Every matron should live upon the spot, and be able to inspect them closely by night and by day; and when there are sufficient female prisoners to require it, female officers should be appointed, and a male turnkey never permitted to go into the women's apartments. I am convinced when a prison is properly managed it is unnecessary, because, by firm and gentle management, the most refractory may be controlled by their own sex. But here I must put in a word respecting ladies' visiting. I find a remarkable difference depending upon whether female officers are superintended by ladies or not. I can tell almost as soon as I go into the prison whether they are or not, from the general appearance both of the women and their officers. One reason is that many of the latter are not very superior women, not very high, either in principle or habits, and are liable to be contaminated; they soon get familiar with the prisoners, and cease to excite the respect due to their office; whereas, where ladies go in once, or twice, or three times a week, the effect produced is decided. Their attendance keeps the female officers in their places, makes them attend to their duty, and has a constant influence on the minds of the prisoners themselves. In short, I may say, after sixteen years' experience, that the result of ladies of principle and respectability superintending the female officers in prisons, and the prisons themselves, has far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. In no instance have I more clearly seen the beneficial effects of ladies' visiting and superintending prisoners than on board convict-ships. I have witnessed the alterations since ladies have visited them constantly in the river. I heard formerly of the most dreadful iniquity, confusion, and frequently great distress; latterly I have seen a very wonderful improvement in their conduct. And on the voyage, I have most valuable certificates to show the difference of their condition on their arrival in the colony. I can produce, if necessary, extracts from letters. Samuel Marsden, who has been chaplain there a good many years, says it is quite a different thing: that they used to come in a most filthy, abominable state, hardly fit for anything; now they arrive in good order, in a totally different situation. And I have heard the same thing from others. General Darling's wife, a very valuable lady, has adopted the same system there; she has visited the prison at Paramatta, and the same thing respecting the officers is felt there as it is here. On the Continent of Europe, in various parts—St. Petersburg, Geneva, Turin, Berne, Basle, and some other places—there are corresponding societies, and the result is the same in every part. In Berlin they are doing wonders—I hear a most satisfactory account; and in St. Petersburg, where, from the barbarous state of the people, it was said it could not be done, the conduct of the prisoners has been perfectly astonishing—an entire change has been produced.
On the 22d of May, 1835, Mrs. Fry was desired to attend the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the state of the several jails and houses of correction in England and Wales. She went, accompanied by three ladies, co-workers, and escorted by Sir T. Fowell Buxton. The Duke of Richmond was chairman of the committee, which included some twelve or fifteen noblemen. An eyewitness wrote afterwards respecting Mrs. Fry's behavior and manner: "Never, should I think, was the calm dignity of her character more conspicuous. Perfectly self-possessed, her speech flowed melodiously, her ideas were clearly expressed, and if another thought possessed her besides that of delivering her opinions faithfully and judiciously upon the subjects brought before her, it was that she might speak of her Lord and Master in that noble company."
The principal topics treated of in her evidence before this committee were connected with the general state of female prisons. Among other things, she urged the want of more instruction, but that such instruction should not be given privately and alone to women; that the treadmill was an undesirable punishment for women; that matrons were required to be suitable in character, age, and capability for the post; that equality in labor and diet was needed; and she insisted on the imperative necessity of Government inspectors in both Scotch and English prisons and convict-ships. She enlarged upon these matters in the manner the subject demanded, and gave the committee the impression of being in solemn earnest. Her quiet, Christian dignity impressed all who listened to her voice, while the most respectful consideration was paid to her suggestions. In reply to a question touching the instruction of the prisoners, she says:—
I believe the effect of religious and other instruction is hardly to be calculated on; and I may further say that, notwithstanding the high estimation and reverence in which I held the Holy Scriptures, before I went to the prisons, as believing them to be written by inspiration of God, and therefore calculated to produce the greatest good, I have seen, in reading the Scripture to those women, such a power attending them, and such an effect on the minds of the most reprobate, as I could not have conceived. If anyone wants a confirmation of the truth of Christianity let him go and read the Scriptures in prison to poor sinners; you there see how the Gospel is exactly adapted to the fallen condition of man. It has strongly confirmed my faith; and I feel it to be the bounden duty of the Government and the country that these truths shall be administered in the manner most likely to conduce to the real reformation of the prisoner. You then go to the root of the matter, for though severe punishment may in a measure deter them and others from crime, it does not amend the character and change the heart; but if you have altered the principles of the individual, they are not only deterred from crime because of the fear of punishment, but they go out, and set a bright example to others.
Both the silent and solitary systems were condemned by her as being particularly liable to abuse. She considered the silent system cruel, and especially adapted to harden the heart of a criminal even to moral petrefaction. But the strongest protest was made against solitary confinement. Upon every available opportunity she spoke against it to those who were in power. Unless the offense was of a very aggravated nature, she doubted the right of any man to place a fellow-creature in such misery. Some intercourse with his fellow-creatures seemed imperatively necessary if the prisoner's life and reason were to be preserved to him, and his mind to be kept from feeding upon the dark past. To dark cells she had an unconquerable aversion. Sometimes she would picture the possibility of the return of days of persecution, and urge one consideration founded upon the self-interest of the authorities themselves. "They may be building, though they little think it, dungeons for their children and their children's children if times of religious persecution or political disturbance should return." For this reason, if for no other, she urged upon those who were contemplating the erection of new prisons, the prime necessity of constructing those prisons so as to enable them to conform to the requirements of humanity.
Her opinions and reasons for and against the solitary system of confinement are well given in a communication sent to M. de Béranger after a visit to Paris, during which the subject of prison-management had formed a staple theme of discussion in the salons of that city. With much practical insight and clearness of reasoning, Mrs. Fry marshalled all the stock arguments, adding thereto such as her own experience taught.
In favor of the solitary system were to be urged:—
1st. The prevention of all contamination by their fellow-prisoners.
2d. The impossibility of forming intimacies calculated to be injurious in after life.
3d. The increased solitude, which afforded larger opportunities for serious reflection and, if so disposed, repentance and prayer by the criminal.