New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-30
The CITY WOrkh0use.

Warden of the City Workhouse Captain
Michael Bowen, we paid a visit to that insti-
tuition to witness review of the prisoners,
and to gather whatever information respect
ing the City Workhouse and its inmates as
might be of public interest.
The City Workhouse is not an institution
as extensive as one might expect to be con-
nected with city with so large popula-
tion as New Orleans, for we presume that
it contains at the present time the average
number of prisoners, and that amounts to
sixty-one males and forty-three females
There is nothing of the imposing in the
structures that constitute the City Work
house, the only two remarkable features
being such a strength of structure that
makes an escape from the building no easy
task, and the extreme cleanliness of every
portion of the Workhouse, the prisoners
cells especially.
We are indebted to Captain Bowen and
his courteous assistant Mr.. Maurice, the
under warden, Mr.. Dupart the clerk, and
Mr.. j. b. Bowen, who acts as deputy war
den, and has charge of the pharmaceutical
department of the institution. ALI these
gentlemen seemed to take great interest in
the ordering of the Workhouse, and they
all seemed to exult in the fact that a firm,
unvarying, but not unkind discipline, had
produced such a salutary effect that punish
ment in the City Workhouse is almost as
rare an event as capital conviction by
Il L A. II.
1t is a matter of serious reflection, the
condition of these prisoners. When con-
signed to Imprisonment by the sentence of
competent court, and, as may well be sup
posed, for some low-dOwn infringement of
the decencies of society, it is astonishing
how, all at once, they erect themselves into
decOrous beings, acting with a scrupulous
regard to the proprieties that would, in the
case of the good little boy who minds his
book, bring forth the most ecstatic premium
for good behavior that could be found in
the Sabbath school.
Let any one visit a recorders court at
any time, although Monday morning gen.
orally exhibits the most abundant harvest;
let any one visit a recorders court and be-
hold the squalid, rum -defiled faces that one
after another come up for judgment, and
then subside into Black Maria with SEN
tence of one three, six months. Let any
one see these members of the human family
one month after they have been subjected to
the unvariable discipline of the City Work
house, and they would be difficult of recog-
nition After months incarceration, the
baleful rum not to be had; good, honest
wholesome food supplied in sufficient guam
tity, it is astonishing what change takes
place in their physique, in their whole per
sonal appearance.
What does all this prove! If anything,
it shows that the discipline of the work
house, reformatory as it is for the time
being, will never, by ITSELF effect anything
in the way of reform. Generally, those con-
signed there go in without money. While
there they have no means of acquiring a
solitary nickel What are they to do when
they are turned loose, penniless and char
acterless. to meet tie cold shoulder of moral
respectability: what can they do except to
slide again into the evil ways from which,
by proper system, they might have escaped,
and in the fullness of time again find their
way to the Workhouse?
All this proves that society will never be
the better for punitive institutions, except
they embody the idea of reform. Provide
those consigned to the WOrkhouse with
work of sufficient variety to suit different
capacities, work that will enable the worker
to provide not only for his support while
but to furnish him with some
resource when his time of Imprisonment has
expired, so that he need not go forth utterly
destitute, and almost certain to fall again
into the path of temptation.
We were moved to these reflections by
observing the pains the prisoners take in
ornamenting their cells, and the pains they
take in keeping everything about them in
such excellent order. The cleanliness is, of
course, matter of discipline, but the orna-
is equally, of course, work of
they are not compelled, but
do it of their own accord. Could not this
of theirs be utilized for their
own benefit, as well as for the welfare of
society
We conclude by remarking that the ex-
cellent condition of every department OF
the City Workhouse reflects the highest
credit upon the warden, Captain Bowen,
and his assistants.