Part 2

Assuming that the Criminal Court Building will be four stories high (in the drawing a typical building of one story is given in order to indicate the relations of the court building and the jail), the jail proper, will begin on the fifth floor. On this floor will be the jailer’s offices and residence, the kitchen, officers’ dining room, officers’ lodging rooms, etc. The street elevators and the street stairways will terminate on the fifth floor and will be connected by a grated and guarded passageway with the jail elevator and stairway, which will start from the fifth floor, in order to prevent escapes. If prisoners were to “hold up” the prison elevator, they could get no further than the fifth floor.

The “typical floor plan” indicates the arrangement of the cells. Each floor will be separate and distinct and will contain 100 cells, each 7 by 10 feet and 10 feet high, to accommodate one prisoner. The cells will be placed on the outside wall, with windows 4 by 4 feet, providing abundant light and air. There will be four distinct sections on each floor, containing 25 cells each. There will be as many floors as may be necessary to provide for the highest estimated number of prisoners. The drawings contemplate six cell floors which would accommodate 600 prisoners, with additional accommodation for 56 prisoners in the hospital.

The building will be planned with a view to erecting additional stories whenever required, without change of the administrative departments.

The arrangement of the building will be such that the cell windows will be about 350 feet distant from the windows of the buildings on the street opposite. These cell windows can be set at any desired distance from the floor and the lower sash may be fixed in place and supplied with ribbed glass.

SECURITY

The lower cells can be used for prisoners who are not likely to attempt to escape, and the upper ones for those who are recognized as dangerous criminals who are likely to escape. There will be a distance of six feet from the top of one window to the bottom of the next above, and the windows will be so constructed as to give the least possible opportunity for a foothold. The height of the building will be so great as to make escape by means of ropes practically impossible. The outer walls will be illuminated at night and four night guards on the roof of the Criminal Court Building can keep the entire exterior of the jail in view. The short cell wings will be easily supervised from the central rotundas, and the jail elevator will permit of prompt re-enforcement of the guards on the several floors in case of necessity.

The sixth floor will be devoted to the clinics and the hospital. There will be provision for medical, surgical, dental, psychologic, and psychiatric clinics with two wards, 32 by 90 feet, for 22 beds each, and a third wing containing 12 single rooms in order to permit of isolating contagious and infectious cases.

EMPLOYMENT AND RECREATION

The ninth floor (the fifth floor of the jail proper) will contain an auditorium to accommodate 600 men; four school-rooms, instead of the one school-room in the present Cook County Jail; and four small shops where prisoners who desire to work may be permitted to do so and to receive their earnings for themselves or their families; these shops to be organized on a plan similar to that of the occupational therapy shop in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City. This floor will be 14 feet high instead of 10 feet, in order to give head room for the auditorium. The auditorium will be located in the middle of the building, in order to minimize the stair climbing of prisoners going to that floor.

A roof garden will give opportunity for outdoor exercise. It will contain four sections, each 32 by 90 feet, which will give opportunity for indoor baseball, handball, tennis, walking, and so forth. The rotunda in the central space will give opportunity for invalids to get the benefit of fresh air. The prisoners will be divided into sections for exercise on the roof, coming up in squads of 50 or more. The roof garden will be enclosed in a strong netting, to obviate danger of suicides or attempted escapes.

The separation of each floor will simplify the problem of heating and ventilation, which will be as simple as that of any office building. The division of each floor into four distinct compartments will permit of classification in as many groups of 25 as may be desired. If there are six floors, there will be 27 possible groups.

PRESENT DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME

The plans here submitted will overcome all of the “evils” above enumerated as far as it is practicable on so small a piece of ground as the present site. First, it will provide separation from the public, and the roof garden will give opportunity for fresh air and outdoor exercise. The space will be small, but will be conveniently arranged and can be equipped with outdoor gymnastic apparatus. Second, it will do away with overcrowding by providing 600 individual cells, with provision for adding new cells at any time without modifying the general plan of the building. Third, it will provide abundant classification; there can be 30 separate classes if desired. Fourth, the evils of promiscuous association can be prevented by assembling prisoners in small groups, under supervision, on the roof garden and in the shops and school-rooms. Fifth, the evils of enforced idleness will be obviated by providing shops where prisoners can be employed at simple but remunerative tasks. Sixth, wholesome recreation and schools will be provided in place of unwholesome association and idle brooding. Seventh, the clinics and the hospital will prevent the jail from becoming a breeding-place for disease.

Under these conditions the jail will become what it ought to be, a humane place of detention for persons awaiting trial, bearing in mind that such prisoners are presumed to be innocent in the eyes of the law until the courts find them guilty and determine the question of their subsequent treatment.

The New Sing Sing Prison

The Clinic Building at the New Sing Sing Prison

_By_ WALTER B. JAMES, M.D.

(Reprinted by permission from the _American Architect_ of January 28, 1920)

It is many years since men began to realize that their diseases were not the result of a divine purpose, and so they have attempted, first, to understand their origin, through study and analysis, and then from these to discover means of prevention and cure. As a result of these efforts, the prolongation of human life has more than doubled, and the disease and suffering rate has markedly diminished and is still diminishing.

To-day, resignation and patient submission in the presence of disease of the body are no longer virtues. Mental disease has only more recently been looked at from this same viewpoint, and gratifying headway is being made in this direction. The world is just beginning to realize that misbehavior or anti-social behavior presents to society a problem somewhat similar to that of physical and mental disease.

I do not mean that misbehavior is necessarily the result of or associated with disease, either physical or mental, although this is often the case, but that it presents an analogous problem to society, and that it should be attacked in the same manner, that is, through scientific analysis and classification, the discovery of causes, probably very complex, and the application of remedies, probably chiefly preventive, and based upon these causes. Only in this way can it be hoped to turn this costly waste product of social life into a useful by-product.

A NEW POLICY

When the “Sage Prison Bill” became a law, providing for the demolition of the old Sing Sing cell block and the erection there of a new study, classification and distributing prison, and creating the “State Commission on New Prisons,” New York State committed itself to a new and more intelligent policy toward its offenders and toward the whole problem of misbehavior. The new commission, commanded to carry out the above and other provisions, soon found itself confronted by problems that belonged essentially to modern medical science, and it turned to the “National Committee for Mental Hygiene” for counsel, and an advisory medical committee was formed. About a year before this, realizing the need of a more thorough psychiatric study of criminals along the lines that had been followed so well by Dr. Healy at the Juvenile Detention Home in Chicago, the National Committee had placed Dr. Bernard Glueck in Sing Sing Prison, with the consent and sympathy of the Department of Prisons, to carry out a complete mental analysis of all new admissions.

The results of Dr. Glueck’s studies have been published in full in “Mental Hygiene” and elsewhere, and form a valuable foundation for the scientific handling of the mental side of prisoners.

The commission and the state were fortunate in having Mr. Pilcher, the New York State Architect, to translate these ideals into actual construction, and the completion of an important part of the plans, including the Clinic Building, and, most of all, the final assigning of the contract for the erection, insured the carrying out of this interesting and important project.

THE CLINIC BUILDING

Mr. Pilcher has thrown himself into the undertaking with singular diligence and intelligence, and has entered thoroughly into the spirit of modern scientific treatment and research.

The newest and most original feature of the prison is the Clinic Building, in which the study and classification of the prisoners is to take place, and in which, as well, the general medical and surgical work of the institution will be carried on. It provides for the complete physical and mental examination of every inmate. It contains the hospital wards, dispensary, operating rooms and laboratories and X-ray plant, and indeed, it corresponds on a small scale to the hospital of any community, but differs from this in that it assumes that the whole population of the community may be abnormal, and therefore requires that every member of it shall at some time pass through the clinic for purposes of study and analysis. For this reason, the psychiatric or mental division of the clinic is relatively more accentuated.

It requires courage to attack such a problem as this, an attack that may carry us into troublesome social fields. It seems to be a fact, however, that no other method gives promise of relieving society of any considerable part of this burden of suffering and cost. We must not expect ever to be entirely rid of this burden, just as we shall never be rid of the burden of physical and mental disease; but just as science has diminished and is still diminishing these latter, so we have reason to believe that similar scientific methods, properly applied, will diminish the burden of anti-social behavior, and help us to approach the irreducible minimum, a minimum which must probably always exist in a human world like ours, but a minimum from which we are at present still very far.

Psychiatric Classification in Prison

_By_ LEWIS F. PILCHER, _New York State Architect_

(Reprinted by permission from the _American Architect_ of January 28, 1920)

Commercial efficiency is determined by the use of the by-products of manufacture. Prisoners are by-products of society.

The modern enterprise that used to discard as waste the by-products of its plant now aims to reduce its overhead and better its system by returning to the community in usable form that which in past times had been considered as lost and unavailable material. Is it not true that the criminal has been for the most part considered in the past as an irreclaimable waste of society, his progress toward a better life inhibited by being held in the strait-jacket of strictly materialistic institutional management and maintenance? As in the case of manufacturing concerns so in the modern penal system, its success will be determined by the economic use, and measured, not by the development of model prisoners enchained securely behind bastioned walls, but by returning to society decent citizens.

In the past the achievement of positive human results has been seemingly impossible to obtain. The chief reason for this failure was due to the inevitable clash between institutional and political interests that always arose and rendered abortive the many attempts that have been made to treat successfully the complex questions of crime and punishment.

INDIVIDUALIZATION

Any betterment procedure must be in the direction of individualization. The modern prison, penitentiary, jail or reformatory should embody in their respective organizations the function of scientific study of the individual prisoner--and this should be made the fundamental element of the entire correctional process.

The dynamic unit of all human problems is the individual. Modern medical science makes the appraisal of this unit possible through the medium of psychiatric treatment and social service research. An undertaking, however, which is really consciously intent on reclaiming the individual prisoner to the limit of his capacity with a view of preventing future returning to misbehavior, would be hampered in its effect if it were to concern itself solely with the native endowments of the individual prisoner. The source of the prisoner’s particular being, life, is a dynamic process; and every contact the individual makes throughout life not only leaves its impression on him, but shapes his mental attitude toward his environment. Thus, it is obvious that the housing problem, touching as it does every phase of the life of man, is of fundamental importance, for the environment determines, through the influence of the associative imagery of the inmate, a control of his conscious acts and the mechanization of the conscious acts of the prisoner establishes his habits. The manner in which the prisoner has been handled in the past has unquestionably been responsible, if not for the great amount of criminal careers, certainly for the confirming of the individual in his life of crime. The character and kind of prison we have had, in the past, had as its sole aim to achieve mediæval security; a housing condition crude and archaic in conception, which has not helped to relieve and protect society against the spirit of crime, but on the contrary has actually tended to its increase.

Here in New York City the municipality protects the interests of its citizens by the enactment of a structural and sanitary code. Structural safety and physical security and health are provided for all classifications of human activities under the maturely established provisions of that code.

A PRISON PLANNER’S CODE

Scientifically, psychologically and practically important as is the structural side of this great prison problem, I have yet to see any workmanlike attempt to establish for prison planners a code so carefully developed and yet with an elasticity to adapt it to various localities and climates, to the end that the inhumanity of the present day, 1920, toward prisoners would be for all time impossible.

The tremendous security and help that such a code would provide for the development of state prisons and jails and reformatories is at once apparent.

The complete findings of a competent Code Committee would be the average of the experience of all penal housing problems throughout the country and should be determined by a two-group committee, acting under an organization of national scope. In one group should be available the experience and suggestion of the leaders in penal administration, medicinal, psychiatric, industrial, vocational, educational and religious activities. The second group should consist of a small number of architects, engineers or contractual experts--men who have actually planned and structurally executed prison buildings and whose practical experience would enable them sympathetically to translate into constructive form and crystallize the theoretical standards recommended by the sub-committee on strictly scientific phases.

As it is an admitted fact that apperception and interest are the cardinal principles of thought foundation, it may be seen that the chance of improvement in the prisoner will vary in accordance with the thought and action required of him. In order, therefore, that this idea may be efficiently carried out, the prisoner, immediately on commitment to prison, should receive the benefit of an expert clinical examination to determine through his mental and economic possibilities what branch of work he should follow during his term of imprisonment to insure a better existence and a chance to live a decent and productive life after discharge.

A DISTRIBUTING PRISON

The new Sing Sing, therefore, has been planned as a Classification and Distributing Prison, from which the prisoner, after a definite determination has been made of his mental, physical and economic possibilities, will be assigned to that State institution best suited to his individual demands. For example, if it be found that a prisoner is physically unsound, he will be sent to an institution where he can be therapeutically bettered; or, if mentally deficient, to an institution where he can be scientifically treated, and, if possible, given work that will enable him to direct his minimal capacity so as to exempt him from purely custodial care.

The construction and location of the buildings at Sing Sing mean much more, therefore, than the mere erection of a series of large prison buildings for the detention of those who have violated the laws of the State. It will exist as a twentieth century prison elixir, which will take the recrement of society and so purge and refine it that the result will advance, rather than retard, the onward and upward movement of humanity.

STUDY OF THE PRISONER

In order fully to understand the problem of prison registration, let us follow the course taken by the convict upon his arrival at the Sing Sing of the future: Immediately upon entering the prison grounds, the Court Officer conducts him to the arrival room in the basement of the Registration Building. Here he is turned over to the prison authorities, who take and receipt for his personal property and clothes. The civilian clothes are removed for disinfection and storage. He is then led to the baths, situated across the hall from the property room. After being thoroughly bathed, and subjected to a hasty medical inspection, clean prison clothes are provided. Then, contagion from outside sources having been removed, the prisoner is lodged in a classification cell on the first floor, to await his turn for examination in the rooms provided for that purpose on the second floor. When the examiner is ready for him, he is taken upstairs to be photographed, weighed, finger-printed and generally “Bertilloned,” and is then sent across the hall to be given a preliminary examination for the determination of his general physical condition. This over, he is led to the educational examination room, where facts concerning his birth, occupation and general history are recorded, and an examination conducted to determine both the extent of his education and his occupational skill. Following that comes a careful mental examination in which the findings of those just preceding are fully utilized. As a result of these different examinations his first classification is made, subject of course to change from examinations to be conducted later.

THE REGISTRATION BUILDING

Besides containing the general Administration Offices, the Bureau of Registration and the Record Bureau the Registration Building will include a reception room where prisoners may converse with visiting relatives and friends. In the past this problem of a reception room for the visitors to prisoners was a difficult one for prison authorities, as it was practically impossible while allowing prisoners a reasonable amount of freedom for the discussion of private and confidential matters to prevent the transfer of weapons, liquors, drugs and implements of escape. This difficulty, however, we think, has now been successfully solved through the following arrangement: Two parts of a large room are separated by two wire nettings, so placed that they form an enclosed passage six feet in width, where guards can be stationed to prevent any attempt to pass articles to the prisoners without, at the same time, interfering in the carrying on of a conversation.

THE TEMPORARY DETENTION BUILDING (“No. 5”)

Adjacent to the Registration Building, and on the same high plateau overlooking the Hudson, is the Temporary Detention Building, with cell rooms on separate floors, so arranged as to place the prisoners under the constant supervision of the clinical experts, who will conduct their examinations in the adjoining Clinic Building.

THE CLINICAL LABORATORY

The clinical laboratory was developed under a medical commission composed of: Dr. Walter B. James, President of the New York Academy of Medicine; Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim, Chairman, New York State Hospital Commission; Dr. Thomas W. Salmon, Director of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene; Dr. G. H. Kirby, Director of the Psychiatric Institute of the State of New York; Dr. Isham G. Harris, Superintendent of the Brooklyn State Hospital; Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, Alienist, and Dr. W. F. Brewer, Surgeon. Provision has been made on the first floor for a modern X-ray apparatus and its various accessories; three rooms for the physician in charge of the venereal examinations; a surgical laboratory; rooms fitted for the examinations of the eye, ear and throat, psychiatric and psychological examining room, dental operating room and laboratory, and a laboratory for the use of the staff working in the diagnosis and examination rooms.