The wood pile has taken the place of the rock pile, and from now on all those who are compelled to work out the amount of their fines will do so with a bucksaw and put in a good ten hours a day. The city officials have put in a lot of cordwood, which was brought from the supply at the city water plant, and have it on tap in close vicinity to the city lockup.
    The police got tired of serving meals to prisoners who had nothing else to do but kill time while waiting for the time when they would be free men once more. Now they just lock them in the old jail building with a nice pile of wood and tell them to "do nothing but saw wood." From the way business has been improving in the recorder's court, it would appear that the stock of wood will not last many months.
    George Riley, the man they don't speak of so highly, appeared before Recorder Benj. M. Collins this morning. He is the Irishman who got in both an argument and a fight with "John Anderson, My Joe John," over the merits and demerits of the Scotch and the Irish, and he caused Anderson to appear as if he had been used for the purpose of cleaning up the whole of Seventh Street--and then some.
    The recorder thought that Anderson had been punished enough and let him go with a warning, but he socked a fine of $30 to Riley. Like most of the others who appear, he had spent all his money and said he guessed he would have to serve his time in jail.
    "We have a nice little job waiting for you," said the recorder, as he sized up the strapping and scrappy Irishman. "You can just work on the rock pi--I mean the wood pile, for 15 days." Everyone present laughed at the break the recorder had made except Mr. Riley, and he glared around the room as if he failed to see what there was to laugh about.
Medford Mail, September 18, 1908, page 5


    E. J. Curry alias Fisk, a man who was under arrest here on the charge of having broken into a clothing establishment at Albany, Ore., last Sunday night and taken from $300 to $500 worth of goods, with which he fled to Medford and was arrested here Tuesday by Chief of Police Adams and Deputy Sheriff George Alden, sawed the lock off his cell door at the city prison sometime last night and walked out of the building to freedom.
    His absence was discovered early this morning when an officer went to take him out to a restaurant in time to turn him over to Sheriff Richards of Linn County, who had planned to take him back to Albany on the early morning train. No trace has been found of the erstwhile prisoner, who is thought to be a professional criminal.
    Sheriff Richards did not wait, but left on the train for Albany, taking with him the main part of the loot obtained in Sunday night's burglary and recovered by the police in this city.
    It seems that Curry made a small file out of the spring in his cheap watch, and as he is a small-sized man easily put his hand and forearm through the cell bars around to the cell lock and by hours of sawing managed to saw out the lock. Then he deliberately walked out of the prison, as the one entrance to the corridor opens onto the street and is never locked inside because prisoners are not kept in the corridor.
    According to Curry's own story told to Chief Adams, the latter says, following his arrest, he committed the burglary at Albany last Sunday night by breaking a skylight and letting a rope ladder down through it into the store. Thus he worked at his leisure and carried out several suits of clothes, fine underwear, an overcoat, scarfs, ties, shoes and suitcases. This plunder he packed into suitcases, and then donning a new suit and a $65 overcoat he boarded the southbound train, which stops at Albany about 4 a.m., and came to Medford, the train reaching here about 3:30 o'clock Monday afternoon.
    Curry then went to the Hotel Medford where he registered as from Alaska, and on Tuesday he sold two of the suits to a local second-hand dealer and tried to sell others on the street so cheaply that a report of it reached Chief of Police Adams. The latter officer started a quiet investigation and kept his man under surveillance until finally having become satisfied that he was a crook, he and Deputy Sheriff Alden placed him under arrest.
    By dint of much questioning, especially after he had found most of the stolen goods in Curry's room at the hotel, the prisoner, the chief says, finally came clean with the story of the burglary. A notebook found among his effects showed that Curry had recently been in Denver, Cheyenne and Casper, Wyo., and that he came to Albany from Casper.
    When first accosted by Chief Adams the suspected man put up the stall that he had just been retired from army service in Alaska, and in buying new civilian clothes, got too many of them, therefore he was selling them cheap. It is claimed that fourteen suits were stolen from the Albany store.
    Adams allowed Curry to keep wearing the suit he had on, rather than have him go naked, but the stolen overcoat was taken from him. Hence unless Curry has been able to get other clothing he is wandering around in the thin summer suit he was wearing when he walked out of the city prison.
    Curry is described as 34 years of age, weight 145 pounds, height 5 feet 6 inches and dark hair and complexion. He has rather a foreign look, but talks good English.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 27, 1923, page 1




    Apparently having in mind the successful attempt of G. W. Pilcher and Stanley Hagen, alleged youthful federal car thieves, to break out of the city jail last Sunday evening by hammering the cell lock to pieces with a piece of the jail bed, Lyle Poole and Fred Reavis, parole violators from the state training school, in a like manner made an unsuccessful attempt to break from the city prison late yesterday afternoon. They are now in the county jail and will probably be taken to Salem tomorrow.
    They were to have been taken by motor yesterday afternoon to the training school and were left in the city jail a short time, not over an hour, according to Chief of Police McCredie. In that time the youths had succeeded in tearing off two pieces of iron from the jail bunk and were about ready to commence operations on the cell lock when they were discovered. The lock, however, say the police, was made of such strong material that it would have been impossible to hammer open. The pieces of iron can be seen at the police station and indicate that much force was necessary to pry them loose. Medford Mail Tribune, February 23, 1927, page 1


    There are other creepy things besides those incidental to movie mystery plays, and they are small and numerous in Medford's city prison, despite that the latter is thoroughly cleaned often--sometimes. And among the moneyless and homeless traveling fraternity there are some men whom nothing could please. As witness:
    A fairly well-dressed young man belonging to the temporary hobo class during a rainy night recently applied at the police station for a place to sleep, and was conducted into the prison, given some blankets and then gratefully lay down on one of the cell cots to sleep. The only other occupants of the prison were several other hobo sleepers, and rhe prison was left unlocked.
    A half hour later the finicky young man surprised the policeman on duty by entering the police station and while scratching his itching body in various places, politely saying:
    "Thanks tor the accommodations but I can't use 'em. They (the
creepers) are too much for me."
    Then he disappeared into the rainy night, while the several other
hoboes continued to slumber and scratch.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 19, 1931, page 3