The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-15 00:00:00

REFUGE FOR FEMALE CONVICTS Ar

FULHAM.

(From the Illustrated _London News.)
, The refuge at Fulham is a new and very interest-
ing establishment for the reception of female con-
victs during the last 12 or 15 months of their sen-
tences of penal servitude. They are here placed in
an intermediate stage of discipline, in which,
though apparently left very much at liberty, they
are still under that degree of superintendence
which, while it ensures regularity, does not mania
fest itself in control.
'We have never seen so happy a combination of
these and other elements of training, nor a more
striking. instance of 'their effect in the spirit of
cheerful industry and good order which is observa-
ble throughout.
The establishment consists of a large old man-
sion and certain new buildings. The former has
been converted into offices, stores, &c., asfar as was
required, and into dormitories for about forty of
the female prisoners.
The buildings, however, most deserving of atten-
tion are those which have been added—namely,
the chapel, a new wing containing the small sepa-
rate sleeping places, and a laundry, all connected
together by an arched corridor, and each conve-
niently: adapted for its purpose. The main
building contains on the ground floor four
large rooms, two of which are workroomy,
a third is for school purposes, and the
fourth is for taking meals, &c. The centre is
occupied by stairs and offices ; and the dormitories,
which are on the first floor, are ranged in two
stages or stories on each side of a corridor, the
upper ones opening on galleries. The sleeping-
places, divided by corrugated iron partitions and
open railings, are 9 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches
broad, • each with a small window and a flue for
ventilation. They contain a bed, washing-stand,
table and stool, shelves, pegs, &c.
These buildings are disposed round three sides
of a square, a portion of which is divided off by iron
railings as a drying-ground, the remainder being
laid down in grass and gravel for exercise.
The inmates, amounting to about 180, are, as
already explained, sentenced to long terms of con-
finement, fewbeing for less than four or five years ;
and the discipline under which they are brought is
the last of the progressive stages applicable to
female convicts under such sentences.

Varied and continuous industrial employment,
combined with religious, moral, and school instruc-
tion, and great liberty of action, are the leading
features of the discipline, rising at a quarter before
six and going to bed at nine. The daily routine
comprises prayers morning and evening of about
half-an-hour's duration, washing-, laundry-work,
cooking, baking, house and needlework, employ-
ment in the garden and grounds, &c. A proportion
of the women are at school or under the
Scripture-reader daily; and during the evening,
when all have the privilege of working for them-
selves, the matrons read to them.
We learn thanl73 prisoners have been discharged.
since the first was liberated in August, 1856, the
establishment having been opened on the Bth of
May preceding. To those who are practically ac-
quainted wish the class of women under considera-
tion, and are aware of the difficulties with which
they are surrounded on discharge, liable as they
are to meet the scorn of the world on the one hand
and its still more dangerous allurements on the
other, it will be a matter of astonishment that so
many are doing well, either with their own fami-
lies, or in service, or otherwise gaining an honest

The following is the carefully-digested account
of the Chaplain in reference to them up to the pre-
sent time :—Total discharged, 173 ; of whom 129
on expiration of sentence, 41 on licence, 2 on free
pardon, 1 od medical grounds. Of these, during
the period of two years and a quarter, there have
been reconvicted, 1; awaiting trial, 1 ; licences
revoked, 3 ; unfavourable accounts received, 14 ;
doubtful cases, about one-half of which may be
reckoned favourable, 35 ; favourable cases recom-
mended to, and taken in hand by, the discharged
prisoners and society, 25 ; good reports received as
decidedly hopeful cases, 92 ; have died since dis-
charged, 2.
In the attainment of this result the authorities
speak most gratefully of the effective assistance
they have derived from the Prisoner-Aid Society
and Elizabeth Fry refuge, the clergy generally,
and other benevolent persons, without which many
of the women who are now living respectably-would
doubtless have been unable to put into practice the
good resolutions they might have formed, and all
the care bestowed upon them would thus have been
thrown away.
We may conscientiously say, in conclusion, that
we do not believe there is an institution in this or
any other country which will in its minutest detail
bear a closer examination, and in which the ma-
nagement in all its essentials is more admirably
carried out.

[Not one among all our great reformatory estab-
lishments appears to us, in many particulars, more
eminently successful or more happily auspicious than
this very admirable institution. It reflects the
highest credit upon the promoters of its humane
interests, and is at once deserving of encourage-
ment and full of encouragement.—ED. Sun.]