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.