88

ANNUAL REPORT OF STATE COMMISSION OF PRISONS.

enough to accommodate the number of prisoners usually confined there.

In each cell the ventilation is good. There are three rooms in the main building that are sometimes used.

The sanitary condition is decidedly bad on account of the settling foundation. It raises in the center, while the depression should go

towards the center.

Number of prisoners...

Number indicted awaiting sentence..

Number awaiting action of grand jury.

Number under sentence to county jail..

Prisoners not employed.

SUMMARY.

Clinton county.- First-class jail.

Essex county.

14

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1

11

Very old; nothing to be said in its favor; new

jail needed.

Franklin county.- First-class; one of the best in the district.

Fulton county.- Jail ill-arranged; nothing in its favor but the walls.

Montgomery county.- Very good.

Saratoga county.- Excellent in all respects.

St. Lawrence county.- Jail is insecure; ventilation deficient; sanitary conditions bad; built thirty-five or forty years ago; not in keeping with other county buildings.

Schenectady county.- Not large enough; sanitary conditions

bad.

Warren county.- A disgrace to keep men confined in such a place; new jail should be built.

Washington county.- Bad drainage and contaminated water; otherwise very good.

Visitation and Inspection of County Jails in

the Fifth Judicial District.

PULASKI JAIL.

Oswego county is divided into two shires or jury districts, with a court-house and jail in each. One is located at Pulaski, a village of about 1,500 inhabitants, on the Salmon river, about 25 miles east of Oswego. This jail is in charge of Deputy Sheriff James H. Bean. It is of ancient construction, having been built in 1819, and consists of four rooms on the north side of the corridor, running through the first floor of the court-house, and these rooms or cells open out on that corridor. The outer walls of the building, where the cells are located, are of stone, but the other walls of the cells are of oak studded with iron bolts. Two of the rooms are in size about 91⁄2 feet by 16, with one small, square window high up in the wall. There is no ventilation except by the window and a small, diamondshaped opening in the door. The town is supplied with natural gas, and the cells are heated with gas stoves, but kerosene lamps are used for lights. For sleeping conveniences hammocks are stretched from one side of the cell to the other, there being from one to four, according to the number of the prisoners.

One of the other rooms is 13 feet by 16 feet in size, and has in it an improved steel cell, the room outside of the cell forming a corridor around it. This cell is used for the more dangerous prisoners. The room has one outside window, like the others, and two windows into the court-house corridor. Its system of ventilation, heating

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and lighting is the same as the others. The remaining room is used for female prisoners or debtors, and has a larger window and a cot with mattress. The ventilation and heating of it is the same as the others. There is a flush closet and running water in each room. It is very evident that these rooms or cells in the court-house are not a proper jail. The diamond-shaped holes in the door enable curious people in the corridor to look in and also to communicate with the prisoners. It is indeed a crude affair, and should be replaced by a separate, suitable jail building, where women and men and juveniles may be closely secluded, yet classified and kept apart, so that the careless young offenders may not be made to associate with old offenders who will teach them criminal ways. The rooms are needed for use in connection with the court-house proper for jury rooms, district attorney's rooms and the like. The county has sufficient vacant lands adjoining on which a jail could be built, and it is hoped the board of supervisors will proceed to do so at an early date.

The average number of prisoners is about six, and the highest number is about thirteen. When there are more than can be well accommodated, some are transferred to the Oswego jail.

The deputy sheriff in charge, Mr. Bean, keeps the cells in good order, and cares for the prisoners in a proper manner, doing as well as one can with the conveniences.

The other jail is located at Oswego, N. Y., and was inspected September 29, 1896.

The jail is built in octagonal form, of brick, at the rear of the jailer's house, which it adjoins. The lower corridor extends around the outside of the cells, and the walls of the corridor are covered with steel plates, making it very secure. The cells have grated fronts looking out upon the corridor, from which they receive

light, which is sufficiently supplied from the outside grated windows.

The cells are of a peculiar construction, being a patent rotary jail, built by the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company, of St. Louis, Mo., on the principle of a merry-go-round," operated by a crank in the jailer's office, by which the whole body of the cells are revolved around, and, as the door of each cell passes a grated vestibule, the inmates pass into their respective cells, or out of them, as the case may be. The vestibule opens out into the general corridor, which is usually occupied by the prisoners during the day. There are ten steel cells on the lower floor. In each cell is a flush closet emptying through waste pipes into a circular trough or pan around the gearing in the basement, and thence emptying through a large pipe into the sewer. In connection with each closet is running water in each cell.

In each cell are two hammock bunks, supplied with blankets for mattress and pillows, and other blankets for covering. At the date of inspection there were on this floor nine prisoners.

The second story, which is separated by a floor from the lower corridor, is the same in construction, and has the same number of cells, which turn in the rotation of the lower part, and have a similar mode of ingress and egress, similar closets and water and like discharges from them.

On the second floor, at the date of inspection, there were confined seven prisoners, all under sentence of from twenty days to three months, for public intoxication.

In the rear part of the jailer's house, on the second floor, adjoining the jail proper, are three small rooms, made into cells, for the confinement of debtors or witnesses, with closets in each, and one bath-room supplied with hot and cold water. There are also bath

tubs in each corridor, above and below, of the jail proper, with hot

and cold water.

The women's department is on the third floor and attic, under the roof, above the revolving part of the jail. In this attic are built three steel cells, the inmates having the freedom of the attic during the day. On this floor are also a closet and bath-tub, with hot and cold water. The attic is immediately under the roof, difficult of access and necessarily hot in the summer and lacking in ventilation. The entire jail is heated properly by hot-water pipes and lighted by gas, though arrangements for electric lighting are being made. The store-rooms are in the basement of the jail, where the gearing or machinery of the rotary part, and also the boilers for heating, are situated. In an adjoining basement room, under the house, but opening into the store and boiler room, is the jail kitchen, In order to allow the rotary jail to turn without friction there is a slight opening all around between it and the stone work of the corridors, through which the steam and kitchen smells pass from the basement into the upper corridors. It also permits conversation in the lower part to be heard above. The rotary part being like a huge, hollow, metal tube, noises in one part, made by drumming on the metal, disturbs the other parts, and are also difficult to locate. While the jail is a strong one, and is comparatively of recent date of construction, having been built in 1887, at an expense of over $35,000, with the view of having for the county a first-class jail, it has some defects, shown by actual use, and very likely it would not be recommended to other counties by the officials of Oswego. Some improvements can and should be made. A system. of ventilation can be devised, and therefore should be, whereby the kitchen smells and air may be taken out and not allowed to pass through the corridors of the jail. The ventilation of the cells