WOMEN'S REFORMATORY.

White Ribbon, Volume 30, Issue 345, 18 April 1924, Page 25

WOMEN'S REFORMATORY.

(|t> .1 M. Price, President I 'iiimhi Reform Society, N.S.VV.) ( Tin following interesting sketch, il liistrative of tlu* more advanced and 1,11 more humane methods which an gradually gaining ground in the dilldilt work of prison reform in the |»re M nt day, was published in "Stead s llrview ” for November 11th, 11*21!.) A model institution in keeping with modern ideas is an entirely unguarde! Women’* Reformatory at lutnsiiig. Kan s ; i>s. It started with a large, home l\ whitet farmhouse, surrounded b> a blue-grass lawn. wl*h trees and oldfashioned flower beds, Cultivation pad docks lie beyond. Sime the inception of this vent me flve years ago, its site i. ss has necessitated the erection of twelve additional buildings, for in lit11«►ver two years some 2000 "guests” have required act ommodation The Udsiur is made so ;»♦».actively effective that the> may almost Is* descrilied as “paying gllests.” A barbed wire fence, with yule lock ed gate, at first enclosed the area "Not being accustomed to looks and cells, we sometimes forgot, and left the gate unfastened, tilt It finally swung open and still the women stayed!” says Mrs Julia li. Perry, the Superintendent \non she had it taken away. “Weren’t sou afraid your prisoners would run away?" she was asked. She admitted It did seem venturesome to take these women from a regulation prison to an isolated farmhouse without e* lls or the means of enforcing discipline.** And Kansas was slow to grasp the lesson that it is not bars or cells that reform hut the bringing offenders into close h man tomb with those able to lea thmn aright. Hut nothing succeeds like sucre Knquiries alout this remarkable venture are pouring in from other States tnd from abroad. A New Zealand lad> called to see for herself The typical prison atmosphere of joyless gloom does not conduce to real reformation, and the Irrational attempt to combine them finds no support in the joyous religion of Christianity. At Mrs Perry’s "home” the visitor finds a wholesome activity as heartening ns it Is unforc ed. Incentive takes the place of fear The women, or girls, a* they mostly ire, “find here friends who beltev< in them: an atmosphere of honest effort.

They are helped to feel they can still make life worth while. Kveryoii" is pul on her honour." It was intended to provide permanent modern buildings but the war upset all that, and, as Inspector Maud Milner remarks, “part of the wonder of this place is that it is made of nothing." Makeshift housing was run up, the rooms weather-proofed, atm* comfortably heated. Says Mrs Perry, ’’Out buildings are simple and our equipments crude, but we feel that we are doing a great work in character-building- teaching these women real home-making. They love the soil and the outdoor life.” port> acres of gardening and orchard work goes on incessantly, beside the cultivation of 20 acres in corn and 20 in clover hay. The vegetable yield runs to hundreds of bushels. Dairying is much favoured by the women. With a larger herd, it is hoped to completely ti l the dally requirement* of butter and milk Poultry is in charge of a “lifer.” There are pigs to feed, also ploughing and harvesting. “The field girls are a happy, busy group, brown with their work. Here in the heart of the great Kalian* prairie* are they finding in nor tual, orderly work, in rest and recreation, the In st avenue to self repsect.’ Here, too. the American instinct for education emerges. Happily. Mrs l’erry is herself an ex-teacher. The instiiu lion is really a large college, “laundering, cooking, food values. Jelly-making, canning, preserving, home furnishing and sanitation are some of the practical subjects taught. Husincss courses and those in college e.\ nslon are well attended." Kveryone waits on herself, ,|,ms her share of housework, or works on the farm Sewing instruction enables them to make theii own clothes Some turn out lovely hand made laces and embroidered table linen Then comes recreation, withal recognised to-day as one of the niost power ful elements in all true education. Did tin- organisers of our prisons lielieve that they would provide for it; and if the reader of this article believed it. he would want to know why such provision is not made. At I rinsing Reformatory bane-ball is played by girls in white blootnei costume*, trimmed with Idue, unlike ‘That garb of stripes a free man loat hes — As if Law whipped even with their clothes.”

Dancing and singing shorten the even nigs in the big dining-room. That makes gills more livable than mon set) vegetating in a hideous cell. Mrs Perry and her helper* try to remove the causes of wrong-doing. They find that sympathy and encouragement count in the long run with most dis coui aging cases. Freed from the nine lieved consciousness of punishment in solitude and disgrace, girlhood is lured to resoive on becoming hence forth an asset instead or a liability to society. And she learns how. Says Mrs Perry, “It is a delight to watch tlie development day by day." Before taking up this work she had made a re«'ord as a successful day-school teacher; afterwards, in research work along the lines of social welfare. In the last four years only two women have return ed through breaking their parole. Hut scores of grateful letters have been re reived from women who went ou’ equipped as never before to make their lives sweet, orderly and useful.