THE TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH LADIES’
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE REFORMATION OF FEMALE PRISONERS, 1858.
FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE HOWARD
INSTITUTION, 1858.
FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WOMEN’S PRISON ASSOCIATION OF NEW
YORK. “THE ISAAC T. HOPPER HOME,” 191 TENTH AVENUE, 1859.
Although the number of female inmates of our Penitentiaries is
comparatively small, their reformation is not less an object of
interest. Certain it is, that efforts directed to them have been crowned
with a remarkable degree of success, in proportion to their numbers.
Prison returns show that it is much more rare for a female to return, on
a second conviction, than for a male; and though a bad woman may be a
much more revolting object than an equally bad man, she must be very
radically and thoroughly degraded not to show more susceptibility of
kind and good influences than most male prisoners show. Whether it is
the world-wide fame of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Fry and the stimulus of
her bright example, that has drawn unusual attention to the subject, or
whether the wealth and leisure of ladies of rank and distinction, has
enabled them to devote more attention and patronage to the reformation
and restoration to society, of women who have fallen under the
condemnation of penal law, we cannot say. But, certainly, the provision
for such unhappy persons is much more liberal, systematic and extensive
in the British Isles, than anything known among us.
We have before us “the twenty-seventh (1858) report of the Committee of
the British Ladies’ Society for promoting the reformation of female
prisoners.” With the parent institution there are connected ten county
associations, besides five in Scotland, and the report embraces notices,
more or less extensive, of the transactions of each of them. The central
committee is subdivided into sub-committees, to each of which is
assigned the care of one of the seven principal prisons of the
metropolis in which female convicts are received.
There is a distinct sub-committee, consisting of ten ladies and two
secretaries, known as the Patronage Committee. “It sits on every Friday,
and its especial duty is to attend to those cases of discharged
prisoners from metropolitan gaols which are recommended to its care by
the authorities of the prisons, or by ladies who visit there. Endeavors
are made to investigate the previous history of each individual; and if
there be reason to believe that one is in earnest in the desire to
reform, measures are taken to assist her in so doing.
“The rule of the Patronage Committee is, that the prisoner appears
before them immediately on her liberation, to comply with which rule she
often voluntarily stays back in the prison till Friday. She brings with
her, under the charge of a warder, a certificate of health, and the
written answers to a list of printed questions.”
Sometimes a little temporary out-door relief meets the necessity of the
case, and occasionally an immediate return to her family is deemed
advisable; but in the large majority of instances, these poor women are
entirely unfit to be restored to society at large without further
probation. A refuge is needed to give the opportunity of preparation for
entering upon the duties of a changed course of life. “The quiet
discipline of those institutions, the word of God there faithfully
taught, the encouraging influence of Christian ladies there met with,
have mercifully been blessed to the softening of many a hard heart, and
to the healing of many a broken spirit.”
When it is believed that the penitence is sincere, and the hope of
restoration decided, the individual is sent direct to the “Elizabeth Fry
Refuge,” as a preliminary to other more permanent asylums, or to await
the future arrangements that may appear most desirable for her. The
funds of the “Elizabeth Fry Refuge” permit fifteen of these patronage
cases to be kept in the house free of expense, as on the foundation; all
above that number are paid for by the British Ladies’ Society, at the
rate of $1.75 each, weekly.
Two hundred and sixty-four cases were disposed of by this committee
between June, 1856, and June, 1858.
The report contains brief notices of the cases occurring at the several
prisons, and it is quite evident that the machinery is well adapted to
the purpose in view, and is eminently successful in its workings.
There can be no doubt of the softening and subduing influence exerted
upon the mind of a prisoner under almost any circumstances, by the visit
of an intelligent Christian friend. However kind and sympathising the
attending officers may be, “the presence of some one connected with the
outer world is in itself a relief from the monotony of prison life. Thus
the prisoner is predisposed to listen kindly to words kindly spoken, by
one who voluntarily, for a time, shares her cell, and reads the only
book which reveals authoritatively the terms of acceptance on which both
must rely for pardon and salvation.”
To those who are disposed to serve in the self-denying and often
discouraging work of prison-visiting, it may not be amiss to suggest
that the prompt attention to each new case is very important. An
influence for good may be acquired, which will, perhaps, give a new
direction to the conduct of the prisoner for the full time of penal
servitude. The voice of kindness and sympathy heard when the offender
_first_ realizes the consequences of his course, may be more efficacious
than at any subsequent period.
There is a public institution, corresponding in its principal features
to the houses of reception to which we have referred. It is the
Government “Refuge” at Fulham. Prisoners who have conducted themselves
well at Millbank and Brixton, and who are likely to profit by more
individual attention than they can receive at either of those prisons,
are, during the concluding period of their imprisonment, placed in the
Government ‘Refuge’ at Fulham. Being selected with a view to their being
placed in service, or being provided with some means of obtaining an
honest livelihood after they are liberated, they are instructed in
laundry and household work of every kind; and every means employed in
the best Reformatories are here afforded, with the encouragement of
knowing that, while they behave well, the penal character of this last
stage of imprisonment is merged in the enjoyment of all the spiritual
and temporal privileges which they could meet with in an asylum for the
free. We are enabled to state, on the best authority, that, out of
eighty cases which had left the Fulham Refuge in the month of April
last, sixty were doing well.
Among the country institutions, having in view the welfare of discharged
female prisoners, and not under the control of a Government or
Magistrates, is a refuge at Bristol, “where the hopeful discharged
female prisoner (above sixteen years of age) enters _direct_ from prison
by her own free will, and under a promise to submit to the rules of the
house. _She undergoes a probation of three weeks or a month in her
dormitory_, during which time she is daily visited by one or more
ladies, who thus obtain a moral influence before the probationer is
admitted to hold free intercourse with her future companions.” Thus
prepared, the inmates are afterwards trained to all sorts of household
employment. Daily religious instruction is given, and the singing of
psalms and hymns practised; they are also taught reading and writing,
and the first elements of arithmetic and geography; knitting, also, that
very useful branch of female industry, is introduced. Ten young women
have been provided during the year with respectable situations, and not
one of them has again been accused of dishonesty. It is mentioned as an
evidence of the genuineness of reform, that a small gold brooch, found
by one of the inmates, while clearing a room, was given up, and, after
many inquiries for the owner, was restored to a lady who had visited the
asylum; also, that a £5 note, folded very small, was found by the
youngest inmate; this, also, was immediately given up, and restored to
the owner, a few hours afterwards.
In the report of the Exeter Refuge allusion is made to the fact, that
the introduction of the SEPARATE SYSTEM into the prison there, has
reduced the number of prisoners greatly. Of 199 discharged female
prisoners received, fifteen are now under care, and a good account is
given of 104 who have left it. We cannot but regard such a measure of
success as most encouraging. That much of this success is owing to the
individual separation of the convicts cannot be doubted. Indeed, the
visitors to the Falmouth Prison emphatically condemn it for the absence
of that principle. “With regard to our prison I can say nothing
encouraging; there is no change with regard to its arrangements. Some of
those who are interested for the poor people immured within its walls,
do what they can to keep the necessity of improvement before the public,
and there are two who visit regularly, as they may find it convenient,
but I fear they can say nothing with regard to the effect produced. We
feel that we must keep in view the injunction, ‘In the morning sow thy
seed,’ &c. Could solitary (separate) confinement be but partially
carried out, the case would be more encouraging; and we shall be most
glad to have such a prison as would allow of our making trial of it.”
And in respect to the Gloucester Prison, a lady who has visited it
regularly, says: “City convicts are received by the county; but
prisoners before trial, summary convictions and prostitutes all herd
together in one common ward and yard by day, and one large room by
night, both rooms being out of sight and hearing of the Matron. I
believe that I have mentioned this often to you; but it is so great an
evil, and so dangerous to the comparatively innocent, that I cannot but
advert to it again.”
In the city of Utrecht a new prison, on the Cellularian or separate
plan, has been erected, and a Ladies’ Committee, formed, like the one in
London; and the government of Holland has expressed a wish that near
every prison such a Society be established, with full permission to
visit the prisoners. In Stockholm, also, is a Ladies’ Committee. “There
is not a female prisoner in Stockholm who is not visited once in the
week, or who has not at least the opportunity of hearing the word of God
explained to her in one of the departments of the large house for penal
servitude, where their attendance on Sunday is voluntary.”
The readers of our Journal are aware that in Philadelphia and New York,
and perhaps in other cities of the United States, similar organizations
have existed for many years. Among them is the “Howard Institution,”
under the care of an Association of Women-Friends of Philadelphia, the
object of which is, “the care and reformation of female prisoners, who,
after a term of imprisonment, manifest a disposition to reform; or
others who, on account of their evil habits, need Christian counsel,
moral restraint and domestic discipline. To accomplish this, a home is
provided to shelter them from evil associations; to surround them with
wholesome moral and religious influences; to inculcate good principles,
and habits of neatness and industry; to instruct them in domestic
duties, so as to qualify them for usefulness; and after a term of
probation, to obtain for them respectable situations in town or
country.”
The Fourth Annual Report of the Institution (whose house of reception is
1612 Poplar Street) shows, that during the year fifty women have been
admitted, and remained under care from one week to several months. The
necessity of some such provision for this class of our fellow-citizens
is not exaggerated. “However trivial may have been the crime of which
the prisoner was convicted, (and that many are convicted of _very
slight_ offences, there is no doubt); however well she may have
conducted during her incarceration, the _name_ and _stigma_ of _convict_
is upon her. Often she is without home or friends, with insufficient
clothing, hungry and penniless. If she _had friends_, they are alienated
from her; it may have been years that she has been separated from
them—they have forgotten her. _None_ will receive her into their houses.
None will give her employment. What can she do? Perhaps the sparks of
virtue are _not yet_ extinguished. In the solitude of her prison cell
she may have formed good resolutions; there may be an earnest struggle
in her soul after a better life; but she is weak. The tempter comes in;
cold and hunger and neglect, drive her to despair and crime. Her desires
for reformation are lost among evil associations; and she sinks deeper
into the gulf of depravity and wretchedness. Who will say that humanity
is doing its duty to these poor outcasts?”
The report before us affords gratifying evidence that endeavors to
rescue and restore to respectability and usefulness those unhappy women
are not misplaced. “In a _majority_ of cases the Institution has been a
blessing to those who have been subject to its discipline.”
The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Women’s Prison Association of New
York, concerns a charity hereafter to be known as “The Isaac T. Hopper
Home,” and it brings to view some interesting facts, and presents strong
claims to generous assistance. The institution has been for several
years independent of the New York Prison Association. Its object is to
ameliorate the condition of female prisoners, improve the discipline and
government of prisons so far as females are concerned, and to give
temporary support and encouragement to reformed female convicts. To give
system and efficiency to their laudable efforts, they earnestly desired
help in erecting a building adapted to that purpose, and at one time had
flattering prospects of success. They had reasonable ground to believe,
that with suitable accommodations, they might make the home a
self-sustaining house of industry; but their expectations were not
realized, and as the only alternative they purchased and put in repair
the house they have long occupied.
We have often adverted to the lessons which a sound economy reads to us
on the subject of caring for discharged prisoners. When it is considered
what immeasurable injury a single evil-disposed person may do, and what
expenses mere vagrants or petty thieves, to say nothing of forgers and
counterfeiters, impose on the community, it cannot be regarded as a
matter of trivial moment whether an enemy of society is transformed into
a friend, and a burden into a help. Hence the managers of the Society
repudiate the idea that they are beggars, and claim to be instruments of
a true economy.
“The subjects of our care” (say they) “are costly dependents of the
City’s Treasury. They not only are fed, clothed, and housed by the city,
but their crimes waste the property of our citizens, and their
misfortunes swell their taxes. Who are the inmates of our Home? A few
young women may occasionally be found there—strangers in the country,
wanderers from their natural homes, who, alone and friendless in this
great city, have fallen, not from vicious propensities, but through
sheer misfortune; and a few there are whom we have also found in your
prisons, the victims of wrong suspicion and helplessness. All these,
after a short novitiate, we have restored to decent life, and productive
industry. But for our interposition, they must have remained, with
hardly an exception, your costly pensioners. Some of our inmates are
from Sing-Sing—convicts, who have been sent there for the lighter class
of crimes so punishable; but by far the greater part are from the
Tombs—Blackwell’s Island—persons committed for petty offences, or merely
for vagrancy. These are the victims of intemperance. They are led astray
at first by the social element of the Irish, by an inherited appetite,
by bad company, by the thousand influences and temptations that beset
the ignorant and neglected, by the brutal treatment and desertion of
husbands, by wrong, disappointment, and despair. These offenders are
tried in the Municipal Courts, and sent for weeks, or months, as the
case may be, to Blackwell’s Island. At the end of their ‘term’ they
return to the city homeless and friendless: a few hours, days, or weeks
at farthest, find them again making the same circuit through commitment,
trial, and ‘term’ on ‘the Island’—and all at the expense of the sober,
hard-working citizen, who, if he takes time to look at the matter, will
be somewhat startled to find how much he has to pay to the police, the
justices, the prison officials of all degrees, from the head
superintendent to the driver of the ‘Black Maria,’ and the expensive
_lodging houses_ of Blackwell’s Island.” And again, “all we do, is a
clear saving to the city. We do not count merely the time that our
inmates are sustained at the Home, for—though they are supported by the
public, by their charities, instead of their taxes, yet two thirds of
those received at the Home during the last year, have been sent to
places: not only has the public been relieved from their support, but
they have become productive laborers. We would make no erroneous
impressions. These people do not all remain steadfast. They are, for the
most part, adult children, liable to go astray at any strong temptation
or impulse, or to fall back under the despotism of old habits. They
require to be watched and trained, kindly guided and cared for; and they
do not _always_ find religious zeal, patience, skill, and tender
forbearance in their employers. Still, under all their inevitable
disadvantages, many of our inmates have persevered steadfastly in a good
life, proving to the most sceptical, that with God’s blessing on the
helping-hand, they can be saved.”
The facts are very stubborn. Here are one hundred and twenty-five women,
addicted for the most part to degrading and infamous vices—living in
vagrancy, dishonesty, drunkenness and prostitution; and a large
proportion of them familiar with the corruption and degradation of
prison life. Somebody must look after them, and none but practical,
zealous, working women, who will give themselves to such a task—not for
a visit or two, nor for a few days or weeks, but for months, and
perhaps, for years—seeking out, watching over, encouraging and guiding
those who are susceptible of improvement, if not of radical reform.
A few such are found, and the one hundred and twenty-five outcasts are
gathered to “The Isaac T. Hopper Home.” There are some interesting cases
among them, and they are all objects of interest; but, says one, “Do you
really expect to do any permanent good to such people?” And another
exclaims, “How disgusting it must be!” And a third, “How very
disagreeable to go to such horrible places! How much better and wiser to
drop a twenty or a fifty dollar bank note to the board of managers, or
the matron, saying, You have hard materials to make up. Here is an
expression of my sympathy. The friend of the friendless bless and
prosper you.” But what has become of the one hundred and twenty-five
inmates received during the year? Why, seventy of them were sent to
service, and generally in the country. Of course they are not burdens to
the public treasury while in this position, nor are they plundering
houses and stores, nor provoking home brawls and street fights. This is
no little saving all around. They not only cease to be burdens; they
have been converted into producers; one has twenty, another fifty, and
another seventy dollars reserved from earned wages. The cleansing,
tidying, training, encouraging and aiding received at the Home, have
fitted them for, and introduced them to, respectable and useful
occupations. What sum shall we set against this as the probable amount
of expense in arrests, prosecutions, sustenance, gaol fees, &c., had
they been suffered to pursue their chosen way.
But some are discharged, and others leave, and ere long find their old
lodgings in the Tombs or on the “Island.” Yes, that is so, but mark
this! “They almost invariably appeal to us again for aid, and receive
it, ☞ and _each time the period of their perseverance in good is
prolonged_.” This is hopeful. It invites us to patience and faith. A
single peach or pear on a favorite tree, or a single bunch of grapes on
a choice vine, during the first bearing season, gives more pleasure than
a peck of fruit in any subsequent year. The field which these benevolent
ladies and their sisters of charity in our own city and the British
metropolis, are called to cultivate, is covered with a luxurious growth
of wild and poisonous plants, in every stage of growth and bearing.
Their labor and skill, with the aid of the Divine husbandman, is devoted
to an insertion here and there as opportunity offers, of a graft from a
better stock. If it “takes,” they are encouraged to hope for fruit in
due time; and though disappointments are not rare, success is frequent
enough to animate and encourage them, and shall ensure them the hearty
sympathy and generous aid of those whose taxes are lightened, whose
property is saved from depredation, indirectly at least by their
instrumentality.
The house occupied by the “Howard Institution” is perhaps as convenient
as any one that is not originally designed for such a purpose; but it
does not afford such opportunities of _individualizing_ the treatment as
would be desirable. The New York premises are probably no better in this
respect.
We cannot refrain from expressing the conviction that the more rigidly
persons who have been convicted of crime can be separated one from
another, until their resolutions to lead an amended life are fully
confirmed and well tested, the less the danger of a relapse. We are
aware of the argument sometimes used, viz.: That these principles cannot
be tested till the parties are exposed to temptation. But there are
temptations enough in the ordinary circumstances of life. If a young
woman, discharged from the penitentiary, and received into some “Home”
or “Refuge,” should be kept from all association with those who have
been in like condemnation, until she is prepared for, and provided with,
some place in the country, the first day in her new position would
present temptations enough to test her newly acquired strength.
Industry, honesty, truthfulness and sobriety are every day virtues. If
they are possessed they will show themselves without urging, but while
under any degree of restraint or inspection these virtues may be
counterfeited. It is not needful to put them into the company of a
vagrant, a thief, a liar or a drunkard to bring them out. On the
contrary, our true policy is to keep them as far apart as possible, and
especially when the virtues are struggling to supplant the vices.
Let our penitentiaries and county gaols provide for strict individual
separation, accommodation and employment of all prisoners, of every
grade, tried and untried. Let kind, judicious, intelligent friends visit
them, express proper sympathy with them, and hold out encouragement to
them. Upon their discharge, let there be found a place of temporary
refuge where they can be comfortably provided for, relieved from the
pressure of immediate temptation, exempted from any associations
unfriendly to their permanent reform, and prepared by a reasonable
probation for some employment. The moment this is accomplished, and some
benevolent heart is opened to give the party an opportunity to retrieve
a forfeited place in the confidence of the community, let it be embraced
with a continuance of the watchful care which may be still needed in
unforeseen emergencies.
With these precautions and aids we are confident thousands of our
convicts might be rescued from reckless criminality or hopeless despair,
and some of the most prolific sources of crime be dried up. The
government is bound, by every consideration of public policy, to aid
liberally in restoring to honest and virtuous ways those who have been
subjected to penal suffering, and who are disposed to amend their lives.
Its functions do not begin nor end in arrests, convictions and
sentences. It is to employ all practicable means of keeping people out
of crime, by encouraging and sustaining schools—literary, industrial and
reformatory, and bringing ALL the children and youth of the country
under their influence. And when, in spite of all these wholesome
provisions, men and women do betake themselves to criminal courses, and
have suffered the just reward of their deeds, it is the duty of the
government not to leave them, at the expiration of their sentence, to
shift for themselves, but to hold out a kind hand to them, if they are
inclined to better ways, and assist them to regain a creditable position
among their fellow men. Society has the worst of it if they relapse into
their previous associations and practices. And hence, we earnestly plead
for the support and encouragement, by public and private liberality, of
every sensible scheme to convert a convict into an honest man—an enemy
of society into a friend and helper.