Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1878 — A MODEL REFORMATORY. [ARTICLE]

A MODEL REFORMATORY.

A {Voted Indiana Institution. [lndianapolis Cor. St. Louis Post.] This afternoon, by invitation of Mrs. Governor Hendricks, I accompanied her to visit the most wonderful institution in the world. It is the Woman’s Prison and Reformatory for Girls. It has the honor of being the first of the kind in the world. There is another now at Sherborne, Mass., but it has only been in operation two years, while this has been in operation seven years, and the Sherborne prison was modeled after it. The institution receives all the convicted criminals of the State who are girls and women. All incorrigible girls are also sent here, where they are received and taught. Among the inmates are nearly fifty little girls under 12 years of age, who had already entered upon a life of crime. As the noble-looking Quakeress, Sarah Srrrith, who, with the assistance of a corps of eight or nine women, manages this whole institution, ascended with me the stairs to the chapel, she said: “ Remember these girls and women are from the very scum and offscouring of Indiana.” As I looked upon them I involuntarily exclaimed, “ Can it be possible ? ” . About 200 girls and women were before me. Their faces were so clean and their hair so smooth that they fairly shone. Their countenances beamed with interest, and I never for one moment would have imagined them to be criminals, but only a company of school girls of ordinary intelligence. There was not a suggestion of prison garb. They all wore neat calico dresses and a neat little white collar. Some had their hair braided, some wore it short, but every one showed the cultivation of neatness of person, which is one of the most refining influences which can be brought to bear upon and cherish the self-respect necessary to virtuous womanhood. In one corner sat the fifty or sixty little girls, all dressed in neatly-made calico dresses, and looking so interesting and happy that any mother’s heart would go out to them in affection. They listened to several short addresses, joined in singing (and, by the way, they sing beautifully, led by a young lady who, having passed her term of imprisonment of four years without ever having once been reproved, is free, and is now employed as an officer of the institution), and preserved the most perfect order. It was a sight never to be forgotten. I could liavo listened all day to Mrs. Hendricks and Mrs. Smith as they related incidents of their work. Of the inmates received, 82 per cent, have been permanently reformed. Only think of it! and it is all the work of women. Men were skeptical when the idea was proposed. They declared that women could never manage the hardened criminals who were then in the various jails and prisons. When this institution was opened, a number of the most hardened and abandoned women were brought there in chains. Sarah Smith ordered their chains off, and she controls them all with pure strength of morpl force. It is truly wonderful. Never have I seen anything that so inspired me with hope that fallen humanity may be reclaimed as this sight. Of the workings of the institution it would take several columns to tell. The only objection that has ever been urged to it is that the inmates are made too comfortable. But they are all kept industriously at work. They are taught the rudiments of education ; they are compelled to lead lives of purity and order, and if any one can show that they would be morally improved by making them physically uncomfortable, or by branding them with a prispn costume, or keeping them in manacles and handcuffs when they can be governed without, on him let the burden of proof fall.