A New Jail Needed
No one with feeling for the welfare of others could visit the Sullivan county jail at Blountville and not come away sadly and better informed on human misery amidst unfortunate surroundings.
The present overcrowded and unsanitary condition in the building, that was erected at the turn of the century when prisoners were few is the same situation that has existed over a long period of time. Members of the county grand juries and other groups have for years recommended the construction of a new jail, but without results.
One hundred prisoners are huddled together in sixteen narrow cells. The number includes nineteen women, mostly young girls. The male population is composed largely of young boys.
The building is kept clean and Sheriff J.D. Newland and Jailer Sam Feathers use every available means for the comfort of the inmates, but facilities are limited. There is not a single bath in the building. Water for baths is carried to cells in tubs. All the lavatories are in poor condition, one being so rotted away it has to be propped up.
“How do you live like this?” was a question asked last week of a man from among eleven crowded together in a small cell on the second floor.
“Live?” he said, not in the manner of a question but seemingly as a statement of amazement that anyone would consider it living. “Why don’t they just get a shotgun and shoot us all?”
In one of the cells, containing two bunks and a small cot, leaving but little space in which to walk about, were ten young women. One was 25 years old, the ages of the others ranging between 16 and 19.
“Thank God,” said a 17-year-old girl, “I’m getting out of here in nine days.”
Outside in the hall, was a large negro woman, lying on a floor mat beside a pile of jail supplies. The keeper explained that it was the only place she could sleep as colored and white were not placed together and there was no room anywhere else. Another colored woman was quartered in a small supply room near the kitchen.
In one cell upstairs there were ten white men, so crowded together the appearance was like that of beasts corralled in a narrow pen. Four of them were on the floor, playing cards. They were sitting on crossed legs, in order to leave room for the cards. Six were sitting on bunks, perspiration dripping from their faces.
Three boys were recognized as first offenders. They were housed with several men with long criminal records.
At this point one of the officers explained that the crowded conditions made it necessary to place persons with contagious diseases in the same cells with healthy prisoners.
Sullivan county should not permit such conditions to continue.
