Locking Down the County Jail
Walla Walla’s City Council moves to secure the jail with a high fence to stop well-meaning citizens from helping prisoners escape.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The City Council have given up the building heretofore used as a city prison and made arrangements to get the use of the county jail for the lodgment of city prisoners. As a condition of the agreement, the city will proceed at once to repair the jail and build a substantial fence around it. This arrangement will be better for both the city and county, the county saving the expense of the improvement, and the city saving $40 per month. Another saving will be that of the prisoners confined in the jail, for the erection of a high fence around the jail will prevent that class of philanthropists who exhibit the poor taste of going to the prison, unattended, and at all hours, to sympathize with convicted felons, from furnishing them the means with which to effect their escape. There has never been an escape from the county jail without the prisoner being furnished with aid.
“The erection of a high fence around the jail will prevent that class of philanthropists who exhibit the poor taste of going to the prison... from furnishing them the means with which to effect their escape.”
Public interest in prison reform and the relationship between community members and incarcerated individuals remains a complicated, recurring issue in local governance.
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