Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1910 — TUBERCULOSIS IN THE PRISON [ARTICLE]

TUBERCULOSIS IN THE PRISON

Per Cent, of Sufferers Is Enormous and There Seems but One Remedy. From several investigations that have been made by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, it is estimated that on an average about fifteen per cent, of the prison population of the country is afflicted with tuberculosis. On this basis, out of the 80,000 prisoners housed in the penal institutions of the United States at any given time, not less than 12,000 are infected with this disease. If the Philippine islands and other insular possessions were taken into consideration the number would be much larger. Some of the prisons of Pennsylvania, Kansas and Ohio, show such shocking conditions with reference to tuberculosis that many wardens admit that these places of detention are death traps. Similar conditions could be found in almost every state, and in the majority of cases the only sure remedy is the destruction of the old buildings and the erection of new ones.