THE PRISONER ON LIBERATION
His condition--His need--Alleged persecution of ex-prisoners--
Discharged prisoners' aid societies--Work--Temptations--The discharged
female offender--The attitude of women towards her--"Homes"--The
women's objections to them--Pay--The religious atmosphere and the
harmful associations--The effect of imprisonment.
While in prison a man has been cut off from the life of the world. He has
had no visits from his friends save once in three months, and as there is
no newspaper which he is permitted to see, he is ignorant of any changes
that may have occurred during the time of his incarceration. Those who
have at any time been confined to the house by sickness may dimly
appreciate his condition. Although they may have been visited by their
friends; kept in touch with social movements in which they were
interested; and generally helped to a knowledge of passing events of
interest; they must have found something strange in the aspect of things
when they were first allowed out.
Even after a holiday it takes a man some little time to get the hang of
his work. In the case of the liberated prisoner the difficulty is greatly
aggravated. He may find that during his seclusion friends have died or
have left the district, and if a first offender who feels the degradation
he has brought on himself, he is likely to be sensitive as to the bearing
of others towards him. He needs help; he dreads rebuff; and he does not
know where to seek assistance. He may readily misinterpret the attitude of
others towards him and imagine that men whom he has known are giving him
the cold shoulder, when, in fact, they have not seen him. He has been shut
off from the company of others, and he feels the need of fellowship with
someone. He can always have that from those who, like himself, have been
through the mill; and he may be led by them into further mischief.
Our interference with the offender results in his removal, for a time,
from the associations and habits to which he has been accustomed; to that
extent the power over him of these associations and habits may be
weakened; but no matter where we put him, we cannot hinder him from
learning new habits, and these may or may not be useful to him on his
liberation. The more powerful the influence of his later interests the
less likely he is to seek to return to his old pursuits. The thing which
no man can do without is fellowship or comradeship of some sort. He will
seek it even although in the process he may be injured thereby; and it is
because drink makes the company of some men more tolerable to each other
that so many take it. It is not so much that they wish to get drunk; they
could do that alone; and at first, at any rate, the drink is not taken
merely to intoxicate, but largely to stimulate sociability. The person who
has been pent up in an institution for a prolonged period has not learned
habits of a sociable character, but quite the contrary; and when he gets
out he knows that he will more easily become a part of good company if he
takes drink, for thereby he will be set free from the feeling of restraint
to which he has been subjected.
There has been a great deal of talk about police persecution of liberated
prisoners. In some cases the official zeal of a policeman may cause him to
act towards an ex-prisoner with a harshness he does not intend, but in
most cases the persecution only exists in the imagination of its subject.
Few of us see all things as they are. We are influenced by our beliefs
quite apart from their foundation in fact, and this is shown in all our
actions. We see men believing in others in spite of evidence which we
think ought to undeceive them; and people have been known to get married
under a quite mistaken estimate of each other's character.
So long as the discharged prisoner believes that the world is against him,
that the hand of the representative of the law is raised to oppress him,
his actions will be influenced by that belief; and he may be driven to
despair as a consequence. I do not think that policemen generally have any
ill-feeling towards offenders; but officially there is no encouragement
for any personal feeling on their part, good or bad. Theirs is an
unenviable position.
We make no real attempt to investigate the cause of wrongdoing and to
prevent crime by a rational method. Should a policeman interfere before an
offence has been committed, the motive of his interference will as often
as not be misinterpreted and he will be denounced as a busybody. In
practice we encourage him to believe that it is his main duty to arrest
offenders and he does his best to discharge this duty. It is too much to
expect that between him and those whom he is set to hunt there can be any
likelihood of mutual regard. As enemies each may have a respect for the
other, but friendship and friendly help are out of the question.
Unfortunately this fact has been left out of account in some recent
proposals for the prevention of crime and the reformation of the offender.
In connection with all the prisons there are discharged prisoners' aid
societies, which seek to help those whose sentences have expired. The
number of these societies is increasing; but in Glasgow, praiseworthy as
are their efforts, they are quite unable to undertake the work that
requires to be done. In practice the societies mainly consist of their
officials, and these are few and hardworking. They try to get situations
for discharged prisoners and to influence them towards a better way of
living. Sometimes their efforts meet with success, but they have far too
much to do. Their resources are small, and they are hampered by want of
funds, but more by want of helpers. They struggle on valiantly in spite of
discouragement, and do what lies in their power to prevent those with whom
they come in contact from becoming worse than they otherwise would be.
When a prisoner is liberated it is not always an easy matter for him to
find work. The fact of his having been in prison is not a recommendation
to anyone who would employ him. When work is found for him by the agents
of one of the societies which help discharged prisoners, his position may
be a somewhat difficult one. It is not every place where he can be
employed without objection on the part of his fellow-workers. As men they
recognise the need for charity and tolerance towards their neighbours, but
prison has such an evil sound to them that they are prejudiced against the
person who has been there. When this prejudice is overcome there is
usually a reaction in the ex-prisoner's favour, resulting in conduct
towards him that may be as embarrassing in its way as any springing from
the prejudice against him. At the best he is liable to be placed in an
atmosphere of suspicion that does not help him to do well. The
consciousness that he has been degraded is harmful to his sense of
self-respect, and altogether it is not easy for him to find suitable
companionship. Wisdom would counsel him to avoid the company of those who
have been associated with him in the conduct that led to his fall, but the
counsels of wisdom are not always easy to follow.
There are very many who are willing to give assistance to a man who seeks
to turn over a new leaf, but they expect to direct him as to what shall be
written on the next page. If censure and avoidance may irritate and hurt a
man who has been convicted of wrongdoing, patronage may raise a spirit of
opposition in him. He does not want to be looked down upon, whether with
contempt or with compassion. Of course, he ought to be chastened by his
affliction; he ought to be repentant and submissive; he ought to do what
he is told; but it is not what ought to be that requires consideration if
we would help him to do better, but what is. In spite of their vicious
acts, it is never an evidence of wisdom to assume that vicious people are
greater fools than others. That they behave foolishly, from the standpoint
of their own and our interest, is quite true, and so apparent that it
needs no emphasis. The question is, Do we, who are so much wiser than
they, show that wisdom in our treatment of them? and the answer, evidenced
by the result of our attitude towards them, furnishes no strong testimony
in our favour.
When a man has gone wrong it may be generally assumed that there is
something in him that has made him unfit to resist the temptations
incident to his position. If this assumption be correct it follows that we
are not warranted in expecting from him the same power of resistance as
others have shown. We are not justified in assuming that with proper
assistance his character and powers may not improve, but it is hardly
reasonable to expect conduct from him that would be more saintly than our
own; and a great many disappointments are suffered by earnest people who
seek to lift up the fallen, simply because they have expected too much.
When efforts to help a man result in failure it is a safe working rule to
assume that the fault is at least as much in the nature of the means
employed as in the man. They may have been very good means, but they have
not been applicable in the case; which is just to say that the result is
the test of their suitability. This is all so obvious that in practice it
is disregarded, and we persist in the foolish assumption that people on
whom our patent pills fail to act are incorrigible; though the fact is
that the offender is no more incorrigible than the reformer, and is
sometimes not so stupid.
The position of the man who has been in prison is not so bad as that of
the woman who has been there. There can be no question that women less
frequently break the laws than men. This may or may not be evidence of
superior virtue on the part of women, but the fact itself makes the
position of the woman who has fallen more difficult to retrieve. She is
more conspicuous than the male offender, if only because there are fewer
of her kind, and the attitude of women towards her is less tolerant than
the attitude of men, either towards her or towards those of their own sex
who have offended. Accordingly, when a woman once loses her reputation she
is more liable than a man to accept the position and to sink under her
disgrace; so that the fallen woman is regarded by many as the most
degraded of beings, and her rescue has a fascination for those who seek
to aid the worst. This conception is absurd, as everyone knows who has
studied the subject with open eyes, but the question is one that cannot be
faithfully dealt with here. The economic position of the woman who has
broken away from the standards set by the law need not be, and often is
not, worse than that she held before her revolt. It all depends on what
she was and how she has rebelled. Vice as little as virtue determines the
economic position of those who are subject to it. The transgressor by her
transgression is cut off from her class, and she is in danger of failing
to gain a footing in any other. She may, and in the majority of cases
does, glide out of her folly as she has slipped into it; but when she is
publicly branded her chances of recovery are less than those of a man. The
attitude of men towards her may be insolent, but it is rarely so brutal as
that of women; and it is no uncommon thing to find that the most effective
help towards the restoration of a woman has been given by those among her
male friends whose character would least bear scrutiny by a censor of
morals.
The attitude of her sex towards the woman who is down is generally one of
hostility. Whether something of the instinct of self-preservation inspires
this need not be here discussed; but it is abundantly clear that the woman
whose fall has been publicly recognised cannot hope to resume anything
like her old place, even if she were willing to seek it. Her recognition
as a respectable woman is too frequently made contingent on her acceptance
of a form of religion that enables her past to be always referred to, and
herself held up as a brand plucked from the burning. In her attitude
towards women she is affected by this knowledge, and their appeal to her
loses in effect because of it. There is nothing more difficult than the
treatment of these women. The prejudice against them is so strong that it
is only here and there a family is willing to take in and look after one
of them.
Attempts are made to influence and direct such women as have no friends,
by placing them in homes. No doubt the inmates are much better there than
they would be if turned on the streets or living in common lodging-houses;
but they do not commend themselves to those whom it is sought to rescue;
for the majority of them will say quite frankly that it is "not good
enough." They prefer to struggle along as best they may rather than submit
to the life offered them. It always appears ungracious to criticise the
work of those who are earnestly engaged in trying to help others, but it
is fair that the view of those they seek to help should be presented.
Their view may be a wrong one, but until it is altered it will affect
their conduct; and it cannot be too emphatically insisted on that the
opinions of those whom we seek to help should be considered, and when
possible acted upon, if it is hoped to render effective aid. The first
objection a girl makes to entering a rescue home is that she must bind
herself to remain there for a prolonged period. She does not regard the
home as a desirable place of residence, but as a step towards restoration
to a decent position in the community. She objects to give her work for
twelve months, say, getting no other pay than her board, clothing, and
lodging, unless she remains in the institution for that time. She claims
that she might as well be in prison. The girl is not concerned with the
question whether the home pays others or not; she is concerned with the
fact that it does not pay her.
Loss of reputation hinders a girl from getting a situation, even when she
is willing to drop her way of living and revert to steady work. People
who pay well quite naturally prefer not to make an experiment and seek to
have their money's worth, which implies not only an efficient, but a
steady and reliable worker. The situations open to the penitent,
therefore, are those which are worst paid. When she gains a character she
may obtain more remunerative occupation elsewhere. She recognises that on
account of her bad reputation she has to do more work for less money, but
she does not so readily admit that it is just that it should be so. She
thinks that it is one thing for an ordinary person to take advantage of
her needs and to underpay her, while it is quite another thing for a
Christian institution to keep her working for insufficient wages. In the
home she has as hard work and almost as little liberty as she would have
were she in prison. Her associates are girls like herself, with whom she
can converse on a basis of equality and discourse on life from a similar
standpoint. On the other hand, she is preached to, patronised by visitors,
entertained in a very proper manner, and taught in a thousand indirect
ways that she is different from them. If her associates do not help her to
forget her past, neither do her teachers. They want to be kind, and try to
be considerate; the effort is obvious. In a gentle way they may tell the
girls what they think of them and how much need there is for their
reformation, and they do not seem to see that they would come more closely
in contact with those they seek to help if they would assume the things
they express by word and attitude, and try to draw the girls out. The
defect in the teacher is too often a habit of talking at his pupils. The
girls are there to learn; the visitors to teach. Are they? What do the
girls learn, and what do the visitors teach? That we are all sinners and
our position a perilous one; that some of us have been found out and that
the penalty should be accepted humbly as being for our good, and so on. If
the formula is somewhat stereotyped that is not my fault. The girls who
appear to submit most patiently are naturally regarded as most hopeful.
What they think about it all does not appear to be considered of much
importance. They are wrong or they would not be there; and yet a girl may
make a mess of her life in one direction, and be none the less qualified
to give a shrewd and useful opinion on the causes of her failure. If those
who seek to teach them had less faith in their own doctrine and more
desire to learn, they would become less ignorant and would teach to better
purpose. Here and there some know this, and acting on the knowledge, are
more successful than others who are equally pious, equally
well-intentioned, but less well-informed.
One quite recognises that it cannot be charged against the majority of
these institutions that they make money by the girls. They are often
carried on at a financial loss, for the cost is considerable; but
reformatory work cannot be conducted on a commercial basis. It is in the
nature of things that it should not pay its way in the narrow sense. The
cost of adequate supervision prevents this. But to charge the cost of
attempts at their reformation to the girls is to inflict at least an
apparent injustice on them that is apt to rankle in their minds, and to
drive away a number who would otherwise be helped--helped at a pecuniary
loss to the home, but at a great benefit to the community. After all, they
are earning their own living by their work. What they fail to do is to
earn a living for those who govern them. In exchange for their work they
are not permitted to spend their earnings as they please, but as it
pleases those who have undertaken to look after them. There may be
something to be said for the opinion that if one set of persons seek to
direct the lives of another they should be prepared to pay for the
privilege; but this subject of charity is one that needs examination. Some
people have very quaint ideas regarding it. I remember a decent woman who
rather prided herself on her goodness. Her husband had a small business,
and she occasionally requisitioned the services of his younger apprentices
for assistance at cleaning time. On such an afternoon a newsboy coming to
the door, she got a _Citizen_ from him, gave him a penny, and received
back the halfpenny of change. When he had gone she remarked to one of the
apprentices--a boy with a genius for saying the right thing in the wrong
place--"Puir boy, I just take the paper from him for charity." To which he
replied, "Aye, but ye took the halfpenny back!" There was something to be
said for both views, but the boy had the last word, and he soon found that
his criticism had borne fruit; he was dismissed.
In the home there is more of a religious atmosphere and less mechanical
routine than in prison; but the religious atmosphere is as much objected
to by many of the girls as the mechanical routine. Both may be good for
them from the standpoint of the theorist, but neither seems to result in
the effect desired. In the prison there are fewer lectures and fewer
visits to the inmates than in the home, and the life is more monotonous,
but in the prison there is less opportunity for contamination. In both
places the old and degraded, the young and the ignorant, may be confined,
but in the prison they are separated.
It is quite a mistake to imagine that the vice and degradation--that the
state of morals--of a person can be estimated by her age and the number
of her convictions. The old hand need not be so morally corrupt as the
younger, though her experiences may have been more numerous and varied. A
common statement of those who have been inmates of homes is that what they
did not know when they went in they learned before they came out, and
certainly they have opportunities of communicating their experiences and
relating their adventures while they are in a home that they do not have
while they are in prison. This is a thing that cannot be prevented so long
as people live together. That many have been restored after passing
through the homes is undoubtedly the case, but it does not follow that
their restoration was due to their experience there. That many have not
been improved, but have been the worse for their residence there, is not
at all to be wondered at. Where a religious atmosphere has affected them
favourably the disadvantages inherent to the establishment have been
overcome. Where it has failed to effect a change in them for good the
other associations tend to confirm them in evil.
What effect, then, has imprisonment on those who undergo it? It usually
improves their health physically, but impairs their mental capacity. The
simple life favours the former; separation and destruction of the sense of
initiative favour the latter. Many do not return after a first experience,
and it is assumed that they have been deterred from wrongdoing by it; but
there is absolutely no ground for this assumption. It may be justified in
some cases, but in others there is no reason to suppose that the offender
would have repeated his offence, even though he had never been sent to
prison for it. Imperfectly as probation of offenders is worked, it has
shown this. Indeed, the very imperfection of the method has shown it the
more strongly, for so far from the offender having been taken away from
the conditions which incited him to commit his transgression, he has been
sent back to them, and in many cases has not again offended.
It is not right to make assumptions when there is opportunity of examining
the facts; and no enquiry has been made as to the effect of imprisonment
in deterring those who have been in prison and have not returned for
repeating their offence. A great many do return, and that is positive
evidence that their imprisonment has not had a deterrent effect on them.
Why do they return? In some cases they have found that prison is not such
a horrible place after all, and that though the confinement is irksome the
time passes; and at the expiry of their sentence they may do what they
like. Many of them have to work hard and long to earn a living when
outside, and they learn that they can pick up a living at less cost and
have a better time, if they take the risk of being shut up now and again.
They have been cut off from their habits, which may not have been a bad
thing, and have acquired other habits which do not help them when they are
liberated. They have been officially marked with disgrace, and to that
extent rendered less able to secure employment and good company. They have
been taught to be respectful and obedient, but they have lost, in a
corresponding degree to their improvement in manners, their power to act
for themselves. In some respects they are better, in others worse, than
they were when they were taken in hand; and on the balance there is a
distinct loss. Recent attempts at reformation have not taken into account
the root causes of failure, and they fail to recognise that the longer a
person is cut off from the main current of life in the community the less
he is fitted to return to it.