Show UTAH congress asked foran additional appropriation it required a good many years to coax congles into appropriating a miserable pittance of for the construction of a penitentiary for this territory after the a year or two more to get the money the building provided for is now approaching completion itis a fairly creditable structure and in it government has certainly gotten the worth of its money but now that the building is about ready for occupancy it is found to be only about half aa large as it should be containing accommodations for not more than half the people sent totham institution for longer or briefer pe noab the other dasy as was published at the time visited the Penitentiary and theres dt of its visit awas a letter to the secretary of urging more buildings and some improvements the marshal has to the department on the subject and congress will be asked to step irr as a humanitarian mani and provide certain relief we hope than will be asked for aad no less should As a matter of fact the cell building nearing corn 1 j 1 T S afe 4 te 0 A should bo duplicated and then ho more room than is demanded would be given furthermore provision should be made for the accommodation mo dation and safety of the arden and the guard the keepers dwelling is the rickety tumble down mud structure which was erected thirty years ago when the prison sometimes held two or three convicts and sometimes was empty the guards quarters are of the crudest and most primitive character and are no bettor than the considerate farmer would provide for his live acock and will not compare in the matter of comfort with the kennel of the admirer of blooded dogs the miserable dens into which the warden is forced to herd his family of convicts numbering over two hundred now and all the time increasing have been so often described in print with their vermin and stenches which cannot be avoided that the ordinary reader has long since grown tired of being told about them bad as men may be they are entitled to some consideration on the part of society and it government assumes to take charge of convicts and accused persons it should at least be humane in its treatment of them and what are wo to say of that mud wall inclosing the acre or such a matter within which the prisoners are herded T if it had not been for the vigilant guards pacing two and fro on its top the convicts would long since have leveled the wall with toothpicks and splinters I 1 and removed the unsafe and unsightly structure it so happens that this community like every other one develops an occasional female convict and once in a while the courts are forced to commit women to the penitentiary tent iary without being inhuman and downright brutal the warden of the utah penitentiary cannot literally comply with a commitment requiring him to keep a woman in the penitentiary the institution is absolutely without a place within the walls where women can be kepland kep tand females must be held in the wardens residence or in quarters unfit for human occupancy plainly the penitentiary is anything but what it should be in any respect that may be mentioned the only improvement or relief must come from congress and a sense of humanity should induce that body to act promptly the herald erasts that such a representation of facts will be made as will cause congress to make the appropriations required for continuing the improvements inaugurated last year it is not asking too much to request that the government will cease to be barbarous herald |