The Grand Jury's List of Complaints
In 1885, Seattle’s grand jury turned its attention to everything from jail conditions to the 'inhaling or smoking' of opium, highlighting a city struggling with the growing pains of a frontier boom.
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.
To the Hon. Roger S. Greene, Judge of the Third Judicial District, Washington Territory: We, the Grand Jury, beg to make the following report: We have been in session four days, and have had presented to us 34 cases, 25 of which have been on the part of the Territory, and 9 on the part of the United States. We examined 117 witnesses. The condition of the county poor at Providence Hospital was inquired into, and all were found to be well cared for. We have examined the County and City Jails, and find that they are clean, well kept and in apparent good order, except that the cells in the County Jail have not sufficient ventilation when the doors are closed. We find 13 prisoners in and but two cells with accommodations for only two in each cell. We recommend that the cells be better ventilated, and that the jail be enlarged. We earnestly recommend to our next Legislature the amendment of the law against inhaling or smoking opium, or against keeping places for such smoking, so that Justices of the Peace in the several counties may be invested with concurrent original jurisdiction to try and punish offenders. And inasmuch as your Honor has decided that it is no crime under our laws to obtain certain kinds of property by false pretenses, we also earnestly recommend that our laws be amended in this respect, so as to include all kinds of property whatsoever. Complaint having been made of danger to life and great loss of property by neglect on the part of the railroad companies to fence their roads, we also recommend that a law be passed to make and maintain a good and lawful fence on each side of their road.
“The cells in the County Jail have not sufficient ventilation when the doors are closed. We find 13 prisoners in and but two cells with accommodations for only two in each cell.”
This 1885 report echoes contemporary Seattle in its focus on jail overcrowding, ventilation, and the criminalization of public health issues—in this case, opium use—which highlights how the city has historically struggled to balance punitive legal measures with infrastructure needs.
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