Blountville Jail Scenes

Sixteen women are held in the cell of which a portion is shown above. There are only three cots in the cell, so 13 must sleep on the floor. Their possessions are seen between the bars and garments hang on lines overhead, out of camera range, Eighteen men occupy the “cage” pictured at right, its dimensions 8x10 feet. The cell is unlighted, save for a single bulb in the passageway (top foreground), there is one commode which will not flush and no bathing facilities.

Young woman inmate of narrow, four-bunk cell at Sullivan County jail, is shown as she washes clothing in small pan. At her side, atop an empty oil drum used as a garbage container, is wash tub used by prisoners for bathing. This small cell is often so crowded, some of inmates sleep on mattresses placed on concrete floor.

Pictured are inmates, stripped to the waist in order to endure the stifling heat of the building, crowded into a cell block of the rottening old Sullivan County jail at Blountville, now falling apart at the seams after more than half a century of use. Built to accommodate about 50 inmates, it is now usually overcrowded and at times has housed more than 100 persons. Because of inadequacy of facilities, separation of prisoners, regardless of age, nature of offense or condition of health, is impossible.

Inmates were locked in their four cells of this center cage of the Blountville jail before the picture was made of outside room. The toilet, erected on top of a wood block, is the only one in the cage, in which as many as 38 prisoners have been crowded. A two-gallon bucket, similar to one shown hanging between steel grating, is placed in each cell at night, to be used as a toilet by the inmates.

Pictured is the Sullivan County jail at Blountville. A proposal to issue $200,000 in bonds for erecting a new jail to replace the ancient, inadequate, unsanitary and crumbling building will be put before the people in county-wide referendum August 5.