CITY JAIL TO DEFENDANTS: NO ROOM AT THE INN

By Juan Montoya
If you are a frequent lodger at the Brownsville City Jail on Jackson and Sixth and Seventh, you might want to take a sabbatical this week.
It appears that there are repairs underway at the old calaboose that is forcing the city to lodge its overnight guests (Public Intoxication, etc.) at the county lockup in Olmito.
(That's the rear entrance where cops bring their arests to the city jail, by the way.)
Now, those of us who at one time or another have partaken of the city cops' forced hospitality at the city jail know that it's seen better times. The last time some of us visited there there was the unmistakable stench of backup sewer emanating from the drunk tank and it wasn't the denizens there which were the cause.
A friend of ours who partoook of the lodgings there recently said he had imagined he was having a nightmare he was Jean Valjean of Victo Hugo's Les Miserables and was slogging though the sewers
of Paris. Then he woke up with a headache.
Now the City of Brownsville has undertaken a much-needed upgrade of the facilities.
Some of our friends who have been there lately say that maybe the jailers ought to work on some of the day-old sweet bread and sugarless coffee the overnight lodgers are given in the morning to help them face the harsh glare of sunlight when they are let out into street after their arraignment and bond is set at about midday.
Anyway, don't say you haven't been warned. The walk from Olmito back downtown is a mite far for a man in a tender condition to try to maneuver. If you do, however, cut across the road to the Sports Park, get on the bike trail and avoid the expressway. On better yet, stay out of trouble until the more familiar quarters (and improved, by the way) are back on line.