoners and the "tramp" clean and wholesome but very plain and simple food) ; but I believe the lawonly contemplate3 in confinement of a prisoner security for apprarance when wnnted, or punishment for ofïeuses cominitted. The t-enience does not add expo9ure to a sickeniug atmosphere or to comuiunicable disease. Innocent, and cleanly persons may sometlmeí be so unfoitunnte as to becoufined in jail; as trequently are insane peiFOns, for security until they cun be sent to asylums. And wbether it be law it would seeem to be justice that a heulthy man conflned in n county Jail, who should become dlsabled by a pieventable disease contracted there, would have a claim for daraages. One other matter of opinión which to me seeins important I give for what it Is worth, that is f some plan could be devised whereby the great nnniber of lazy va;rants and "tramps" now resorting to the jails of the state ng a winter quarters could be made to work ten liours a day, in iny opinión it would do more to break up the vagabondish, demoralizing üves of the average young, hale, hearty, ablebodled "tramps" who contribute the largest quota to our jails In winter; and if it did nut inake them wholly self-supporting or even materially lessen the cost to honc.-t, industrious tax-payers who now support them, they would at least be forced to some healthy industry, and on getting out might prefer to work elsewheie for themselves rather than to woik in Jail for the couniy. An honest, industrious tramp looking for work would prefer to work that way for board until he could ünd employinent rather tlian be idle in the Sickening atmosphere of a crowdeil jail. Lasily, should tlns board ennsider the project of building a new jttll, I would suggest from a sanitary pnint of view, tltal provisión bo mmlc for otnï veutiltition, plenty of good water, privies and closets so di6connect'd from jail wards as lo lender lofeetlon from that soince impossible, and, in the absence of seweragt', dry-earth closets instead of vault?, a hospital room for separation and care of ordinary cases of illnefs, and another room tor the isolaüon of suspected cases of infectious disease and of such as muy be cominu nica ole. Verv resnectfullv.