City Prisoners
City to house its own prisoners after ancient jail is renovated
News and Leader January 21, 1951
The high cost o
f prisoner upkeep at the county jail has persuaded the city to go back into operating its own walled-off hotel. At left is an exterior view of the old city jail behind police headquarters, which ceased to house prisoners in 1941 when Ruel Wommack, late commissioner of revenue, became county sheriff. Only the first floor will be used for prisoners. The second floor houses the fire department's complicated alarm system. Officer Neul Weaver, in uniform, and Detective Richard Hughes stand near the door at left and Detective Cleve Pusley is on the right. At right is an interior view of the jail. The interior will be repainted, the floor covered with some material not yet decided, new plumbing will be installed and other refurbishings to make the cells inhabitable will be done. A total of 15 men can be housed in the old jail. Detention cells on the second floor of police headquarters will be used for women prisoners. Police Chief Walker believes the city can save about $2,000 a year, now that the county wants $1.25 a day for each prisoner's maintenance plus a one dollar commitment fee for each. Formerly the city paid only one dollar for board and no commitment fee. Officers in the picture at right are Officer Weaver and Detective Pursley.
Images courtesy Springfield News-Leader. For more photographs from the News-Leader check out the From the Darkroom digitization project: thelibrary.org/fromthedarkroom
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