The employment of prisoners in the cotton-mill industry has been successfully tested at Speigner, and it is purposed to establish a new cotton mill at Kilby Prison which will employ the greater part of the prisoners. It is proposed to manufacture cotton cloth suitable for shirting and to establish a shirt factory where the cloth will be manufactured into shirts for the market. The manufacturing will be on State account, the shirts to be sold at a contract price agreed upon in advance under certain standards of quality.
A large farm is attached to the prison where a model dairy has already been constructed with a herd of 90 Guernsey cows and an extensive piggery.
It is expected that this new departure will bring Alabama from the rear of the procession in prison administration to the front rank.
Notes on the Design and Construction of Kilby Prison, Near Montgomery, Alabama
By Martin J. Lide, Engineer and Architect
Kilby Prison is designed essentially as an industrial prison. There are about 3,000 State convicts in Alabama. The labor of the majority of these heretofore has been leased out, principally to mining and lumber corporations. The State is poor in revenue and backward in education. It is, therefore, essential that these convicts be put to productive work in order that they may be at least self-sustaining. By act of the Legislature the leasing of convicts must cease after January, 1924. In order to receive these convicts from the mines and lumber camps and to place them into productive work this prison is being constructed.
As will be noted from the ground plan, the prison, exclusive of the administration building, is contained within a surrounding walled enclosure. The wall is about 20 feet high, 12 inches thick at the top, and 20 inches thick at the bottom, and sits on a concrete mat 6 feet wide. At the four corners of the wall are concrete guard towers, and on one side there is a lock gate 120 feet long, equipped with steel doors suspended with rollers. The walls are 1,000 feet long at the front and are 1,200 feet long on the sides. The wall is constructed in sections 30 feet long. Expansion is taken care of by the construction joints. During cool weather these joints were painted with tar, the thickness of the coating depending on the temperature at the time of the pouring. The concrete aggregate was mixed in the proportion of 1: 2: 4 parts of cement, sand, and gravel, the sand and gravel being mined on the property by the State. At the top of the wall four strands of barbed wire are mounted, alternate strands being charged to a potential of 6,600 volts, and the other strands being grounded. The connections to these strands are such that in case the charged wire is either cut or short circuited, an electric siren will blow.
It will be noted from the ground plan that the administration building is in front of the prison on the outside of the walls. Thus all free office employees work outside the prison. The administration building is a one-story building of brick and concrete. Connecting the Administration Building with the cell house is a corridor flanked on either side by rooms whose purposes are set forth in the ground plan drawing.
Main Cell House
The main cell house is a monolithic concrete structure veneered with brick and with cement tile roof laid on steel purlins. All cells and walkways are of concrete. The cell house contains five tiers of cells, the first tier being composed of single man cells and the remaining four tiers of five or six man cells. The single man cells are 7 feet wide, 8½ feet high, and 10 feet deep, and the multiple man cells are of the same height and depth, but are 22 feet wide. The rows of cells are separated by a 15-foot corridor with an open well in the center and with 3 feet 6 inches walkways in front. Every cell has one or more windows which are screened, barred with tool-proof steel guards, and equipped with counterbalanced steel sash. The cell building is so constructed that the multiple man cells may be converted into single man cells at any time in the future. Toilets and lavatories are provided for each cell. Forty-eight-inch roof ventilators are mounted on the cell house at 15-foot intervals. These ventilators also have fans mounted in them, the fans being driven by a common line shaft from a motor in the attic. By means of these fans it will be possible to completely ventilate the cell house at intervals, the air being drawn in from the windows and discharged from the roof.