We hear with unfeigned pleasure of any improvement in the construction
of city and county gaols. Convinced as we have been for many years, and
by testimony from innumerable sources, that in most of them we shall
find a fruitful soil for the production and growth of criminal purposes
and habits, we can conceive of few objects of municipal oversight which
demand earlier or closer attention. What the gaol does to make a bad man
worse, the penitentiary cannot easily undo. If a thief or burglar or
counterfeiter, while waiting for trial or sentence, serves a few weeks’
or months’ apprenticeship to one or more adepts in those branches in a
gaol, he is a very unpromising subject of penitentiary discipline. He
is, perhaps, rather braced against any influences which may be employed
to change his course of life, and buoyed up with the anticipation of
pursuing his criminal projects under more favorable circumstances, and
with greater skill and success, upon the termination of his sentence.
So deep are our convictions of the immeasurable evils inflicted on the
community by bad gaols, that we accept an attempt to improve them, in
any respect, as a token of good. If a cell that was dirty yesterday is
clean to-day—if the sexes are separated—if, instead of allowing
prisoners to herd together day and night, they are separated by night—if
for darkness, dampness and a pestilential atmosphere, the light and air
have free access—if, in a word, there is some decent respect shown to
the species represented in these suspected and perhaps fallen, degraded,
and certainly discreditable specimens of it—we take courage.
Of course we are prepared to congratulate our fellow-citizens of
Baltimore, on the completion of a new and imposing city gaol. And though
we could have wished they had adopted the principle of individual
separation—which we cannot but regard as indispensable under any system,
both as the _duty_ of society and as the _right_ of the offender—still,
a well-constructed, wholesome prison, properly governed, does credit to
the wisdom and humanity of the public authorities, and will, in the end,
prove altogether the most economical.
The following description of the gaol, illustrated as it is by the
accompanying engravings, will give our readers the means of judging for
themselves of the design and character of the new edifice:
The jail stands in close proximity to the penitentiary, and comprises
a centre building, and north and south wings.
There is a block of cells in each of the two wings, 15 cells in
length, 2 in width, and 5 stories in height, making 300 cells in the
two wings, for the confinement of prisoners.
These two wings are on what is known as the “Auburn plan,” being a
prison within a prison. The cells are surrounded by corridors formed
between the block of cells and the exterior walls.
The cells are 8 feet by 11 feet, and about 10 feet high, they are
built of bricks, with segment and arched ceilings, and brick floors;
each cell has an iron grated door and window opening into the
corridors. The corridors are 13 feet wide, and have floors of hard
flag stone on a level with the floors of the first story cells, they
are open from this floor to the top of the upper story cells.
All of the cells above the first story are reached by galleries and
staircases of iron. Each cell has a ventilating flue constructed in
the wall, with an opening into the lower part of the flue for the
reception of the prisoner’s night pail, to be closed with an iron
slide, and another opening near the top of the cell for ventilation,
which is also provided with an iron slide, by which it may be closed.
These flues all open into a large ventiduct constructed on the tops of
the blocks of cells, the vitiated air is taken from the cells through
these flues and airducts, by means of large ejecting ventilators,
placed on the roof and connected with the ventiducts.
Light and air is admitted in abundance by the large windows in the
exterior walls.
There are five sink rooms in each of the four corner towers, making
one sink room for each range of fifteen cells; the iron galleries are
continued across the corridors to the sink rooms, and each one is
fitted up with an enamelled iron hopper and trap, through which the
contents of the night pails are discharged into the soil pipes and
sewers; there is also an iron sink with a sufficient supply of water.
Each sink room has two windows for light and ventilation.
There is a tank in the upper story of each of the four towers to
insure a constant and adequate supply of water.
The guard room in the centre building is 57 feet 6 inches by 59 feet 6
inches, and about 38 feet high, and is separated from the wings by
heavy iron screens or gratings, to confine the prisoners to the
corridors and galleries of each wing at such times as they may be
allowed privileges outside of the cells; these screens are constructed
so as not to obstruct the view into the wings from the guard room. The
corridors, stairs and galleries of the wings all being in full view
from the guard room—the floor of which is on a level with the lower
gallery of the wings, and is formed of 144 plates of cast iron,
supported on rolled iron beams, so arranged as to form a bearing for
all the four sides of each plate, the beams being supported by nine
iron columns and the four side walls. The guard room is lighted by
three very large windows. The only entrance to either the north or
south wing is through the guard room.
The kitchen, in which all the cooking, baking, washing, &c. will be
done, is under the guard room and on a level with the first story of
cells, and is of the same size as the guard room, and 11 feet high.
The cooking and the heating water for the various purposes is all to
be done by steam, and the baking in two brick ovens. The kitchen is
lighted by three windows in the east side, two angle windows in the
west side, and 4 floor lights, taking the place of four of the iron
plates of the guard room floor.
There are two rooms in the front part of the centre building on a
level with the kitchen for the reception of prisoners, one on each
side of a vestibule through which they are entered—they are fitted up
with iron bath tubs, water closets, and a fumigating oven for the
purpose of cleansing the filthy before placing them in their cells.
The entrance to these reception rooms is under the landing of the
steps to the upper vestibule, and there is an iron staircase from the
lower to the upper vestibule, by which the prisoners are taken from
the reception rooms or lower entrance to the guard room and cells.
The two rooms in the front part of the centre building, on a level
with the guard room, are for the use of the warden and his deputies.
There are six rooms in the front part of the centre building for the
confinement of witnesses, or for privilege rooms, four of which are
about 20 feet square, and the other two about 15 feet square; these
rooms have private water closets, and are supplied with water, they
have high ceilings, are well ventilated, light, pleasant, and
cheerful; they are approached by private staircases in the two towers
of the front part of the centre building, and are connected with the
galleries of the north and south wings by a gallery on the west side
of the guard room.
There are three hospital rooms in the upper story of the front part of
the centre building, they have private water closets, bath tubs, with
warm and cold water, and shower, they can be reached from the cells of
the north and south wings by the gallery through the guard room and
iron staircases, and also from the stairs in the front towers; they
are well lighted and ventilated.
There is a water tank in the upper part of the centre building to
supply the kitchen, water closets, baths, wash basins, &c.
The chapel is in the upper part of the centre building over the guard
room. It will seat over 400 persons. There is an entrance to it from
each of the wings, and also from the front part of the centre
building. It is about 22 feet high, well lighted and ventilated, and
so planned that the prisoners can be separated into classes if deemed
desirable. The chapel floor is supported by two double lattice wrought
iron girders.
There are ventilating flues and ejecting ventilators constructed in
all parts of the centre building, and all of the windows and other
openings throughout, are made secure by wrought iron gratings. All the
floors are on iron beams and brick arches. The building is thoroughly
fire proof in all parts except the chapel and roof framing, and is
warmed by steam from two large boilers located in the boiler house on
the east side of the jail, and lighted at night by gas. There is a
thorough system of drainage from all of the waste pipes, soil pipes,
and rain water pipes, through brick drains and sewers to Jones’ Falls,
a stream running within about 200 feet of the jail.
The entrance gateway and lodge, the clerk’s office and the residence
for the warden, are on the south side of the jail lot, fronting on
Madison street. There are two chambers over the lodge and office on
the east side of the gateway. In the Warden’s residence, on the west
side of the gateway, there is a kitchen, dining room, parlor, five
chambers, and bath room, with hall passages, pantry, store rooms and
closets, and all other requisite appurtenances and conveniences for
the comfortable accommodation of a family. The yard for the warden’s
residence is separated from the jail yard by a stone wall and iron
gate.
The prisoners are received and discharged through the gates on Madison
street.
The exterior walls of the jail and other buildings are all of stone,
together with all the corbels, copings, quoins, chimney tops, &c. The
base, up to the second range of window sills, is of granite, cut and
set in large blocks. The walls above the base are of light blue stone,
laid in rubbled masonry, with splayed jambs and arches. The window
sills above the basement, and the quoins, corbels, copings and other
dressings are of marble. The roofs are of slate. The interior walls,
arches, &c., are all of brick.
The site is a good one, being easy of access from all parts of the
city, and convenient to the court house and penitentiary. There is
ample space on all sides for a free circulation of air. The lot has a
gentle ascent to the north and east, and a dry self-draining gravel
sub-soil. Its proximity to Jones’ Falls, and its elevation above the
water level, affords the best means of drainage.
In designing this prison and working out the various details of the
plan, we endeavored to carry out the following general principles,
viz:
1. Confinement of prisoners in separate cells, so far as deemed
desirable.