From the Illinois Constitution of 1818, Art. VIII, sections 9 and 13 (repeated in the Constitutions of 1848 and 1870). “ That in all criminal prosecutions the^ accused hath a right to a speedy public trial.” “That all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties unless for capital offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption great/ 1 “All penalties shall be proportioned to the nature of the offense, the true design of all punishments being to reform, not to exterminate mankind.” (Illinois Constitution, 1818, Art. VIII.) “Every person ought to find a certain remedy in the laws for all injuries and wrongs which he may receive in his person, property or reputation; he ought to obtain, by law, right and justice freely without being obliged to purchase it, completely and without demand, promptly and without delay. ” (Art. II, Bill of Rights, 1870. Also in Consti- tution of 1848, Art. XIII, Declaration of Rights, and in Constitution of 1818, Art. VIII.) “All persons shall be bailable before conviction except for capital offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption great. ” (Illinois Revised Statutes, chap. 38, p. 294.) UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY SSI URBANA-CHAMRAIGN E00KSTACK3 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/realjailproblemOOabbo O' *X kP 3 G “a ftb^G-r THE REAL JAIL PROBLEM P UBLIC opinion in Chicago was suddenly focused on the jail prob- lem during the first week of June, because it was necessary for the men and women voters of Cook County to make up their minds whether to vote for or against the $2,500,000 bond-issue proposed for the erection of a new county jail. The bond-issue was defeated because it was believed that the plans for the new jail fell short of modern Standards. That a new jail is needed cannot be questioned, and it is to be hoped that some measures will shortly be taken toward the preparation of new and adequate plans which will make possible not only the submission of an- other jail bond-issue but an affirmative vote upon it. It is important, however, at this time to note that Chicago’s real jail problem is a much larger problem than one of sanitation or overcrowding and is much too complicated to be solved merely by a bond-issue and' the erection of a new jail. The real problem, is, in fact, not so much a question of the jail building as of the prisoners. It is not how a new jail should be built to care best for the more than eight thousand men and boys who each year are locked up in its steel cages for longer or shorter periods of time, but how many of the “eight thousand” could and should be spared the suffering and the humiliation of serving a term of imprisonment there. That is, before building a new penal institution large enough to hold eight or nine thousand tenants during the year, and eight hundred persons on any one day, some serious questions should be raised as to how many of the thousands of persons who during the year arfi' crowded into this wretched place are being needlessly held in custody and ought never to have been sent to jail at all. The Prisoners in the Jail: Who Are the Eight Thousand? At present there are three classes of persons confined in the county jail of Cook County: 1. Those who are merely waiting to be tried and who, until they have been tried and found guilty, are presumed under the law to be innocent persons. The report of the Chicago Crime Committee 1 showed that about 90 per cent of all the “ prisoners” sent to the jail during a year are sent there, not under sentence, but to be held awaiting trial. 2. Those who have been tried and found guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the county jail. The Crime Committee’s report showed that only about 5 per cent of the “prisoners” are persons who have been tried, found guilty and given a jail sentence. 3. The remaining 5 per cent of the jail population is a rather miscellaneous group including persons held after conviction pending transfer to some other penal institution, those held as witnesses, or on order of the United States Courts, on writs of ne exeat , etc. The Victims of the “Law’s Delays.” It came as a severe shock to many of the people in Chicago who studied the report of the Crime Committee to find that most of the 8,600 persons in the county jail during the year were not there because they were guilty of any crime but because they could not provide bail during the period while the .law was taking its course, too frequently a slow and uncertain course, in giving them a trial. The vast majority of persons in Chicago never have any occasion to enter the county jail. They think vaguely, perhaps regretfully, or even sorrowfully, of the thousands of persons who are locked up there in steel cages, but they take it more or less for granted that these men and boys are “jail-birds,” persons guilty of crimes, persons who are so wicked or so vicious that society can be safe only by shutting them up in this way away from the light. As a matter of fact when the records are examined, it appears that many of these persons are there merely because the “law’s delays” have deprived them of the speedy trial to which they are entitled under the law. The Jail Problem, a Problem of Poverty. It is important, moreover, to note that it is only the poor who are subjected to this harsh treatment. The man who belongs to the well- to-do class is able to provide the necessary bonds and to secure a release on bail, while the poor man must await his trial in the county jail. But it is important that we should remember that when a man is sent to jail merely because he is too poor to furnish bail, he really suffers imprisonment not for any crime he has committed but for his poverty, which is no crime. 2 The law of Illinois provides that any person awaiting trial may be released on bail “ except in capital offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption great.” There were, last year, only 219 persons arrested on the charge of murder, so that in round numbers about 7,000 “ prisoners” could have been released on bail if they had been able to furnish bail. The real jail problem then is to find some better way of treating men and boys who are too poor to furnish bail than locking them up in tiers of steel cages for periods of varying length, sometimes for weeks and months. With the question of a new jail before us, is it not time to ask if some more humane method of dealing with these persons cannot be devised? The Costs of Imprisonment. It is difficult for comfortable persons who have no occasion ever to enter a vast prison house like our county jail to realize what a heavy penalty imprisonment is. Here are gloomy cell-houses, tier upon tier of them, steel cages away from the light and air, all looking down over gloomy corridors where for a few hours each day, the prisoners are allowed to “ exercise” — and it should not be forgotten that one of these corridors serves also as the place of execution for the prisoners who are hung. It is difficult to picture the plight of the hundreds and hundreds of men and boys who every year are locked up in these wretched cells and then are tried and discharged. They have suffered a cruel punishment and have not been found guilty ofiany crime. There is no compensation for such suffering, and the state attempts to offer none. But surely it is our duty to ask whether some mitigation of this evil is not possible. Statistics cannot show the moral degradation that results from unjust imprisonment. The humiliation that a man or boy feels who for the first time becomes an inmate of the jail, goes through the wretchedness of throwing up his hands to be searched and hears the steel doors in corridor after corridor shutting behind him, or the bitterness of sitting idle, waiting days, weeks, or even months to be given a trial, knowing that he has lost his job, that his wife and children, or his mother and father are suffering perhaps even more than he is. Now, the comment on all this may be that the man or the boy has deserved to suffer because he has done wrong, but has he? He is only an accused person and the accusation may be unjust. He is there only waiting for a trial, and the report of the Crime Committee showed that the great mass of these “prisoners” after trial are not sentenced but dis- 3 charged. They are either found not guilty or they are found guilty of an offense that is punishable, not by imprisonment, but only by a small fine. Vast Majority of County Jail Prisoners Discharged After Trial. Let us look again at the report of the Crime Committee. We have already explained that the report showed that only 5 per cent of the 8,600 persons sent to jail were sentenced prisoners serving terms. The report also shows that out of all these prisoners only 1,100 were found guilty of offenses which were serious enough to be given any kind of sentence of imprisonment. Of these, 260 men were sent to Joliet Penitentiary, 78 boys were sent to Pontiac, and 764 men or boys were sent out to the House of Correction, the majority of this last group being sentenced not because their offenses deserved imprisonment but because they were too poor to pay the small fines which the Court imposed. Reduced to figures, then, our problem may be stated as follows: About 8,600 persons are sent to the county jail during a year and after they have been tried only about 1,600 are found guilty and given any kind of prison sentence, including all of those who were sentenced merely for the non-payment of fines. What of the others, nearly seven thousand, who have become “ jail-birds” and suffered the penalty of imprisonment because they were too poor to provide bonds? If you had a son, or a husband, or a brother among the seven thousand, and everyone there is somebody’s son or husband or brother, would you not feel that one of the most important things in the world would be to save that man or boy from the humiliation and the moral degradation of becoming a “ jail-bird” before he had been tried and found guilty. The Length of the Law’s Delays. It is important to note too that the Crime Committee collected data regarding the length of time these unfortunate men and boys were held in jail awaiting trial. The report shows (p. 74) that while the majority of them, 5,948, were there for less than one month, and most of them for less than one week, nevertheless 1,660 of them were kept in jail for periods varying from four weeks to fifty-four weeks. There was not sufficient evidence against some of these men to secure an indictment by the Grand Jury, and it appears that 251 of the men against whom “no bills” were returned were held in jail for periods ranging from two to sixteen weeks, which means of course that a terrible punishment was inflicted upon people against whom there was not sufficient evidence 4 to secure an indictment. The longest periods of imprisonment were, of course, endured by the men who had been indicted and were held for trial after indictment. Of the 1,860 indicted men, 75 per cent were held in jail for periods varying from four weeks to one year. Can there be any compensation for such suffering? It may be argued that these men deserved imprisonment since their indictment showed there was evidence enough to hold them for trial, but it must be remembered that they are supposed to be innocent until they have been tried and found guilty and that if they had been able to furnish bail few if any of them could under the law have been sent to jail. Moreover, it has been shown that a very small percentage of those who come to trial are found guilty. (See Report of Crime Committee, pages 24-32.) What of the Future? To those who understand the situation it seems intolerable that so many poor people should continue year after year to suffer in this way. The building of a new jail would not go far toward meeting the real problem. The danger to the health of the persons imprisoned would not be so great, but the mental and moral degradation of the enforced idleness of cell-life would not be reduced and the crime of shutting thous- ands of men up in cages because they are too poor to provide bail would still go on. It should again be emphasized that it is beside the point to argue that these men have “done wrong” or they would not have been arrested and held for trial. The real point is that other men have done precisely the same things but because they could furnish bail — because they were rich and not poor — the offense was not considered serious enough to justify detention in a jail before trial. The only purpose of imprisonment pending trial is to ensure the presence of the accused person on the day of the trial. Bail, i.e., usually a money bond, is supposed to furnish such security for the rich man, but for the poor man no substitute has been devised. But many if not most of these men and boys have homes and families, and they are not more likely to disappear and break all of their home and family ties than the rich men are to jump their money bond. They do not wish to “skip out” and to leave their homes, and in most cases could, if released on their own bonds, be expected to appear for trial on the appointed day. 5 Probation Instead of Jail. But greater security than a man’s own recognizance will and prob- ably should be required. An investigation will be necessary in the first instance to determine whether or not the man can be trusted with his freedom and, in case the trial is long delayed, some kind of probation- ary oversight during the intervening period may be necessary. The only substitute for the present system lies probably in an ex- tension of the probation system. A probation officer could be ordered by the judge to make inquiry regarding a man’s home and habits. Surely if he has a home, a family and a job, and in many cases where he has not all these desirable objects, Cook County could trust him to appear for trial, just as much as the rich man who has given a money bond, can be trusted. If necessary a probation officer could be assigned to keep in communication with him. The cost of the probation service would not be so great as the cost of maintaining the same persons in jail 1 , and the manufacture of criminals, the hardening of the accused person under imprisonment, would be prevented. County Jail Not a Fit Place for Sentenced Prisoners. Finally when plans for a new jail are under consideration, the ques- tion of committing prisoners to serve sentences of imprisonment there should be discussed. Several hundred men and boys are sentenced each year to serve terms varying from a few days to more than six months in this institution. It is, however, generally recognized by those in- terested in prison reform that the same jail should not be used for persons awaiting trial and for sentenced prisoners. A sentenced prisoner should be in an institution where he can be given work out of doors and where he can be given a chance for improvement. A county jail should be a place of detention only for the few persons who cannot safely be released pending trial. A county jail may need to be in the city near the criminal court building; and on the supposition that prisoners will not be long detained waiting to be tried, no provision will be made for work in the open air. (1) Last year the cost of the county jail, according to the Comp- troller’s report was $133,285.86 (p. 42), and it is interesting to note that the County appropriated $64,698.40 for the salaries of jail guards (total jail salaries $87,681.37) in contrast to the $9,585 appropriated for the salaries of probation officers. 6 The prisoners serving sentences constitute only about 5 per cent of the jail population during a year but about 15 per cent of the persons confined in jail on any one day. If these prisoners could be removed either to the House of Correction or to a farm colony that might be provided by the County, the purposes for which they are imprisoned would surely be more adequately met. A New Jail Necessary. It should, in conclusion, be emphasized that this pamphlet is not designed to present any arguments against building a new jail. On the contrary, it is believed that a new, modern, sanitary jail is at present one of Cook County’s bitter needs. It is hoped, however, that along with plans for the building of a new jail there will be developed some constructive plans for reducing very substantially the jail population. It is suggested that two possible methods of doing this would be (1) to remove all the persons serving sentences to a farm colony, or temporarily, to the House of Correction; (2) to devise some method of reducing the number of persons held in cells pending trial. Although further in- vestigation is necessary to determine the be^t method of doing this, it is believed that a system of releasing poor persons awaiting trial and unable to furnish bail, under probationary supervision, would reduce the jail population during any one year approximately one third or one half. The imprisonment of persons who have not yet been found guilty is a terrible tragedy, not only to the men and boys who must suffer this disgrace but to their families. Surely no effort should be spared to save any of them from this calamity. Unnecessary Arrests and Imprisonment. We spend in Chicago and Cook County each year a very large sum of money for the upkeep of places of imprisonment, the police stations, the county jail and the House of Correction. Last April we voted $1,199,000 to build new police stations and in June we were asked to vote $2,500,000 for a county jail. The startling fact that emerged from the report of the Crime Committee was that these large expend- itures were for penal institutions, not for criminals (our criminals go to Joliet and Pontiac and Chester), but for “ prisoners” who are either found guilty of some minor offenses or who are sentenced only to the payment of a fine, or in the case of many thousands of poor persons, for “ prisoners” who are found “not guilty” and discharged. 7 I v \\ A t i A % I * The situation in the House of Correction is equally misunderstood. During any one year about 15,000 persons are committed to this insti- tution, but the vast majority of them are there, not because they have been found guilty of offenses deserving a House of Correction sentence, but because they are too poor to pay the small fines assessed against them for petty offenses. Thus in 1913, 82 per cent; in 1912, 83 per cent; in 1911 and 1910, about 86 per cent of all the prisoners in the House of Correction had been committed solely for the non-payment of fines. It is scarcely necessary to point out that ultimately these fines are paid not only by the men and their families in suffering and privation but also by the taxpayers of Cook County who support the institution. Surely it is time for Cook County to look into its “ whitened sepul- chers” and to undertake not only to build new sanitary prisons, but to see that no man or boy shall be needlessly arrested and be sent to a cell because of his poverty. No one believes that our present system is preventing crime. Is there not some reason to believe that it may be one of the causes of crime in Chicago? Is it not true that unjustifiable arrests and imprisonment create a contempt for the law that in turn breeds lawlessness? 8