FEMALE PRISONERS.
TREATMENT IN AMERICA.
AN UP-TO-DATE INSTITUTION.
[from OCR own CORRESPONDENT.]
San- Francisco, April 1. Typical of the new spirit in America relative to the treatment of prisoners is the plan just adopted by the authorities of New York for the erection of the so-called "skyscraper gaol" for women. Officially I it is not to be Known as a gaol, but as a i "homo of detention for women." Actually, it. will more closely resemble a hospital than a gaol. The structure will be 16 storeys in height. Its purpose is to revolutionise the present haphazard and harmful method of treating female prisoners in Now York City, and Dr. Katharine B. Davis, a noted sociologist, who has recently been ap|)ointed commissioner of correction in New York, states that it' will bo the most adequate and up-to-date institution of the kind in existence. The basic idea of the system to be enforced in the conduct of the establishment is reform, rather than punishment. The inmates will occupy "roams," not "cells." When beuiff taken from the home to 'Court for proceedings before the Judges they will be screened from tho publicity which is a great defect of tin! existing system. The present accommodation for women prisoners in New York presents almost medieval horrors. Flows of cells are concentrated at the centre of the building, separated from the outer walls, and thus from light and air. This plan came from a desire to make escape and any connection with the street impossible. It has been completely reversed by those who have planned the new women's gaol. Every "cell" is at some time of the day flooded with sunlight, the detention part of the building being built about a large recessed court, open to the south. On either side of this court the buildings are placed, each one with its own window. The rooms are arranged in two sections on each floor. Thus it is possible to classify the women within groups of twelve— group all shoplifters, for instance, one group old offenders. About 6ft by 10ft, each room is to have a bed, chair, and its own complete plumbing, modern lighting, modI e'„'i ventilation, and modern heating. In I the gaol now used for women, two are I crowded into cells smaller than those to ! he built for single inmates in the detention ! home. There are other proposed improvej merits almost as important. Medical ex- ! amination of women in groups is to be I eliminated. Each inmate will have inj dividual attention. On the roof is to be [ a small observation ward and hospital for ' contagious diseases? Those with contagious j diseases will be completely isolated from I the rest. They will have their own separate dining-rooms, separate dishes, separate supervisors. The indiscriminate commingling of the healthy and the diseased is one of the blots on the management of some of America's largest prisons.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15594, 28 April 1914, Page 9
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482FEMALE PRISONERS. New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15594, 28 April 1914, Page 9
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