The Ranchero [Corpus Christi, TX], August 11, 1860
Nueces county stands in need of one of those institutions known as a jail. Scarcely a week or month passes but what the very letter of the law and justice are defeated, solely for the want of a suitable place of incarceration. Security, alike to the prisoner and the peace of society, demand that the proper authorities should at once take efficient steps to have one built. A man in the heat of excitement, infuriated by the intoxicating bowl, stalks rampant through our streets, and before a restraint can be brought to bear upon him, commits some bloody deed, ending in the loss of his own life, and perhaps that of others. An everlasting, deadly feud is created, justice has been trampled upon, and the peace and dignity of the community grossly outraged. Had there been a jail provided—the transgressor arrested before he had carried his uproarious riotings to the gates of death—and held in durance until cool reflection and reason were restored, how much better it would have been for all parties.
Mainly for the reason of there being no jail, the ends of justice are entirely defeated in many cases, and retarded in all. Every citizen expects an offender to be arrested by the proper officers; but consider the situation of an officer after an arrest has been made. He is without the power of enforcing the mandates of the law. No fund has been provided for the keeping, nor no guard detailed for the security of prisoners.—These things have to be provided, and the expense borne and paid by the Sheriff. Otherwise it is not done at all, in which case it virtually amounts to letting the prisoner go. It cannot be expected of the Sheriff to exceed the provisions made by the County Court for the detention of offenders against the public peace. It cannot be expected of him to be banker for the county, and to maintain a guard to enforce the police regulations of the State. It is the imperative duty of the County Court to provide and facilitate the Sheriff with every means to enforce all requirements against offenders. True, the Sheriff gets an allowance in county script, worth a few dimes on the dollar, for the expense he incurs; but that is a poor equivalent for federal currency paid out.
A county without a jail is like a safe without a lock—its organization exists in name, but in effect, nothing. Desperate characters know this, and commit crimes which the moral restraint of a jail would prevent. After crime has been committed, and the guilty one escapes, or summary punishment has been meeted out to him, how many men are then ready (in word) to give any amount had an arrest been made! But where are these men with their donations—they who have the good of the community so firmly at heart—when arrests are made? As the negro said of the exploded steamboat, they are “no whar” to be found. A place should be provided where these benevolent gentlemen could, when in their patriotic moods, deposit a fund to assist the Sheriff in the execution of his duty. It would be faithfully applied to that purpose.
At the last session of the Legislature, an act was passed authorizing the County court of this County to levy and collect a special tax upon all property subject to taxation, not at a greater annual rate than one-half of one per cent., to be appropriated to the purpose of enabling this county, at the discretion of the County Court thereof, to acquire a suitable building site for a jail and appurtenances, and to erect a secure jail, with room for jailor and guards. The same act confers on the County Court the power to give material aid for other purposes which our necessities do not actually require, and which is an excess of authority that should not be reposed in the hands of so few; but so far as the building of a jail is concerned, we believe that nine- tenths of the tax-payers would willingly say and even demand that the power conferred by the act should be exercised. If there is any doubt among our citizens about the expediency of enforcing this law, let them come forward and assist the county by taking her bonds to a sufficient extent to raise a fund large enough for the purpose contemplated. The question is, a jail or no jail. Those who maintain the affirmative, should be working to attain the desired end. Those who stand on the negative side, will find some point to quibble about, to try and defeat what Nueces county stands most in need of—a good and secure prison.