Photos from the Vault

Sheriff’s Honor Farm opened

TRIAL RUN…Capt. Miles Sanders, left, is just pretending to pour that cup of coffee for sheriff Paul Merrick as son Randy looks on. Sanders conducted the sheriff and his boy on a final inspection tour of the soon-to-be-opened “honor camp” where most of the county jail inmates will soon be sent to serve their sentences. The big stove being inspected by the sheriff was salvaged from rejects at the county hospital. Prison work crews repaired, painted and installed it in the revamped barracks that will be the dining hall. (Telegram-Tribune photo)

June 22, 1959
The one of the unintended consequences of having army bases in the area is when the government declares something surplus, other organizations benefit. San Luis Obispo’s water supply is anchored by the Salinas Dam. A church in Los Osos now holds services in a remodeled a surplus chapel.
In 1959 the county sheriff Paul Merrick was pursuing the newest trend in in jails, the honor camp.
For five years the sheriff put together the program on a shoestring. Abandoned stoves and other equipment was salvaged from the old county hospital. Eight buildings were remodeled and repainted from the vacated edge of Camp San Luis Obispo. The work was done by prisoners including refurbishing an old boiler, recovered with asbestos and plaster to look like new. Prison work crews were to be employed on civic work, cleaning county parks and beaches.
If I remember correctly the main jail at the time was in the dark basement of the courthouse on Osos Street. This may be the first move of facilities out to the current location on Kansas Ave.
Quoting from the story by George Grey:

Men who earn the privileges of living at the camp, and they must earn it by hard work, good behavior and strict discipline, will live as free men.
There are no bars on the windows, no armed guards and they will spend their days in the sunshine on light work projects.
The county supplies them with tobacco, regular work clothes and the privilege of visiting with their families each Sunday in a special building called the “recreation center.”
Men who work hard, obey the rules and keep their honor will have up to one third of their sentence reduced. A man sentenced to three months in jail can earn one month of “good time” and be released with a totally different outlook on life and the community which had sent him to jail.
Sheriff Merrick feels that the most important job to be done by the honor camp will be the rehabilitation of men. “Just one man returned to a useful, productive life in the community is worth the entire program,” he said.
Any men who do run away will find themselves in deep trouble. The punishment for escape means a term in the state prison and sometimes solitary confinement up to a year. A stiff price to pay for breaking his word of honor.
“Barbed wire and bars are not necessary with most men,” said Merrick, “the most powerful chain in the world is a man’s word of honor. And sometimes a prisoner is a man, sometimes he’s a friend or neighbor, a man who just got in trouble with the law. He can serve his sentence and return to a good life.”

The photographs are uncredited, likely made by the reporter. Real storytelling moments were hard to find in the photography of that era. Most reporters were happy with a posed image of the people they quoted.
Leave the photojournalism for Life magazine.
The negatives are gone but glossy 4×5 inch commercial prints survived in the CMC folder. It looks like the reporter dropped off the film at a local shop then wrote captions on the back in pencil. Later copy editors would mark them with penciled crop marks and sizes for the production department to make halftones. The caption mostly repeats what is in the story.