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134 A PLEA FOR 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...
_- powerful assistance element givenin in the their treatm training ent - of by criminals _benevolent is the persons voluntary who
will take the trouble , to visit them , in gaol , and who will watch over them after their dischargefrom the love of doing good .
Prisoners are well aware of the difference , between paid warders and voluntary guardians ; and without in the least undervaluing
the efforts of the former , it is natural that the latter should a more powerful influence .
possess It must not be understood from the foregoing observations that I consider the establishment of Refuges to be the only
reform needed in the present system of treating female convicts . These institutions are only one of many most urgently required .
Indeed , their true place is as a supplement to a good system of prison discipline .
But to enter upon a discussion of the necessary reforms in the treatment of convicts , would extend this paper far beyond its proper limits . I desire only to suggest that the immediate
-establishment of Refuges would in great measure promote the _^ reformation amendments of in th fem eir ale whole convicts treatment ; and shall that follow , when as the I ferventl needful y
trust they will , and that right speedily ( notwiths , tanding the small hope held out by the commissioners ) the amount of good
effected by the Refuges will be proportionatel , y increased . I have already remarked that the number of female prisoners
being much smaller than that of males , inay partially explain their tardy participation in the assistance afforded by the
Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society . But there is a fallacy in measuring * the importance of extending help to female convicts
by their comparatively small numbers . In addition to the potent reason , that women require such aid more urgently than l
affects men , is the the well fact -being that the of the conduct community of the . female A bad sex woman more inflicts deepy more moral injury on society than a bad man ; while on the
other hand it is undisputed , that if the mother of a family be well-conducted and industriousher children will almost always j
grow up respectably , however , idle and dissolute the father \ be . i
may The peculiar importance of female reformation , as the most \ direct means of diminishing criminality in both sexesrenders j
women it alike , to the promote interest this and object the duty by every of us mean all , s both in our men , power and . j !
forth But more a hel especial ping hand ly does to it our appertain unhappy to sisters us , women sunk _, to in stretch crime . j j
We should best know how to support their halting steps in the j path of reformationto sympathize in their infirmitiesand ' to J
strengthen them in , cultivating those virtues which the , vicious j atmosphere surrounding them from their birth has all but *
stifled .
134 A Plea For Female Convicts.
134 A PLEA FOR FEMALE CONVICTS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1864, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041864/page/62/
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