The Sun.
London, England, 1825-08-16 00:00:00

PUBLIC. MEETING AT CROYDON.

SURREY SOCIETY FOR THE EMPLOYMENT AND
REFORMATION OF DISCHARGED PRISONERS.

.Yesterday a Meeting was -held at the Town
Hall, Croydon, to consider of the best means of contributing to
the funds of the Society for the Relief of Discharged Prisoners.
The Rev. Mr: Locxwoon, Rector of Croydon, was called to
the Chair,. and explained the purpose for which the Meeting
-was called, which was to assist. in raising fends for a Society to
provide Employment for Prisoners discharged from the Prisons
of Surrey. Such a Society, it was hoped, would make less pu-
nishment necessary, and would tend to amend the morals of
those who were liberated from prison.
The Rev. Mr. COURTNEY said, that Mr. Denison, the
Member for Surrey, had sent him a letter expressing his regret ,
that he could not attend. He had, however, sent his subscrip-
tion, and was sorry that he was not able by the regulations of
the Society to add more. The Society which had been formed
for Surrey was intended, after the example of the Society
ter the Refuge Of the Destitute, to promote the reformation
and provide employment for penitent criminals. The Society
had probably been indebted for its origin to the Reverend
Mr. Butt, who was the Chaplain to the Brixton House of
Correction. - He had there seen the prisoners reformed by the
discipline, of the prison, and seen them when discharged,
from wanting both employment and character, to lapse into
crime ; he had, therefore, suggested that a Society should
be formed to provide -such people a temporary asylum ; it
was to be perfectly voluntary for all such persons to enter it
or not. There was to be no constraint, and there was a great
'hope that all persons who entered the Asylum voluntarily
might be made good members of society. On the idea being
first started, an application had been made to the Refuge for
the Destitute, which was intended only for Middlesex, and
that Society had agreed to take persons discharged from the
Surrey prisons, at a suns of 7s. per head a week. Already
some of those who had been so sent had obtained good -situa-
tions, and been restored to the world. All the men so dis-
charged were found employment, and it was only young men
or women that were sent to the Asylum. At length the Asy-
lum had so many applications, that the Directors refused to
take in any more persons. An agreement had sitce been en-
tered into with a Mr. Hey, who had the superintendence of a
workhouse, and who had undertaken to build a house, capable
of holding 140 persons, and the Society calculated on sending hint
40 persons a year, who were -to be fed and clothed for 7s. per
week per head. Mr. Hey was to have three-fourths of the
comings of these persons; the other fourth was to be put into a
Savings Bank, or some otherplace, for the use of the persons
themselves. A t illr. Hey's the men were to be employed turn-
ing—the women making matting. The whole of the establish-
ment of that gentleman was well conducted, and was very clean.
Mr. Hey read prayers also daily, and there was a chapel on his
premises. Mr. Hey was a sort of contractor for the poor of
Newington parish. A separate building, however, was to be
provided for elm discharged prisoners, who were not to be mixed
with die poor. at was estimated that the expence of keeping 40
persons at Mr. Tfey's would be NU per year. Nearly 3,000
prisoners were annually discharged from the prisons of Surrey,
and this was so appalling, that some
,place of this description
was necessary. People could not employ discharged criminals
without danger ; and therefore it was necessary to provide for -
them till they had again earned a character for themselves. It
bad been objected, that this asyluin would be an encourage-
ment -to crime; but this was improbable, for before a prisoner
could receive this temptation to ,commit crime, he. must go
through the discipline of the treadmill. This Was a severe and
useful punishm et.: ;for theinvention of whith society ought to be
-very thankful, as its effects were most beneficial. . lie could
not conceive, therefore, that the Society held out a temptation
to commit crime. Some persons -objected to shutting these
reformed criminals within four wallet, but their residence was,
to be voluntary. -The Rev. Gentleman then read an -account
of the reformation of a noted chat acter called Billy Desperate,
who was reformed at the Refuge for the Destitute: He was
there taught the trade of a shoemaker, then he became a con-
-fidential messenger, and was at length established in a com-
fortable situation ; got married, and, though strongly tempted,
lie had never, %for three years, swerved srom honesty. There
was no reason then, lie said, • however :abandoned persons
-might be, •to despair of their reformation. The Reverend
-Gentleman then mentioned another case of a woman who
had :been cured ordrunkenness, and after being in the Refuge,
and after -more than one relapse, had conducted herself with
great propriety. The Society was intended solely to find
employment for reformed prisoners, and he was surprised that
-no society of this ,kind had before been established, which he
could only attribute to the former state of the prisons, when'
the reformation of the prisoners was never thought of, and when'
prisoners. were corrupted rather than reformed. From this So-
ciety—and he - hoped .to see such a one established in every
county of England—much good might be expected: Such a
• Society was already established in Middlesex and Kent, and
he knew one-was about to be established in the county of York.
Nothing was wanting.- but funds. The Rev. Gentleman con-
cluded by moving a Resolution, purporting that this Society
would be beneficial to the County of Surrey.
-- 1.. B. ALLEN, Esq. (the -Police Magistrate) seconded the
Resolution. In Surrey the committals were more numerous '
-in proportion to the population than in the County of Kent.—
There was no occasion for him, therefore, to say that there was ,
a great want of such a Society. Upwards of 3,000 persons were
discharged from the prisons of Surrey every year, a certain
number of whom might unquestionably be reformed. He was
not himself a sanguine reformer, but after the mind had been
softened by punishment, some reformation might be expected.
From the last Return of the Society for the Refuge of the Des-
titute, it appeared that only 10 boys out of 112 had relapsed, or
about one in eleven ; of the females, only one in twentyliad
relapsed. This was a stroiT evidence of the utility of such
societies.. It was a matter or great consolation in this great and
happy country, to find so many persons interest themselves in
the improvement of their fellow-subjects. Mr. Allen then
read a short extract from the Society for the Improvement, of
Prison Discipline, shewing, that boys_ just sent from prison,
where they had been flogged, were not likely to obtain employ-
ment, and who would, by a society of this kind, be provided for.
Mr. Allen then paid a compliment to the humanity of ladies,
and mentioned that Lady Carnegy had established a Society in
- Edinburgh, where half the dis Charged -prisoners had been re-.
formed. Tee illustrate the benevolent exertions of Mrs. Fry,'he
read another extract from the Society for the Improvement of
-Prison Discipline, and encouraged the Ladies to pin their So-
ciety, as being both benevolent and useful.
-
The Resolution was unanimously agreed to.
GEORGE Sasarrn, Esq. Moved the second Resolution, and
praised the Society as being more useful than any other So-
ciety, except perhaps Societies for the improvement of Educa-
tion. Its purpose was to rescue those who were morally out-
casts from the temptations to which they were exposed, having
no Connection with the world. 'The second Resolution was that
it was desirable to collect subscriptions _and donations for the
purposes of the-Society.
The• Ree. Mr. 110 A ILE, of Godstene, seconded the-Resolu-
tion, and said he should be happy to do _whatever he could to
support so excellent an Institution. -It was an Institution grow-
ing out of the times, and out of that improvement in prison dis-
cipline, by which people were now discharged from prison .not
corrupted but reformed* The country atlarge should he thank-
ful to the Society for the improvement of •Prison Discipline,
which had laid the foundation for the improvement of crimi-
nals, and all the present Society had to do was to carry up the
superstructure. He knew that a similar Society was about to
be established in Devonshire, _under the patronage of Lord
Rolle.—The Resolution was unanimously agreed to.
I Mr. STEELE (a -Quaker) expressed his approbation of-the
Society. .
JOHN CATOR, Esq. moved the next Resolution. He trusted
the appeal proposed to be made to the Christian public would'
not be in vain.—Mr. KEENE seconded the Resolution, and it
I was unanimously agreed to. A Resolution, appointing a Trea-
tsurer, was then also agreed to.
Thanks were given to the Chairman for his able and impar-
tial conduct lathe Chair, and.the- meeting broke up.

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