JAIL MEALS DECLARED FIT FOR DOGS
The establishment of four work farms for the prisoners now confined in the county jails of California is urged upon the legislature by the report of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, just issued. These jails, it is suggested, could then be used for holding persons awaiting trial. As at present run they have correctly been called primary schools in crime, says the report. They are declared to be seriously overcrowded in winter, poorly ventilated and unclean. “The meals,” says the report, “are served as one would feed his dog, and in some of them the quality is not much better.” The prisoners herd together, it is asserted, with nothing to do but study and plot crime.
If each of the four farms were large enough to furnish food and labor for 500 prisoners, the report says, they would empty the jails. They would be self-supporting, as well as much better for the prisoners, declares the board.