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.