List of Illustrations
| PAGE | |
| Chapel of New Sing Sing Prison. | [Frontispiece] |
| A Skyscraper Jail. | |
| A Plan for a Metropolitan Jail | [9] |
| Administration Floor Plan | [11] |
| Typical Cell Floor Plan | [13] |
| Hospital and Clinics—Floor Plan | [15] |
| The New Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York. | |
| Psychiatric Building | [17] |
| Typical Detail of Construction of All Buildings | [19] |
| Outside Cell Building—North Elevation | [20] |
| Outside Cell Building—First Floor Plan | [21] |
| Detention Building—First Floor Plan | [22] |
| Detention Building—South Elevation | [23] |
| Mess Hall and Kitchen Building—Basement | [24] |
| Mess Hall and Kitchen Building—First Floor | [25] |
| Wingdale Prison, Wingdale, New York. | |
| General View | [28] |
| Kilby Prison, Montgomery, Alabama. | |
| Front Elevation | [30] |
| General Plan | [32] |
| Administration Building—Floor Plan | [33] |
| Cell Blocks—Floor Plan | [35] |
| Laundry, Bath and Detention Building—Floor Plans | [36] |
| Connecticut State Farm for Women, Niantic, Connecticut. | |
| Perspective of Reception Building | [38] |
| Reception Building—First Floor Plan | [39] |
| Reception Building—Second Floor Plan | [40] |
| Reception Building—Basement Plan | [41] |
| Caroline Bayard Wittpenn Maternity Cottage, State Reformatory for Women, Clinton, New Jersey. | |
| South Elevation | [42] |
| Maternity Cottage—First Floor Plan | [43] |
| Maternity Cottage—Second Floor Plan | [44] |
| Proposed State Prison. | |
| Photograph | [45] |
| Proposed State Prison—Plan | [45] |
| Proposed Reformatory Plan. | [46] |
| Westchester County, New York, Penitentiary and Workhouse. | |
| General View from Approach | [47] |
| Administration Building—Entrance Side | [48] |
| Administration Building—First and Second Floor Plans | [49] |
| Typical Floor Plans of Cell Blocks | [50] |
| Elevations of Corridor and Cell | [51] |
| Ground Plans of Corridors and Cells | [51] |
| Recreation Corridor | [52] |
| Stair Hall—Administration Building | [53] |
| View of Mess Hall from Corridor | [53] |
| Cell Block Corridor | [54] |
| Typical Cell | [54] |
| Detroit House of Correction. | |
| First Floor Plan | [56] |
| Second Floor Plan | [57] |
| Third Floor Plan | [58] |
| Hawthorne School (For Delinquent Boys), Hawthorne, N. Y. | |
| Reception Cottage | [59] |
| Reception Cottage—First Floor Plan | [60] |
| Reception Cottage—Second Floor Plan | [60] |
| Thorn Hill School (for Delinquent Boys), Warrendale, Pennsylvania. | |
| One-story Cottage—Floor Plan | [61] |
| One-story Cottage. Photograph | [62] |
Introduction
Prison building has been for the most part suspended during the past seven years. State prisons have been under construction at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania; Sing Sing, New York; Statesville, near Joliet, Illinois; and Montgomery, Alabama. Westchester County, New York, has built and Detroit, Michigan, has begun a prison for short term misdemeanants. New York City and the District of Columbia have partially completed reformatories for young men. New reformatories for women have been established in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Most of them have adopted cottage plans similar to those of industrial schools for delinquent girls. All of them are in process of development. Most of them have erected from one to three new buildings and are making use of old farmhouses as temporary cottages.
Comparatively few new county jails have been built. Probably the most notable one built in the past seven years is the Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati, which is reported as a modern and model jail, located in the top of the Court House, like the jails in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Oakland, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Plans for a new county jail system at Chicago for Cook County are being worked out by a local committee which has retained Dr. George W. Kirchwey, of New York, as expert adviser.
From the newer prisons, a selection of noteworthy plans and illustrations is presented herewith. They have been selected with special reference to unusual or improved features, such as modern cell houses, clinical laboratories, improved lighting, and sanitation. The plans selected include state prisons in New York and Alabama and tentative plans for a state prison and a state reformatory; plans for single buildings at two reformatories for women; plans for cottages at two reformatories for boys, and tentative plans for a metropolitan jail designed by the writer with special reference to the needs of Chicago.
It was desired to include the plans of the projected prisons of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, but it was found impracticable. Elaborate plans were made and published some years ago for a new Ohio Penitentiary, but building has not commenced and it is understood that the plans will be abandoned or greatly modified. The new state penitentiary at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, which is to supersede both the Eastern and Western Penitentiaries and to provide for 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners on a farm of over 5,000 acres, was begun ten years ago; but its development was hindered by the war, and thus far temporary provision has been made for about 500 prisoners. Construction is now proceeding rapidly. The ultimate plans are still in process of development.
The state of Illinois is erecting a great penitentiary, designed by Zimmerman, Saxe and Zimmerman, Architects, about six miles from the old prison site. It is intended to accommodate about 2,000 prisoners. Two cell buildings have been erected, each containing 248 cells. The cells are 6½ feet wide, 10 feet 8 inches long and 8 feet high, and are intended to house but one prisoner.
The cell houses are circular, resembling a gas tank with a conical roof. They are a practical execution of the “Panopticon” proposed by Jeremy Bentham in the year 1787, a plan of which will be found in Punishment and Reformation, by Dr. Frederick Howard Wines, page 144. The interior wall of each cell is of glass and a central tower enables the guard to keep every prisoner under observation every moment, day and night. Each cell is well lighted by an exterior window. An elaborate system of ventilation was installed, but on a recent visit the writer discovered that the cell houses ventilate themselves through the outer windows and the skylight, and the fans were not in use. It is doubtful whether a system of perpetual espionage will find favor with prison administrators, but the experiment is an interesting one.
Special efforts were made to obtain the plans of the new Illinois Penitentiary for this publication, but were unsuccessful.
Hastings H. Hart
A Skyscraper Jail
Proposed Design for a Metropolitan Jail
(A Possible Solution of the Cook County Jail Problem in Chicago)
By Hastings H. Hart, LL.D.
President of the American Prison Association
A SKYSCRAPER JAIL
Plan for a Metropolitan Jail Conceived by Hastings H. Hart, President American Prison Association
Designed by Francis Y. Joannes and Maxwell Hyde, Architects
The lower floor represents the Criminal Court Building, which may have any number of stories
County jails are schools of crime, according to prison officials and jail inspectors. They are so constructed and conducted that the prisoners generally come out far worse than they went in.
No metropolitan city of the United States has yet succeeded in constructing a satisfactory jail for the detention of prisoners awaiting trial. The New York City “Tombs” is a gloomy pile, properly described by its name. The ancient Charles Street Jail of Boston has recently been reconstructed at a very large expense, but does not meet the needs of the present day.
The county jail ought to be the most reformatory institution in the land. It receives offenders at the beginning of their careers, before they have become hardened and confirmed criminals. More can be accomplished for the reformation of a young criminal in the first week of his imprisonment than by six months’ confinement in a state prison after he has become a confirmed law-breaker. This was demonstrated by John L. Whitman when he was jailer in the Cook County Jail, where, notwithstanding the most unfavorable conditions, he did wonders for the reclamation of wayward boys and young men.
The utter inadequacy of the Cook County Jail has long been realized by thoughtful people. The Chicago Community Trust, by request of the Board of County Commissioners, has made a Cook County Jail Survey and has organized a committee of representative Chicago citizens for the purpose of abolishing the old Cook County Jail and removing the scandal which has disgraced Cook County for more than fifty years.
An Official Report
In 1919, after the State Board of Public Charities had labored fifty years to reform the county jails, the State Department of Public Welfare made a study of the county jails of Illinois. This report contained the following statement:
“Illinois has 20 county jails which maybe classified as good; 19 as fair; 41 as very poor or bad; 21 as unfit for use. Except for the high standard of cleanliness of the women’s department, it is difficult to find any good points about the Cook County Jail.... It is recognized as an insanitary, dark, overcrowded institution that is a disgrace to Cook County.... They [the prisoners] are locked in their cells from 11.30 in the morning to 3.30 in the afternoon. There are two or three men in each small cell (six by nine feet and eight feet high). It is impossible to distribute the men according to their habits of cleanliness or decency. Twenty hours out of each twenty-four must be spent locked in the insanitary, dirty, crowded cell. All meals are served to the men in their cells. The time for exercise, 9.30-11.30 a. m. and 3.30-5.30 p. m., they stand or walk around or sit down on the floor of the ‘bull pen’ or ‘exercise corridor.’ In the ‘old jail’ this ‘pen’ includes all the floor space of the cell house not occupied by the cell block. It is a big room swarming with men. In the departments of the ‘new’ it is the corridor into which the cells open. The cells are kept locked during the four exercise hours. There are no seats or benches in the ‘bull pens.’ In all departments the pens are crowded during the four ‘exercise’ hours.... Cook County does not furnish jail clothes for prisoners. They have access to laundry tubs once a week. Prisoners wash their own clothes.... Those who do not [have changes of clothing] manage the best way they can. They may wash their clothes, dry them, and put them on again; they may also borrow from cell mates.... There are only 14 shower baths, exclusive of the receiving ward, for all the men prisoners ... (population on the day of inspection, 546).
“One part of the floor space on the dark side of main cell house of the old jail is screened off for a hospital ward. There are no windows in this hospital. The air comes from the ‘old jail.’ It is lighted always by electric light.... The large airy hospital on the eighth floor of the ‘new jail’ is used only for special cases.”
The Committee has retained as adviser with reference to the jail problem Dr. George W. Kirchwey, of New York, formerly Dean of Columbia University Law School, ex-warden of Sing Sing Prison, and a leading expert in penology. He finds all of the evils above mentioned and many others—especially that prisoners are inevitably degenerated in body and soul by the present conditions; that the Cook County Jail, like most county jails, instead of being a preventive, is a prolific source of crime; and that the county bears a heavy burden of expense in detaining prisoners who might better be at large, as is shown by the fact that in many cases, after several months’ detention in the county jail, the prisoner is released by order of the State’s Attorney, either because he is found to be innocent or for lack of sufficient evidence to convict. He finds also that many prisoners are held because they cannot give bail who might safely be at large pending trial, without damage to the community.
Dean Kirchwey’s Recommendations
Dr. Kirchwey recommends that steps be taken to reduce the jail population: first, by prompt and thorough investigation immediately after arrest, in order to ascertain whether there is sufficient evidence to justify holding the prisoner; second, by so reorganizing the courts as to secure speedy trials and avoid the necessity for long detention; third, by releasing, on their own recognizance without bail, many prisoners who, having families or having regular employment, are not likely to run away.
Dr. Kirchwey regards the present jail site as entirely inadequate. He would prefer to remove the jail to some other part of the city where sufficient ground could be had to provide a suitable yard for outdoor exercise. The present site is only 600 feet square, and it contains both the jail and the Criminal Court Building.
The writer is in the fullest sympathy with the purposes of the Committee and with the principles advocated by Dr. Kirchwey. He agrees with Dr. Kirchwey that women, young prisoners, witnesses, and insane persons should be excluded from the county jail and provided for in separate detention houses. When this is done, however, there will still remain an indefinite number of men, which may be 200, 300, or at times even 500, who must be held in detention awaiting the action of the grand jury or the criminal courts. He believes that suitable provision may be made for these prisoners, in strict accordance with the principles advocated by Dr. Kirchwey, in the manner hereinafter suggested.
ADMINISTRATION FLOOR PLAN
Evils to be Remedied
The evils in the present Cook County Jail, as pointed out by Dean Kirchwey and his associate, Mr. Winthrop D. Lane, are as follows:
First, insufficient yard space for exercise and separation from the public. The county owns a piece of ground about 600 feet square on which are located the Criminal Court, the old jail, and the “new jail” (built some thirty years ago). To provide a suitable jail yard with room for exercise would require a space at least 1,200 feet square; and even with that space the jail yard must necessarily be dark and be deprived of the free circulation of air because of the proximity of high buildings.
Second, overcrowding, under conditions which make it practically impossible to enlarge the present plant, with the result of confining two or three men in each cell. The jail should be so situated as to permit of enlargement at any time without disturbing its general plan.
Third, lack of classification. It is generally agreed that prisoners ought to be divided into classes according to age, color, criminal experience, condition of health, especially with reference to communicable diseases, and disposition to attempt escape or inflict injury upon officers or other prisoners. Such classification is impossible in a jail of the ancient type which characterizes the present buildings.
Fourth, enforced association with the worst people to be found in the county. The prisoners are released from their cells four hours out of the twenty-four to relieve the bitterness of their confinement under present conditions and to obtain such exercise as they may by moving about in the crowded corridors.
Fifth, lack of employment. The constitutional provision that slavery or involuntary servitude, except for crime, shall not be permitted within the boundaries of the United States is universally construed to mean that unconvicted prisoners cannot be compelled to labor. But such prisoners may be permitted to labor, to their own great benefit; and the jail should be so constructed as to make it possible to provide workshops where prisoners may labor voluntarily at simple employments with proper compensation. An admirable example of the possibility of such employment is found in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City in the department for insane prisoners who formerly stagnated in the insane wards but who are now diligently, profitably, and happily employed in a variety of simple industries.
Sixth, lack of exercise and recreation. These unconvicted prisoners are not only entitled to humane and decent detention pending trial and conviction, but are entitled to be kept under such conditions as will not impair their health. Physical exercise is indispensable to good bodily health, and we have now come to recognize that wholesome recreation is equally indispensable to mental and spiritual health; and it is very desirable that both physical exercise and recreation shall be provided, as far as practicable, outdoors.
Seventh, lack of clinical and hospital provision. The majority of the inmates of our jails are in need of medical, surgical, dental, or psychiatric treatment. In many cases their unsocial tendencies are due, in greater or less degree, to these conditions. It is necessary to treat those who come in with communicable diseases in order to protect the other prisoners and to protect the public after their discharge. It is necessary also (a necessity which is being recognized increasingly by judges and legislators) to enlist the psychologist and psychiatrist, both for the study and treatment of such prisoners, in order that they may be so dealt with as to conserve the public interests.
Why Not a Skyscraper?
While agreeing fully with Dr. Kirchwey that separate and distinct provision entirely apart from the county jail must be made for the younger men, for women, insane prisoners, and witnesses; and that it is desirable to locate the central jail for the older male prisoners on a larger tract of ground in a less congested district: if, however, it should be decided for economic reasons, or for the convenience of proximity to the Criminal Court, that it is necessary to build the new jail and Criminal Court on the present site, the plan set forth in the accompanying illustrations is proposed by the writer as a possible solution of the problem.
It must be borne in mind that the prisoner awaiting trial in the county jail is on a different footing from the convicted prisoner. The law provides that every person shall be deemed innocent until he is proved guilty, and it is universally recognized that the person awaiting trial is entitled to humane treatment. He is entitled to decent living conditions and as little hardship as is consistent with his safe-keeping. The theory of the law is that the prisoner is not to be punished until he is proved to be guilty. It has been the practice in this country to use the county jails as places of confinement for sentenced prisoners convicted of minor offenses, and in most of the county jails these two classes of prisoners mingle freely together. Not only that, but insane prisoners and witnesses, accused of no crime, are often kept in the jails, where they come in contact with other prisoners.
TYPICAL CELL FLOOR PLAN
The prevailing type of building in Chicago for offices, for light manufacturing, for residences, is the skyscraper. Its adaptability for public purposes is exemplified in the City Hall and Court House Building. In New York City this type of building is being used successfully in the Manhattan Trade School for Girls, 10 stories high, closely resembling an ordinary office building. A roof garden, reached by elevators, provides playgrounds which are used by the pupils in sections at different hours. The possibility is suggested of adapting this plan of building to the Criminal Court and County Jail.
Let the Criminal Court Building be 400 feet square, with interior lighting courts, or in the form of a cross, with a frontage of 200 feet on each of the four sides. Let the Court House contain as many stories as may be needed: four, five, or six, as the case may be.
Let the County Jail start from the roof of the Court House in the form of a cross, of which the arms will be 90 by 40 feet, with a central rotunda on each floor about 60 feet square.
Assuming that the Criminal Court Building will be four stories high (in the drawing a typical building of one story is given in order to indicate the relations of the court building and the jail), the jail proper, will begin on the fifth floor. On this floor will be the jailer’s offices and residence, the kitchen, officers’ dining room, officers’ lodging rooms, etc. The street elevators and the street stairways will terminate on the fifth floor and will be connected by a grated and guarded passageway with the jail elevator and stairway, which will start from the fifth floor, in order to prevent escapes. If prisoners were to “hold up” the prison elevator, they could get no further than the fifth floor.
The “typical floor plan” indicates the arrangement of the cells. Each floor will be separate and distinct and will contain 100 cells, each 7 by 10 feet and 10 feet high, to accommodate one prisoner. The cells will be placed on the outside wall, with windows 4 by 4 feet, providing abundant light and air. There will be four distinct sections on each floor, containing 25 cells each. There will be as many floors as may be necessary to provide for the highest estimated number of prisoners. The drawings contemplate six cell floors which would accommodate 600 prisoners, with additional accommodation for 56 prisoners in the hospital.
The building will be planned with a view to erecting additional stories whenever required, without change of the administrative departments.
The arrangement of the building will be such that the cell windows will be about 350 feet distant from the windows of the buildings on the street opposite. These cell windows can be set at any desired distance from the floor and the lower sash may be fixed in place and supplied with ribbed glass.
Security
The lower cells can be used for prisoners who are not likely to attempt to escape, and the upper ones for those who are recognized as dangerous criminals who are likely to escape. There will be a distance of six feet from the top of one window to the bottom of the next above, and the windows will be so constructed as to give the least possible opportunity for a foothold. The height of the building will be so great as to make escape by means of ropes practically impossible. The outer walls will be illuminated at night and four night guards on the roof of the Criminal Court Building can keep the entire exterior of the jail in view. The short cell wings will be easily supervised from the central rotundas, and the jail elevator will permit of prompt re-enforcement of the guards on the several floors in case of necessity.
The sixth floor will be devoted to the clinics and the hospital. There will be provision for medical, surgical, dental, psychologic, and psychiatric clinics with two wards, 32 by 90 feet, for 22 beds each, and a third wing containing 12 single rooms in order to permit of isolating contagious and infectious cases.
Employment and Recreation
The ninth floor (the fifth floor of the jail proper) will contain an auditorium to accommodate 600 men; four school-rooms, instead of the one school-room in the present Cook County Jail; and four small shops where prisoners who desire to work may be permitted to do so and to receive their earnings for themselves or their families; these shops to be organized on a plan similar to that of the occupational therapy shop in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City. This floor will be 14 feet high instead of 10 feet, in order to give head room for the auditorium. The auditorium will be located in the middle of the building, in order to minimize the stair climbing of prisoners going to that floor.
HOSPITAL AND CLINICS—FLOOR PLAN
A roof garden will give opportunity for outdoor exercise. It will contain four sections, each 32 by 90 feet, which will give opportunity for indoor baseball, handball, tennis, walking, and so forth. The rotunda in the central space will give opportunity for invalids to get the benefit of fresh air. The prisoners will be divided into sections for exercise on the roof, coming up in squads of 50 or more. The roof garden will be enclosed in a strong netting, to obviate danger of suicides or attempted escapes.
The separation of each floor will simplify the problem of heating and ventilation, which will be as simple as that of any office building. The division of each floor into four distinct compartments will permit of classification in as many groups of 25 as may be desired. If there are six floors, there will be 27 possible groups.
Present Difficulties Overcome
The plans here submitted will overcome all of the “evils” above enumerated as far as it is practicable on so small a piece of ground as the present site. First, it will provide separation from the public, and the roof garden will give opportunity for fresh air and outdoor exercise. The space will be small, but will be conveniently arranged and can be equipped with outdoor gymnastic apparatus. Second, it will do away with overcrowding by providing 600 individual cells, with provision for adding new cells at any time without modifying the general plan of the building. Third, it will provide abundant classification; there can be 30 separate classes if desired. Fourth, the evils of promiscuous association can be prevented by assembling prisoners in small groups, under supervision, on the roof garden and in the shops and school-rooms. Fifth, the evils of enforced idleness will be obviated by providing shops where prisoners can be employed at simple but remunerative tasks. Sixth, wholesome recreation and schools will be provided in place of unwholesome association and idle brooding. Seventh, the clinics and the hospital will prevent the jail from becoming a breeding-place for disease.
Under these conditions the jail will become what it ought to be, a humane place of detention for persons awaiting trial, bearing in mind that such prisoners are presumed to be innocent in the eyes of the law until the courts find them guilty and determine the question of their subsequent treatment.