Community of the Condemned; 5; The County Jail: Introduction to Crime

That what can you say about Conny Jails what can I say about Conny Jails nothing good been before the tent filled the high list bribery everything that's as bad in front of Conny Jail. This is the community of the condemned the story of the forgotten ones in the world in which they live the jails and prisons of America what are they like here is the story as told by leading prison authorities and by the prisoners themselves produced for the educational television and radio center and featuring Joseph D. Lohman eminent sociologist and for four years Sheriff of Cook County Illinois.

The purpose of our penal system is to protect society whether it be by way of punishment by way of reformation or a combination of the two. A hundred eighty five thousand men and women are incarcerated in the penal institutions of the United States a million and a half go in and out of the county jails and the places of police attention each year in these United States does this system protect and secure us or does it on occasion perform another function namely contribute to the aggravation to the crime problem by the confirmation of criminal attitudes by giving too many incarcerated virgins and hostility which is reflected in their future careers. In need it may be suggested that as we attempt to rehabilitate as we punish there arises unbeknown to most of us another social process a process of the condemned community itself

on the other side of the law and it is our purpose in this series to examine not only the function the administration of these institutions with reference to their improvement with reference to their inadequacies if you please but rather the sense in which unbeknown to many of us they may perform functions not in the public interest not protecting not securing us. The county jail is the doorway to the penal system of the United States and is it is at the same time the forgotten institution of the penal institution for although we have contributed each year to advanced philosophy and thinking and administrative changes in the operation of the federal system and the state system our penitentiaries reflect those improvements the county jail remains today essentially a 19th century institution of temporary detention while it at the same time does other things namely it introduces persons to associations

to ideas to notions which contribute to the aggravation of their crime problem. I would call your attention to the sense in which the insecurity of our jails they are on sanitary condition the eyewitness and the overcrowding of those institutions the problems of discipline and indeed the general condition of criminal association makes the county jail at one of the same time an instrument of a community and an instrument of the criminal world here is what a European said visiting this country some 20 years ago about our county jails and I quote him that are no words to describe the almost medieval conditions in the county jails usually no distinction is made between those who have been sentenced and those who are awaiting trial and who perhaps are innocent of any offense there is no provision for giving the prisoners adequate work or exercise in the open air in the matters

of light and air sanitary and hygienic conditions the cells cannot without can without exaggeration be compared to stalls for animals and at that to the neglected stalls that might have been found in country districts at least half a century ago the jails are as a regular thing obliged to receive double and triple the number of inmates that they were built to accommodate that was the story in America 20 years ago and it remains the story in America today the jail the county jail the forgotten doorway to the American people system does it correct or does it condemn to a continuing career of crime it is in giant buildings of brick and steel such as this one that most of the men who violate the law have their first experience with imprisonment some people believe that the jails of the United States are no more than little buildings of Adobe and steel behind the sheriff's office but they

are rather more like this giant institution through gates past some 17,000 prisoners as these are coming in each year men who are introduced for the first time to the community of those with whom they will continue and intimate associations as convicted offenders out of this squad role comes a group of men who will be confined in such intimacy and such association to influence permanently their lives in the future intermingling here will be those merely awaiting trial and those who will be sentenced prisoners and there will be little of any distinction between the ways in which they are handled indeed in some senses it will be punishment advanced before the determination of guilt here a man enters a cell to be confined and stigmatized and to be introduced to a social process in which there will be a continuous astrangement and alienation of the man from conventional society

because these places are points of temporary detention they are not equipped with facilities for acceptable living even the washing is after this fashion and the meals are head off the cup and in themselves here is the day room where as many as 80 or 90 persons will be confined together in such intimacy as to exchange through their idleness only their ideas about crime and to accentuate their bitterness and their hostility toward one another to be introduced so to speak to crime and to continue in the light of those associations when they leave that institution we are inside the cell block of the Cook County jail one of the largest county jails in the United States and then he respects the problems there are the same as the problems of every jail in America and other respects they differ let's talk to one who's been in a number of America's

Cook County jails and can tell us about his experience there Pat you've been in this institution for a number of months you've been in some other county jails so what were those I've been in New York City in the Toons prison I've been in the Psychology Health Palace in New Jersey New City jail right in County New York now that means for substantial county jails in this country and so you know what they're like what can you say about county jails in the United States nothing good I guarantee you that over product filthy like the education or work opportunities the worst thing about it is the first the federal to put in with the repeaters the confine of the cell I'll speak about New York City the Toons man has locked up the country by 21 hours a day in a cell with two men sleeps on just the mattress I mean hug me a spring and a blanket and it's one hour recreation week which is going up and he out in the roof that's about old and most of men

domestic their cases or first offenders never had no contact with going prison before in the first time they're in it they never show respect for going to war and they got a bad dose the first time one of the inmates think about this intermingling of all the different kinds of prisoners well they don't like your act so you don't want you but they've got to make the best of the kind of it of course a lot of fights and dissension in the present well you seldom when you were serving time there when the people that were marrying a waiting trial plenty of people share and I'm told in New York there's no sentence for men there at all so therefore there's no work and some people who are over a year continue this case with court trials and others there are three four months and it was passed out in that prison in 1954 53 and a lot of officers of jail that's on the civil service they were fired out right when a shady deal didn't do it such as Charden inmates five hours a week to let him walk around 15 20 minutes every night

and it's what we left off now you're suggesting this is all taking place with men who are just awaiting trial that's right chef they haven't been found guilty not a way well now what happens to them when they're found guilty they think they're like I say sure the very third and when they do get out they'll never show respect for a little again and let the cooperator help them out like I said before in most of these are the most the cases also but not support our only never put in with the repeaters and the other way past the time it's talking about fine he learns more than anyone in a penitentiary because that's his beginning well let's look at your experience now I'm on with you in the tunes right now I was in a close four months all right now what happens during the four month period of youth the four month period were turned out there in the cells over the morning for a half hour turned back in the cell after we cleaned up half of whose lunged at the urge we had about an hour off before lunch in the same thing for some of them we could find in the cell with two men that before talking after

the afternoon for the afternoon they understand the system well now what happens amongst the men of the cells under the circumstance well as many fights go on and if you haven't got a few dollars it's very much fair in the prisons no food nothing to read and this when it refers to get the money to try around the other person the money now who does that money go to well we're about to have two dollars a day to spend on a conversation from them but they use that as right officers in that jail they have our cards more than ever have liquor they have cards or which is common land now what about the situation in jails for the country you certainly have met man in prison and in these jails and been in other jails how typical are these conditions you're speaking of no matter who you speak of when you meet them which right of them have been in other jails tell me the same thing not worse about food for instance I've been in a jail in this same county out of some of Jersey out of a population of 300 inmates that are sentenced to two times the five or six to the world for us and assist the cooks and that is all and

locked in that cell to fill the four foot wide and store ticks on life just no blades now the men try to make the both the best of the best of those situations do they organize themselves do the exercise influence over the other men they usually do a lot of rights I've been with three rights in the county jails have participated one of our state prisoners in Jersey because of that systems in prisons and in county jails I don't go for this jail of Cokali where more jails are happening and this is more opportunity for them out in any other jail what do you mean by that I really made a man to work got more freedom he's got that they want to stay in which he's in large but he can stay out there won't get himself a few books to read and I've been a place where you can get nothing but a pilot on most jails there isn't much opportunity to work is there none at all I'm a whole the jail that is a place of violence that's for sure now what about the young people your experience you came and you believed to the jail did they keep you apart from

the older people in those institutions they make sure slide off of the repeated hot for most of them if you got a farewell unless you can well give us the experience of a young man who was being in the jail for the first time and then what happens to him when he goes into the cell block the young kid that the man is scared he should go one of us but the cabinet told come across these days that they're jailweds and he usually takes one big dish out which he knows where they all kind of rule courts still was on despite what the public thinks and I'll tell you the first time and then they get the first time the first person to get the pilot wouldn't you want to have nothing to do with them more but what do you would you say he is more seriously in need of attention by the public the jails are the kind of injury I would say the kind of jail of course not as introduced to the jail before he's in there in the military a lot of meridian or the domestic cases which they have turned loose and they should treat him like a human being not like a dog like I say he's turned loose after a while and he won't be

respect for a long life he's treated with a little bit of respect he's a man he's still innocent for fun give me when I'll you say that this is a report that you give us of the jail is rather common from other prisoners it's very common like I say in the three four jails I've been in the commission's already made the same some of it worse than others well thank you very much for this telling picture of this forgotten part of the American infantry system the jail you've been in four of them yes you've just listened to what I'm sure to most people is a rather startling tale from the lips of this inmate who's visited so many of the jails of the country it seems to confirm what european students have remarked upon the jail system of the United States such as the one I referred to the visited here some two decades ago is this picture a true one I would say that by and large the statement by that european commentator

is generally true except for a few isolated jurisdictions where some progress has been made that seems to be the general picture even today well that would seem to indicate that the jail falls far short of protecting us and securing us which presumably is its purpose what does it in fact do as a matter of fact the jails the country over they tend to be the forgotten institutions within governmental units by and large they're understaffed under budgeted and overcrowded by inmates as a consequence no rational program can really be worked out and they are conceived of in 19th century terms functioning here in the 20th century and it would not be an understatement although a strong one to say that they systematically maladjust the populations that go through them well now mr. Maddick you're a warden of a jail one of the major ones of the United States the

Cook County jail in fact it's of such proportions as to be in fact they penitentiary a goodly proportion of your inmates are there as sentence prisoners and if societies be protected when they come out they should be positively affected by their presence there now just what is there about that institution and others like it but give it this negative character that you suggest well using the Cook County jail as an example let me just give you a few basic facts an institution of that size handles about 16,000 persons a year and it has an average population of about 1900 every day all of this in one building which covers about three and a half acres of ground being overcrowded having been built for 1300 originally it is difficult to make rational separations as between sentence and non-sentence between the males and the females between the younger offenders and the older offenders those that are criminally sophisticated and those who are

first offenders and so the community in attempting to deal with a very serious problem namely the crime and delinquency problem gathers together in one group those people who have had a common experience who have common grievances a common system of values which not permeates the entire group and of course since 99% come out of the county jail again bring it back into the community well you described at least in suggestive terms a single building with limited space and with great numbers within it is the physical design of that institution and generally speaking is the physical design of county jails throughout the United States adapted to constructively influencing the lives of the persons that are incarcerated there oh no a county jail by and large is designed from a security standpoint for the most dangerous offender it's likely to hold and so most of them are designed as maximum security institutions at the same time because

there are sentence misdemeanants by which I mean lesser offenders sentence there you have a population that requires only minimum security being held in a maximum security building therefore by and large jails lack such constructive adjuncts as school facilities vocational training facilities honor farm type of activities and things of that kind because they are originally designed to hold people awaiting trial among which are people who may be charged with very serious offenses well with Wharton the jails after all in our system of corrections a merely a place of temporary detention at least so call if we detain them there only for short intervals of time for the most part less than a year many of the merely awaiting trial how can we influence them in any serious way in the direction of crime that was the original intent in the constructing of county jails that they be places of temporary detention but through the process

of years and through local convenience they have as a matter of fact been converted into institutions that hold sentenced populations and for instance in our own county jail we have hold some people for periods up to five years annoying rikers iron which is really a large jail there are sentences up to three years in a place of that kind and so they are not simply these transient kind of institutions which do not need facilities and which can get along with almost any old kind of staff and any old kind of budget but as a matter of fact they influence the lives in this country probably of a million and a half people every year because it is the gateway as you have set to the entire correctional system here is where you get the largest proportion of first offenders and here is where they mix with very sophisticated people and unless you can make proper separations and unless you can occupy prisoners times constructively even in these minor facilities so called unless you can do that you are really aggravating the entire crime problem.

Now this is a problem with the uncentence prisoner of course amongst them many who are perhaps going to be found ultimately innocent and not guilty this interest me how can and or does the jail distinguish between those and those that are sensed in its treatment I would say by and large most jails are not so constructed that you can make any real distinction and so they are confined just as if they had already been convicted this is unfortunate I know that jail administrators are conscious of this but they simply have the plant that they have on hand there's nothing that they can do unless special facilities are built and as to the proportion that might be found innocent that I cannot say but I do know that most people who enter a county jail will not go on further in the legal process but through nulla processing or paying bail or one thing and another do leave before they are actually convicted. Well that would seem to be the

horrifying prospect for some of us being confined to a jail and proved subsequently innocent but nevertheless having been punished and in many cases punished before we are found guilty if we are found guilty. There's even a sense in which you can say that the populations that are confined and not convicted and that are in jails it really is the same thing as if we still had poppers persons with us because the only thing that really distinguishes most unsentence persons in jail is that they lack bail resources if they had bail they would be out preparing their defenses and so forth and so on and certainly that would seem to suggest at least one point at which some thoughtful reflection upon the operation of a system might reduce the numbers in jails and perhaps the consequences of their having been there. Well now there's another aspect of this that interests me very much it's implied in your remarks and that is that we bring together here in a single institution a great host of people of different persuasions and different conditions

and circumstances and without opportunity for keeping them apart one from the other they are influenced one by the other. In other words we have a process of the jail itself of corrections is that process the interest and at the direction of the wardens? Well by and large it isn't of course wardens try the best they can but within the facilities and staff that they have you can say that the inmates within the jails are really a community unto themselves and that which we view as positive and which we try to initiate as positive is really has a strong negative undercurrent I might illustrate it this way let us say that a boy comes to a jail as a user of narcotics he's been smoking marijuana he walks into one of these bullpen's and he's immediately greeted by others who had somewhat similar experience who inform him that he is square a relatively minor person in the delinquent world and that if he really wants to have some status and standing with this group what he should do is turn to heroin two needles and so forth and if he then

betrays that he doesn't know anything about that he will soon be put on to where the connections are where to get the needles where to get the hard drugs and in short how to become a cool cat with high standing in the delinquent community. So the jail is a community but hardly the one that most people think a community set up on the other side of the law and because we haven't neglected it because we've pushed it into the background because we do not provide it with the resources and the modern techniques which in some measure associated with the federal system and with state binitentiaries it is a factor in the production of criminal attitudes. Yes it is a very strange thing that we concentrate our facilities our train staff and so forth at the other end after people have gone through the county jail and wound up in penitentiaries and prisons instead of using them preventatively by concentrating our facilities our constructive techniques and so forth at the narrow end of the funnel where the entire stream of populations

enters the correctional system that is certainly where it belongs in the interest of the community. Thank you very much Warden Lattich for this interesting comment on the operation of the jail in the United States. A good deal of the effort of modern day criminologists and panologists is directed toward undoing the harm which has been done by institutions and aspects of our system of criminal justice rather than to address the problems which initiated that are original criminal acts. It is in institutions like this one the county jails of the United States that much of the harm is done here is a structure which houses at its height some 2650 prisoners built to house 1300 and two and serves as an all-purpose institution does everything for all men no matter what their crimes no matter what their condition

these institutions whose combined effort strikes the vast majority of men who are imprisoned in the United States they house more men than all the penitentiaries taken together are the present day frontier for the improvement of our system of criminal justice they bring together within their confines all possible types of persons accused and often convicted of all types of crime the consequences of housing here the young and the old the sick and the healthy men and women the criminally mature and the delinquent child in buildings like this unfit for any one category in the group this is a shocking commentary on the American public information and upon its conscience these institutions are generally understaffed they are under budgeted overcrowded invariably caught up in politics and operated with 19th century ideas of phenology 19th century ideas of the treatment of offenders and they can only visit a sickness upon a community the sickness

which will be composed of newly created sicknesses not adjusted personalities and indeed matured criminals the jail jails such as this one must be converted into an institution that will act in the fight against crime much in the same way as we regard the public hospital as a resource in the struggle against disease the program for doing this involves taking the jails out of politics putting them in the hands of professionals and giving these latter institutions these new professionals these persons who are equipped to do these jobs the resources in terms of budget of staff and plant to do the job that must be done the county jails of our country are for the most part regarded as places of temporary detention they were designed for that purpose the truth is that they are now called upon to do a quite different task and because their physical

structure is not designed for that different task in being adapted to that purpose they bring about effects were not in which were not intended and this is why we must in the penitentiaries both of the state and the federal system work constantly against the product of these institutions only as we begin to make them into something which will in the first instance address their difficulties which brought them to crime which in the first instance will be concerned with their differences in personality and background and indeed concern with returning them immediately from these institutions to the community as restored personalities will the county jail become a resource in our system of criminal justice at the present time they are the frontier in terms of which we must come to grips in a successful way with the problem of crime this has been community of the condemned the story of the jails and prisons of america produced for the educational television and radio center featuring Joseph D. Lohman

eminence sociologist and for four years sheriff of cook county illinois this is national educational television