Excerpt from Plans for a Model Jail, And, a Departmental Plan for a Detention Home for Delinquent Women: Presented at the Fifty-First Congress of the American Prison Association, Jacksonville, Florida, 1921

A community low in scale of social development, governed under laws fitted to this stage, would need a jail building quite different in character from that of a more highly developed peo pie, and it follows that in that society toward which we are work ing, where the attempt of revenge on and punishment of the law breaker will be replaced by the persistent aim of his reformation and education, the functions or administration of the jail would so change in character that the building or buildings for the pur pose could most likely no longer be designated as jails.

There are, however, some general well-established laws and canons of architecture and good building which should be followed in the jail proper or cell house of any jail building, no matter where located or how administered, on which a few words may be said.

When one considers that only a limited number of those con fined in a jail are proved guilty of the crime for which they were arrested, and that many are held there for very minor offenses, the planning and architectural treatment of the building becomes of peculiar interest in the problem it presents.

N o fair-minded man will deny for a moment that the innocent and the one not convicted of a crime should not be subjected to greater hardships than are absolutely necessary during the time that he is deprived of his liberty by the state, and it is encouraging to note that society has advanced to that stage where it is begin ning to recognize fully that even the convicted criminal (during his good behavior) should not be subjected to any hardships otherthan those made necessary by keeping him in a safe place - a place in which he is under constant surveillance, and cannot escape from to repeat his aggressions against established laws.

We all agree that the day of the dark underground dungeon has passed, and that even the lowest criminal is entitled to a full share of the essentials of life - fresh air and direct light, proper food and clothing; that nothing must be done to undermine his health, and that every precaution must be taken to avoid his premature death, either from causes within the building qr effects from with out its walls.

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