In 1867, a bond issue was proposed in Pettis County for the purpose of building a county jail. The issue carried, and a jail was built in 1872 at 220 South Lamine Avenue.
Early photographs of the building show the two-story residence of the sheriff, his office, and a kitchen used for preparing food for the prisoners at the front of the building.
The jail itself was a one-story wing at the rear of the building. The jail wing measured forty feet by one hundred feet.
The building had, like many of the buildings in Sedalia at the time, solid brick walls four bricks deep. Both the residence and the jail had long segmental arched windows.
Prisoners frequently escaped from the jail.
The construction techniques of the time were partially responsible for the large number of escapes.
The bricks used to build the jail, although they were fired in a kiln, would today be considered “soft.” The bricks were held together by a lime mortar without the Portland cement that is used today to hold hard bricks together.
The mortar could be easily chipped away and bricks removed, allowing prisoners to tunnel their way out of the jail. Wooden planks were later put over the walls to prevent the prisoners from tunneling their way out.
The jail had two double steel cells; each of these cells contained four smaller cells.
The cells were segregated by race. The north cells were used by African-Americans and the south cells housed white prisoners.
Cells for women and juveniles were placed on top of these cell blocks.
A bathroom with a sink and a toilet was placed outside the cell blocks. A guard had to be called to accompany the prisoners to use the facilities.
One of the tasks of the Grand Jury was to inspect city and county owned buildings.
As early as 1891, the Grand Jury reported that the jail was “too small.” Its ventilation was “poor.” New toilets were needed. The furnishings were “totally inadequate.” The jail was a “disgrace to the county.”
In 1926, the Sedalia Democrat reported on the findings of the Grand Jury. It had found the conditions at the jail “intolerable.”
Conditions at the jail were not the fault of jail official Mr. Dillard and his wife, who were “doing the very best that could possibly be done with the building in its present state.”
The Grand Jury also noted that a building a new jail had been recommended each year for the past
In 1930, the Grand Jury noted that the prisoners were given “fair and proper treatment” by the jail officials. They were doing their best to make it “suitable for the confinement of prisoners.”
However, the building was “insecure.”
The Grand Jury blamed the problem on the “obsolete” materials used and the construction. It also
In 1933, the Grand Jury was more specific in the report of its findings. The jail needed a “thorough cleaning and renovation.”
The large cell block needed to be repaired and “made sanitary.”
The roof of the living quarters of the jail official had several leaks that needed to be repaired. Then the ceiling should be re-plastered and new wall paper installed.
The Grand Jury also noted that female prisoners had to be taken out through the male prisoners’ quarters. If a fire were to break out in the jail, it was unlikely that the female prisoners could be rescued.
The Grand Jury recommended than an outside exit from the women’s quarters be constructed. In addition the existing lock on the women prisoners’ door needed to be repaired.
It suggested a separate holding cell for juvenile offenders waiting to be taken to the courthouse for trial.
The Grand Jury suggested building a padded cell for the occasional mentally ill person who had to be housed in the jail while waiting to be taken to a state facility for the mentally ill.
The jail also needed a dozen metal cots, mattresses and blankets.
Next week’s column details other Grand Jury reports.
Rhonda Chalfant is active in the Sedalia/Pettis County chapter of NAACP and the Pettis County Historical Society.
