THE ASSOCIATED COMMITTEE OF WOMEN ON POLICE MATRONS

The Associated Committee of Women on Police Matrons in Station Houses meets monthly with three representatives from each of a number of the charitable associations of Philadelphia. On this Committee, the Pennsylvania Prison Society is represented by Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, Dr. Emily J. Ingram and Mary S. Wetherell. The following is the report of the Committee for the past year:

The Committee on Police Matrons held ten regular and one special meeting during the year ending December 31, 1906.

The membership of this Committee is now twenty-one women who represent seven societies, namely, the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Civic Club, New Century Club, Young Women’s Christian Association, Christian League, and Mothers’ Club. The usual attendance is from eight to twelve members. Reports are received from all the Matrons at each meeting. There are twenty-two. The fourteenth district (Germantown) was supplied with a Matron in March, 1906. The effort is made that each Matron shall receive at least one visit a month. The meeting of the Conference of Charities in Philadelphia in May last brought us unusual interest in the work of Police Matrons elsewhere, and we formed a permanent committee to secure knowledge of it in other cities, and comparison of methods with them. At several meetings of this year, four Matrons at a time were invited to meet with the Committee, and offer suggestions and state experiences requiring help and study. The Needle Work Guild coöperates with the Committee for supplying clothing to the Matrons for their use with needy women and children under their care. Mrs. Fletcher, our Senior Matron, completed her twentieth year of service, and was given a reception by the Committee, at which the Directors and other officials were present. In this time she has had 9,000 women and 2,900 children under her care. The Director of Public Safety, Robert McKenty, has been especially interested in an effort to give personal help to erring women and girls, and extends every facility for our communication with such, by directing the Lieutenants to coöperate with our efforts to redeem them from disgrace and despair. The numbers given in our reports are, of course, from twenty-two districts only. There are fourteen others without Matrons, where many women and children are received. We have been assured that a Matron will be appointed in West Philadelphia very soon, and there is also a prospect of more effective systematic work in coöperation and supervision of this branch of police administration.

STATISTICS

(Except as to totals and conditions when received, statistics cannot be made absolutely accurate, especially as to “Nationality and Disposal.”)

Women under care from January, 1906, to January, 19079,295
Arrested7,475
Lost or seeking shelter379
Mothers2,898
Intoxicated3,679
White6,502
Colored2,288
Disposals.
Discharged with and without fines2,074
Sent to Reformatories672
House of Correction923
County Prison2,255
Americans5,320
Foreigners2,934
Children under care from January, 1906, to January, 19076,839
Arrested3,417
Lost or ran away2,846
White5,497
Colored651
Brought with parents468
Disposals.
Sent home4,695
S. P. C. C. and Aid Society387
Charities and Reformatories449
House of Detention and Juvenile Court572

Respectfully submitted,
Mrs. P. W. Lawrence.

CHESTER COUNTY PRISON

William Scattergood, President of the Board of Inspectors, makes weekly visits to this prison, and reports it in good condition. It is considered a model prison. Deborah C. Leeds, a member of the Acting Committee, has also visited it during the year.

COUNTY PRISON AT MEDIA

Deborah C. Leeds has visited this prison several times during the year, and reports it a well conducted institution.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY

Mrs. E. W. Gormley, Superintendent of the Prison and Jail Department of the W. C. T. U., is also a member of the Acting Committee of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, and as such an official visitor to the penitentiaries, county jails and reformatories of the Commonwealth. We are highly favored in having a member who is doing efficient work in the western part of the State.

DOOR OF BLESSING

This institution for discharged female prisoners was established and is under the supervision of Mrs. Horace Fassett, who is an official visitor at the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison. She writes: “The Door of Blessing goes steadily on in its good work under its noble matron, Gertrude Brown. Since January, 1906, fifty women and four babies were sent there from our County Prison, the House of Correction, and the Eastern Penitentiary. All of these were placed in situations in the country, mostly on farms. Some have returned to go to better positions, some have remained, and very few have gone back to their old life. The Door of Blessing is a home for these dear children in every sense of the word—a haven of rest and peace. All love it and look forward to their afternoons out, that they may go there and have supper with the matron and tell her of their joys and sorrows, to which she listens with loving sympathy. Six women were sent to their homes, their families being willing to receive them after a short stay at the Door of Blessing.”

HOME OF INDUSTRY

This institution extends help to men discharged from the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison. It provides board and shelter for these, gives them employment in broom-making, for which they receive compensation, and seeks to bring all who enter it under the saving power of the Gospel. The efficient Superintendent is Frank H. Starr, who makes every effort to place men in situations when they leave the Home.

GALILEE MISSION

This is under the care of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A large number of men from the Penitentiary and County Prison have been sent there for meals and lodgings, sometimes only for a few days, and at other times for a week or two until they could obtain work.

HOPE HALL, NEW YORK. UNDER THE CARE OF MRS. BALLINGTON BOOTH

During the year a number of men have been sent to this place from the Eastern Penitentiary. Mrs. Booth always receives such with a warm welcome, and often obtains good situations for them.

PRISON SUNDAY

In the early part of October, 1906, the Committee on Prison Sunday sent out a circular letter, urging the observance of October 21st as Prison Sunday, to thirty-three hundred ministers of the Methodist Episcopal, the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Lutheran, the Protestant Episcopal, and the Reformed Churches in Pennsylvania, and to six hundred daily and weekly newspapers.

From the Minutes
MEMORIALS OF DECEASED MEMBERS

George W. Hall

George W. Hall, former member of the State Legislature and of City Councils, a well-known financier, and President of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, passed away on December 14, 1906, in the 77th year of his age. He was a member of the Franklin Institute, a director of the School of Design for Women, a director of the Home for Feeble Minded Children at Elwyn, a member of the St. Andrew’s Society, a trustee of the Second Presbyterian Church, and an inspector of the Philadelphia County Prison.

It seems proper that there should be a minute of record of one who for years has been an active member, besides being a life member of the Society. He spent much time in looking after the welfare of the prisoners at the County Prison, Tenth and Reed Streets, and at Holmesburg, where he will be greatly missed.

May this minute be recorded and a copy sent to the surviving members of his family.

Rev. James Roberts, D. D.

Rev. James Roberts, D. D., was born at Montrose, Scotland, December 25, 1839.

He came to this country with his parents at an early age, and was graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1868. His first charge was at Coatesville, Pa., where he remained until 1885, when he took charge of the Church at Darby, Pa. After remaining there ten years he accepted a call to Lambertville, N. J. On leaving this charge he became Superintendent of the Mercer Home for Aged and Retired Ministers, which position he filled until called suddenly from earth on September 27, 1906. His genial, affectionate ways widened the circle of his friends, who were found among all classes. It is with sincere sorrow that our Society records the departure of another of its most honored members and Second Vice-President.

Resolved, That this minute be entered on our records and a copy thereof with our sympathies be sent to the bereaved family.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society.

I close my report with the earnest wish that the Pennsylvania Prison Society may constantly widen its scope of operations and grow in efficiency and usefulness as it grows in years.

The work I have performed during not only the last, but for many years, has been very dear to my heart, and I have felt that I have had an especial call to the service. Conscious, however, of my need continually of Divine guidance in all that I have done in His name, I have earnestly sought for that wisdom which will enable me to do all for Him.

With sincere desire that I may be a humble instrument in His hands in winning souls unto Christ, this report is respectfully submitted.

John J. Lytle,
General Secretary.

Joshua L. Baily was elected President of The Pennsylvania Prison Society at the annual meeting, January, 1907. His membership in the Society dates from 1851 and he is the oldest member now living. For a number of years he was a member of the Acting Committee and a regular visitor of the Eastern Penitentiary. His great interest in prison discipline induced him, some years ago, to visit voluntarily all the penitentiaries in the Atlantic States, as well as some of those in the States of the Central West, and he visited also many of the County Prisons in Pennsylvania and other States. His interest in correctional institutions was further shown by ten years’ service on the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge.

Mr. Baily has been no less actively interested in charitable institutions, having been for more than fifty years a manager of The Philadelphia Society for the Employment and Instruction of the Poor, of which he is now President. He was one of the founders, and for eighteen years the President of The Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity. He is also a member and manager of a number of other benevolent societies, so that by reason of long experience, in both correctional and charitable service, Mr. Baily comes to the Presidency of the Prison Society well equipped for the duties devolving upon him. Although still engaged in mercantile business, Mr. Baily gives a large portion of his time, as well as his means, to benevolent purposes, and devotes thereto a degree of vigor, both mental and physical, quite unusual in one of his advanced years.