Seattle's Jail Was Overcrowded and Waiting on Steel Cells from St. Louis
Sheriff Winger held eleven prisoners in the county jail, including four sailors and two Puyallup men sentenced for assault, while unfit close cells had to be used until new steel cells arrived.
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.
Sheriff Winger now has eleven prisoners in the county jail, two of the latest arrivals being John Lawson and John Rodesch, of Puyallup, who were sentenced by Justice James Knox to serve out fines and costs, amounting to about $40 each, for assault and battery upon Andrew Johnson and C. C. Newhard, respectively. The four sailors from the steamship San Pedro are also among the convicts. Until the steel cells ordered from St. Louis arrive, the close cells will have to be used for a portion of the prisoners, though they are really unfit for the purpose on account of a lack of suitable ventilation. Sheriff Winger lives in the apartments over the jail and boards the prisoners.
“Until the steel cells ordered from St. Louis arrive, the close cells will have to be used for a portion of the prisoners, though they are really unfit for the purpose on account of a lack of suitable ventilation.”
Jail overcrowding and inadequate ventilation are still recurring problems in American corrections. The 1883 item also shows how local justice worked: fines, costs, and a sheriff who lived above the jail and boarded his prisoners.
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