The Boys in the County Jail
A look inside the cell of four Seattle youths arrested for petty theft, and the cycle of crime they are already trapped in.
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.
Three boys of this class are now confined in the county jail, awaiting trial for stealing a revolver from the pocket of a man's coat on the steamer George E. Starr. A reporter called to see these boys yesterday. They were ill-clad, but seemed piqued to have visitors come to see them. One boy said: 'I am 14 years old and have been in jail many times for stealing. I was born in Sacramento, I have lived in Seattle for 10 years. My father is dead. I have a daddy, but my mother told me he died. I work around at whatever I can get to do. I did not know anything about the stealing of the pistol. Ed Richards told me he was going to Tacoma. We all four went to the Starr and asked the purser to pass us to Tacoma. We wanted to go up the Puyallup and have some fun; he would not take us. We came on shore. I did not know the pistol was stolen till we were arrested.' Another boy, 14, said: 'My mother is dead. She died in one year ago. My father works in the mill at Port Madison. I am 14 years old, and was born in Missouri.' When asked why he doesn't stay with his father, he sobbed: 'Because he lives with a widow.' He admitted to being jailed several times before for stealing, including stealing a dollar from a girl and schoolhouse supplies. The oldest boy, 17, had worked in a brickyard and had also been in jail before. One youth noted: 'Richards' mother bailed him out. She always does when he gets in jail, but we have to stay here because we have no mothers with money.'
“Richards' mother bailed him out. She always does when he gets in jail, but we have to stay here because we have no mothers with money.”
The article highlights the 'youth-to-prison' pipeline in 1885 Seattle, noting that poverty—not just delinquency—was the primary driver for who stayed in jail. The tension between institutionalization and reform remains a central, unresolved debate in Seattle’s current juvenile justice policy.
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