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132 A PLEA FOB FEMALE CONVICTS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Captain Commission O'Brien On Penal Stat...
to remain in prison till her sentence expires ) , but no female _convict is discharged on licence otherwise than through the
refuges , without satisfactory proof that she has friends to receive and maintain heror provide her with loyment .
The _regulations as to diet , and clothing , and emp general internal arrangements , are left to the judgment of the managers of the
refuges , as is also the extent of the work performed in them of which the produce is chiefl . y laundry work and needlework , and tlie sale
" The regulated gratuities , which the women acquire during th them eir on imprisonment their removal in to the the convict refuges -prisons and , laced are transferred at the disposal with
of the managers for the benefit of the , women p on their discharge in addition to the gratuitof 2 s . a weekwith which they are ,
credited during their stay y in the institution , . " We possess nothing like these institutions in Great Britain .
The establishment at Fulham bears the name indeed of a Refuge , but convicts it is neither pass the mor latter e nor portion less tlian of their a prison sentences , in which . It fem is true ale
that there they are employed in association , and that they possess privileges not enjoyed either at Millbank or Brixton ;
but nevertheless , they are locked up both day and night ; and as they do not receive their licences until they leave Fulham ?
this institution has no claim to be called the counterpart of Golden-Bridgeor the Protestant Refuge at Dublin . And in
Scotland I believe , there is no prison similar even to that at Fulham .
I would by no means "be understood to disparage Fulham . As earned an intermediate as a reward prison it would , to be which most entrance valuable . was Still exclusivel being y a
prison pur et simple , it cannot inspire confidence in the , public mind that its inmates , are fit for domestic service—a confidence
essential to the opening of this kind of employment for discharged female prisoners .
exist One on or this two Refuges side the , similar channel in character but I fear to those there in are Ireland none ,
certainly not a sufficient number ; to which female convicts , could be licensed bthe government , . These unhappy creatures
alas ! have so bad a y reputationthat few personseven the niost benevolenthave the e to , undertake their , direction .
It is only , comparativel courag y lately that women have been assisted by the London Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society ; yet women
work inen have , becaus much for which e greater they no are difficulty character unable in to is obtaining perform required the . emp roug They loyment h must out ' - than door be
at domestic home , they servants must , or be be trusted employed with in property factories ; ; all or if three they modes work
requiring , as we know , a good character . It is to the _benevo-
132 A Plea Fob Female Convicts.
132 A PLEA FOB FEMALE CONVICTS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1864, page 132, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041864/page/60/
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