Plans and Illustrations of Prisons and Reformatories — John Shaqi
Plans and Illustrations of Prisons and Reformatories
Science
Plans and Illustrations of Prisons and Reformatories
Prisons -- Design and construction; Prisons -- United States; Reformatories -- United States
Seventh, lack of clinical and hospital provision. The majority of the
inmates of our jails are in need of medical, surgical, dental, or
psychiatric treatment. In many cases their unsocial tendencies are due,
in greater or less degree, to these conditions. It is necessary to
treat those who come in with communicable diseases in order to protect
the other prisoners and to protect the public after their discharge. It
is necessary also (a necessity which is being recognized increasingly
by judges and legislators) to enlist the psychologist and psychiatrist,
both for the study and treatment of such prisoners, in order that they
may be so dealt with as to conserve the public interests.
WHY NOT A SKYSCRAPER?
While agreeing fully with Dr. Kirchwey that separate and distinct
provision entirely apart from the county jail must be made for the
younger men, for women, insane prisoners, and witnesses; and that it
is desirable to locate the central jail for the older male prisoners
on a larger tract of ground in a less congested district: if, however,
it should be decided for economic reasons, or for the convenience of
proximity to the Criminal Court, that it is necessary to build the new
jail and Criminal Court on the present site, the plan set forth in the
accompanying illustrations is proposed by the writer as a possible
solution of the problem.
It must be borne in mind that the prisoner awaiting trial in the
county jail is on a different footing from the convicted prisoner.
The law provides that every person shall be deemed innocent until he
is proved guilty, and it is universally recognized that the person
awaiting trial is entitled to humane treatment. He is entitled to
decent living conditions and as little hardship as is consistent with
his safe-keeping. The theory of the law is that the prisoner is not to
be punished until he is proved to be guilty. It has been the practice
in this country to use the county jails as places of confinement for
sentenced prisoners convicted of minor offenses, and in most of the
county jails these two classes of prisoners mingle freely together. Not
only that, but insane prisoners and witnesses, accused of no crime,
are often kept in the jails, where they come in contact with other
prisoners.
[Illustration: TYPICAL CELL FLOOR PLAN]
The prevailing type of building in Chicago for offices, for light
manufacturing, for residences, is the skyscraper. Its adaptability
for public purposes is exemplified in the City Hall and Court House
Building. In New York City this type of building is being used
successfully in the Manhattan Trade School for Girls, 10 stories high,
closely resembling an ordinary office building. A roof garden, reached
by elevators, provides playgrounds which are used by the pupils in
sections at different hours. The possibility is suggested of adapting
this plan of building to the Criminal Court and County Jail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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