4. It should be tolerably elevated, so that the fresh air will sweep through it unobstructed.

5. The jail itself should be so constructed that it can be readily supplied with an abundance of pure water.

6. It should not be too far removed from the court-house, as this would increase the chances of escape in going to and coming from court at the time of trial.

7. It should not be too far removed from the compact part of the town or village where it is situated, so that help, in case of rebellion or fire, may be promptly obtained. For the same reason, it should not be in the quarters of the worst part of the population, as they would be likely to aid the prisoners from sympathy with them. The respectable portion of the population will not object to the proximity of the jail, if it has a handsome exterior; and this is a good reason for some architectural embellishment of jails.

8. It should, if possible, stand north and south, so that the sunlight can enter the windows all day, on one side or the other. The part occupied by the jailor should face the north, and the end occupied by the prisoners should have the benefit of the southern

exposure.

When the site is properly selected, the next thing is to determine that arrangement of the interior, which shall best subserve the purposes for which the building is to be erected.

The annexed diagrams are given in illustration.

The scale upon which these diagrams are constructed is 48 feet to the inch, and the size of each particular part can be easily obtained by the application of a graduated rule.

The jailor's apartments are placed in front, and may be two or three stories high, as the exigencies of the case shall require. The first story is 30 by 48 feet. The principal room H, for the jailor's family, is 18 by 21 feet. The smaller room H is 18 feet square. The jailor's room F is 12 by 18 feet. In this room the arms, keys, handcuffs, shackles and chains may be kept in a safe, and also the prison library, besides the jailor's desk, with the books and papers. These rooms, including those in the second story for bed-rooms, and those in the basement for a dining-room F, a store-room G, and a bathing-room H, will be a sufficient provision for the comfort of the jailor and his family. The guard-room A, in the first story, is 25 by 48 feet, octagonal in form, having two long sides and six shorter ones.

It will be observed that the guard-room commands both sides of the jail, and would enable a small armed force to keep a large attacking force on the outside at bay, and at the same time it would command every cell door, window, and area or corridor. A sink for washing may be placed beneath the stairs to the galleries on one side, and a dumb waiter communicating with the kitchen A in the basement on the other.

One turnkey or more, according to the number of prisoners, should always be on duty in the guard room in the day time; and when the number of prisoners is large, one should be on duty in the same position at night also. When the number of prisoners is small, he may sleep in the room G, which is 10 by 12 feet, where he can see all that goes on in the guard-room and one corridor, at any moment, as he lies in bed, and hear the slightest sound in guard-room or corridors.

The jail proper is 48 by 69 feet, including the privilege rooms D D, or 48 by 60 feet, excluding them. This gives twelve small and six large cells, the former being 5 by 9 feet, and the latter 9 by 10 feet. The smaller cells are intended for persons who are committed but for a few days, or for those who may be permitted to associate together

in the day time without danger of mutual contamination, under the constant supervision of the officer on duty. The larger cells are intended for the solitary confinement of prisoners under sentence, and for such of the accused as would be likely to contaminate others.

The privilege cells, 9 by 18 feet, which are light, airy and comfortable, are intended for witnesses, debtors, and such other prisoners as may have earned the privilege by good conduct.

The prisoners in solitary confinement will be supplied with water and conveniences for washing and drinking in their cells, while those having access to the area will wash in the sink, to be provided between the windows, in the end of the octagonal room.

Defecation will be effected in covered night-buckets, supplied with dry clay, which effectually absorbs all odors that would otherwise arise from them.

The corridors B, B, are ten feet wide; the galleries, E, E, are three feet wide, and should be furnished with strong guards, four feet high, to protect the jailor against a sudden thrust by a prisoner inside the area below.

The stairs, seen at the end of the cells, should be constructed without risers, which would conceal a prisoner from the jailor, approaching from behind. "Avoid all hiding places," is a cardinal maxim in jail building. "Use no wood where iron or stone can be substituted for it," is another maxim of equal importance.

The greatest point of all, in jail construction, is to have the prison so arranged that a constant oversight of the prisoners can be kept up by the jailor, without the knowledge of the former. The passage, P, affords the most perfect means for the accomplishment of this object. A narrow slit, about one-sixteenth of an inch wide, is cut in the rear wall of the cell, which is beveled upward, downward and laterally, so that a person in the passage can see what a prisoner is doing in his cell at any moment, without his knowing that he is under inspection. Very little mischief can be done where this

mode of examination or oversight is provided. The cells and other arrangements of the basement will be readily understood by an inspection of the diagrams and references. The basement cells are intended for the most dangerous prisoners, and are consequently made the strongest. Stout iron rings should be inserted firmly in the walls of two or three cells, in order that chains may be attached to them if necessary.

The two cells next the guard room, may be used for punishment cells. For this purpose, a wooden door may be hung outside the grated one, which, when closed, makes the cells perfectly dark. When confined in such a cell, on bread and water, the most stubborn prisoners usually yield. The punishment cells should be provided with fans on the outside of the guard room, which can be worked from time to time, by the turnkey, so that an abundant supply of pure air may be furnished to the prisoner under confine

ment.

The room, H, in the basement, may be used as a bath room by the prisoners.

Jails should be heated by steam radiators, and, when practicable, lighted with gas. Fires accessible to the prisoners, and movable lights, are always dangerous. The cells should be furnished with swinging iron bedsteads, and the hinges should be so firmly anchored in the partition walls between the cells, that they cannot be drawn out without pulling down the wall. The bedstead should be made very firm, and be strongly riveted, so that the prisoner cannot pull it apart. Many escapes and assaults on jailors have been made by weapons formed from ill-riveted bedsteads.

Three windows, each seven feet wide, extending from the floor of the cells to the top of the jail block, are introduced into the walls on each side of the building.

The basement is not therefore directly lighted, but receives the light slantwise from the windows, the bottoms of which are on a level with the top of the basement cells. The prisoners in the narrow cells receive light only through the grated doors of their cells. Those in the larger cells receive light and air, not only through the grated door, but through a window, three by four feet, as shown in the plan. The basement is intended to be wholly above ground; but no cellar beneath is recommended.

One of the large cells may be fitted with an acoustic apparatus, consisting of a dome in the top of the cell, so curved as to reflect all sounds into its axis. From this a pipe is carried into the passage, P, where an officer can distinctly hear every word uttered, even in a whisper, by prisoners. In this way many secrets may be revealed which will be found of the utmost importance in the administration of criminal justice.

It is hardly necessary to say that much of the security of any jail depends upon the structure and reliableness of the locks. There are two different locks now being manufactured, either of which may be relied upon with confidence, unless we are very much mistaken in our judgment. One of them was invented by L. M. Ham, of Boston, Mass.; the other, by Chas. E. Felton, superintendent of the penitentiary at Buffalo, N. Y.

It is obvious that the plan of a jail, herewith presented, is capable of indefinite extension. With a basement and first story as in the plan, 34 prisoners may be accommodated; by adding a third tier, 48; and by the addition of a fourth tier, 66 can be separately confined; and by doubling the length of the present plan, 132 can be accommodated, besides those who are confined in the privilege cells.

The number of females committed to prison, varies so much in different localities, that it is impossible to lay down any rigid rules for their confinement. In many places, the privilege rooms will be sufficient for their accommodation. Where they are more numerous, one side of the prison must be set apart for their reception. This should always be in the upper tier of cells, and this tier should be separated by a light double floor from the rest of the prison. About three-quarters of an inch of mortar should be spread between the floorings. Some women are so noisy and violent that they might be heard by the male prisoners. This is always to be avoided, and to meet the case, three or four of the cells should be built with double walls about three-quarters of an inch apart, and the intervening spaces filled with perfectly dried sand. There should be double wooden doors on the outside similarly filled with sand. This will effectually deaden the sound, and prevent any communication whatever between the sexes.

In all jails in which any considerable number of women are combined, there should be a matron in charge of them, who might occupy one of the privilege rooms.

When window gratings are made of tough malleable iron, they cannot be broken, but they can be readily sawed; when protected by chilled iron, they cannot be sawed, but may be broken by a smart blow. The most perfect protection is afforded by two gratings, one of soft iron on the outside, and one of chilled iron on the inside. The gratings should be firmly anchored in the stone work, but should not be made to fit so tightly that no room is left for expansion during the summer heats.

It should never be forgotten that ample provision must be made for ventilation. Steam heating will be the chief and most reliable agent for effecting it at all times, but the mode of its application will be so varied by circumstances, that it must be left to the advice of a competent architect in each particular case. One rule, however, should accessible to the prisoner.

be invariably observed, viz: the ventilator must never be The bottoms of the windows should be made sloping, so that everything laid upon them will slide off by its gravity; otherwise, they will furnish hiding places.

The room over the guard room, A, may be used as a hospital or chapel, or if the number of prisoners is not large, the space may be divided into two rooms, one of which may serve for each of the above named purposes.

We would have prisons of every class substantial and tasteful structures, but to prisons of a highly ornate and costly construction, we are strongly opposed, and that on the following grounds:

1. Such buildings add not a little to the cost of crime, a burden already quite as heavy as the public find it convenient to bear.

2. The chief points to be aimed at in prison construction, are security, facilities for industrial labor, adaptation to reformatory aims, ease of supervision, and a rigid economy. Costly materials and high architectural adornments are not essential to any of these ends, and are directly subversive of the last.

3. Any prison with a stately and imposing exterior has a mischievous tendency to give importance to criminals and dignity to crime. We therefore trust that, as a people, we shall speedily rid ourselves of that strange vanity which leads us to make a parade of moral deformity.

4. The science of prison discipline is yet in its infancy. Able minds in Europe and America, are turned, with earnestness and vigor, to the study of this problem. New principles or new applications of old ones are continually evolved. One improvement suggests another, and it is not in the power of the most far-seeing sagacity, to forecast the results of such ceaseless and energetic efforts. One thing, however, is certain— public opinion is gradually changed by them, and society comes at length to look with disfavor upon prisons which are incapable of admitting the improvements suggested by experience. Whenever such an era arrives, if it ever does, among us, the old prisons will not meet the new ideas, and will have to be abandoned, or essentially modified. It is therefore highly important that prisons should be built upon the least expensive plan consistent with their fundamental objects and the demands of good taste; otherwise, they become obstacles to improvement-obstacles difficult to be overcome in proportion to the amount of money expended on their construction.

The plan for county jails, recommended by the committee, is constructed in accordance with the existing theory of these institutions, which makes them receptacles for two entirely different classes of prisoners, viz: persons arrested and held for examination or trial on a charge of crime, and persons convicted and sentenced for minor offences. At the same time, we must be permitted our emphatic protest against the theory itself. There ought to be, in our judgment, a complete separation of the accused and the convicted, and to this end there should be provided entirely distinct buildings for their reception and treatment. Even the ancient Roman law distinguished between the "carcer," the house of deposit or detention, where the accused were simply guarded (custoditi), to secure their appearance before the court, where they were to be tried, and the "vincula publica," the prison in which the sentenced underwent their punishment. The law added this reason for the distinction: Carcer enim, ad continendos homines, non ad puniendos, haberi debet.” (The jail should be regarded as a place for detaining men, not for punishing them.) The old French law made the same distinction: "For the sentenced, the prison; for the accused, the jail," (la chartre) and this distinction is recognized by the French law of to-day, as the following extract will show:

"There is near each district tribunal, a house of arrest to confine those who shall be sent there by the police officers, and a house of justice, to confine those against whom a writ shall have been issued, and that independently of the prisons, which are established

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for punishment. * The houses of arrest and of justice shall be entirely distinct from the prisons." The law further ordains that these houses of detention shall be kept clean; that the keepers shall be men of good character and morals; that the food of the detenus (the detained), shall be abundant and wholesome, and that they shall be treated with kindness and humanity. These principles are rational and just; they are as consonant to reason as they are to humanity; and the committee are unanimous and decided in the opinion that our common jails should, conformably thereto, be made simply houses of detention, in which the accused (who are often innocent, and always presumed to be), should enjoy all the moral and material comforts accessible to the generality of men. With the sole exception of the deprivation of liberty, nothing in these places of detention ought to take on the afflictive austerity of the prison. No doubt every citizen, when the public weal requires it, is bound to pay the painful tribute of a forced detention, till his innocence is established, but justice demands a detention which separates him from all impure contact. To meet this demand requires that we advance one step further; that is, that we keep the accused from one another by means of cellular separation, the only proper and rational mode of detention for this class of prisoners. To refuse to the accused such a shield against contamination, is at once a denial of his right, and an abuse of power. It is to impose on him a punishment which may have the gravest consequences, both for himself and society, and which, therefore, no plea can either justify

or excuse.

SUGGESTIONS TO SHERIFFS AND JAILORS ON THE MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMY OF COMMON JAILS.

I. On receiving a new prisoner into the jail, the first duty of the keeper, or at any rate, his wisest course, is to have a free conversation with him; to state to him distinctly the rules of the institution, which should be few, simple, clear, and above all, reasonable; to convince him, if possible, that he is a friend, who has his best good at heart; and to assure him kindly but firmly that, at the same time, and indeed, for that very reason, he must insist upon implicit obedience to the regulations of the place.

II. If there were a bath in the jail, the next thing would be to put the prisoner into it, and give his whole person a thorough cleansing; but as no jail in the state has that convenience, the next best thing to be done, is to take him, as some jailors always do, to the barn, or some other private place, and give him a good wash by the help of a bucket or tub.

III. It ought not to be left optional with prisoners, as is the case in many jails, but should be positively required of them, to wash their hands and face daily, and oftener, if necessary, and the whole person with a bucket as often as once a fortnight, or better still, once a week.

IV. An abundant supply of water should be provided, not only for drinking, but for purposes of ablution, as well; and not only soap, but coarse towels and combs, should be furnished for the use of the prisoners.

V. The bed-clothes of the jail and the under-clothes of the prisoners ought to be washed often enough to keep them clean; and this should never be left to be done by them, especially in cold water and without soap.

VI. Prisoners ought not to be allowed to litter up the jail, but should be encouraged and required to keep every part of it neat and tidy; spittoons should be provided, in which they should be required to void their saliva, and particularly, tobacco juice.

VII. Games of cards should be prohibited, and the rule of prohibition rigidly enforced.