Continuing Shame of Sullivan County
We do not know at this writing if the grand jury will make any report on the condition of the jail, but it will miss a bet if it does not, because the present condition of the jail is just as bad as it ever was, from all reports, and it has become a habit for grand juries, using their inquisitorial powers, to point the finger at the Blountville jail and say something should be done about it.
Some years ago this paper undertook to awaken public interest in the deplorable condition at the county jail. We painted the picture, as best we could, without exaggeration, although in truth, it would be hard to exaggerate the condition in which we ask human beings to live, because they have broken some law. At that time if memory serves, the conditions at the jail were subject of a grand jury examination, then a committee of the county court was appointed, and it in turn recommended action.
But there were difficulties. There still are difficulties. For one reason or another nothing is done, and Sullivan County continues to house its law breakers like cattle; no not like cattle for no self-respecting farmer or stockman would treat his animals that way. It is more like wild beasts. Even that simile is not a good one, for even in a zoo, the caged beasts are given clean cages, room and air.
Sullivan County puts men in a cage, crowds them in filthy quarters; it gives them filthy mattresses on the floor to sleep on, it gives them the most elementary sanitation. If every man so incarcerated was the lowest form of humanity, such treatment would be shameful, and on par with the treatment the Nazis gave men in their internment camps. But many of these men have not even committed major crimes. This in free, enlightened America, in the twentieth century.
Everyone who has seen the condition comes away shocked and shamed… If decent men on juries saw what they were sending fellow humans to, they would be tempted to turn guilty men loose rather than consign them to such a place.
The trouble is not enough people see it. More people ought to see it. One must see it with their eyes. Pictures do not tell the story. The printed word cannot adequately describe it. Yet it is the people who are responsible. If enough of them were to get busy, the difficulties that keep this medieval place in operation would be overcome. Steps would be taken to give men who must be put behind bars the common decencies of life. What we give them is inhuman treatment. It is no way to punish criminals, it is the way to breed criminals. Even a short stay in that place is enough to make a man an enemy of society for the rest of his life.
When will we wake up and get rid of this black shame?
