Character Analysis
This guy's a jerk. He gets two paragraphs in which to be a jerk… and they seem endless.
Actually, he's much worse than a jerk. When Nancy tries to kill herself in his jail, he makes the racist remark that no "n*****" would commit suicide unless she was on cocaine because, as Quentin summarizes the jailer's view, "a n***** full of cocaine wasn't a n***** any longer" (1.13). There's no thought on the jailer's part that maybe Nancy is having some legitimate trouble.
It gets worse. He beats and whips Nancy after she tries to kill herself. Yikes.
The point of all this evilness from the jailer is that Nancy can't find help anywhere, not even from the supposedly fair judicial system, represented by the jailer. Instead, this authority in Jefferson chalks up her problems to drug use and sees fit to attack her… just like Mr. Stovall attacked her a little while before.