The Maycomb
county jail has apparently been constructed as an experiment in design by its architect:
"It was certainly someone's dream." Out of place with the utilitarian designs of the
other public buildings, the jail is described byas "a miniature Gothic joke" with its
flying buttresses on a narrow building wedged between two others.
This is the
same jailhouse in which Arthur Radley spent some time in the basement when he was an
impressionable youth who went around with the Old Sarum group. But the building's design is so
unorthodox and impractical for a jail that few would suspect its use. For instance, the building
is so narrow that there is only space enough for one cell, and it is only tall enough for two.
In addition, the windows appear to be more like those of a church than a jail. Then, too, on the
evening thatdecides he must protect Tom Robinson from falling into the grip of an angry mob, the
children notice that the building has inadequate lighting because Atticus has had to run an
extension cord down the center of the building, at the end of which is only one bare
bulb.
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