The journal of prison discipline and philanthropy (Vol. XV, No. I, January 1860)

by Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons

Art. IV.—REFORMATION OF FEMALE DISCHARGED CONVICTS.

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.