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.
[Illustration: 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.