Evening star., 1895-06-17
CALLED A PRISON
A Colored Committees Report on the Girls
Reform School.

The topic for discussion tonight before
the Equal Rights CouEcil-a colored organ
ization that recently acquired considerable
pr ominence-will be the administration of
affairs at the Girls Reform School in this
city, When a revolt broke out among the
inmates of the school recently and two Of
them were sent to prison for a term of
years upon the charge of arson. the Equal
Rights Council appointed a committee. of
which DIR. Walter II. Brooks, pastor of the
Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, was
chairman, to investigate the condition of
affairs at the school. The committee made
an inspection of the institution and have
just submitted their report to the council
The report submitted by the committee
rectes what the committee saw and heard
on visiting the school. and says:
1--WE were not impressed. from the con-
versation, that the mental improvement
given entitled the institution to the name
school. 1t was insisted that the inmates
were not only vicious, but dull. The hours
of work are from in the morning to 3 in
the afternoon, and whatever study can be
had between 8 and 5 pm. is done. We
failed to ask whether, after coming from
the fields at pm, the prisoners have to
eat their dinner and clean their dining
room, and the like, before getting to their
books. An hour of study each day is about
the amount of mental labor, we should
suppose.
In reply to questions as to discipline we
were informed that the MANAGEMENT had
been accused of being entirely too lenient
with the inmates, and some who take this
view had attributed the recent alleged at
tempt to commit arson and the mutny
of certain inmates to that fact. We were
expressly informed that corporal punish
ment is not allowed, and is never resorted
to: that solitary confinement and a bread
and water diet are used to enforce the
rules of the prison. We were taken
through the prison and shown a number of
the prisoners. They were by no means
cheerful and easy in their manner like
children of a school, nor even as much SO
as the prisoners of our city Jail My heart
sank within me when 1 gazed upon a group
of them in the sewing room and begged
the privilege of praying with them, WHICH
was granted. L knelt and asked God
blessing the poor unfortunate prisoners
| and their guardians. Some of the girls;
dropped a tear or two as l arose from
praying. We were not allowed to speak to
the prisoners. We were told that this was
forbidden by the rules of the prison /
have talked with little children and grown
men in the city JAIL and have been al
lowed to pass through two or three iron
doors to converse with a prisoner in his
cell. l have conversed with the insane in
the ST. Elizabeth's ASYLUM and the ma
tror has chatted pleasantly the meanwhile.
as to the character of the institution and
the inmates, but here our lips were sealed.
The rooms for solitary confinement were
clean and we'll lighted.
Unlike the workhouse. the jail the in
sane asylum and the reform school for
| boys, this institution is exclusively for col
| ored persons. No colored person. however,
| has any connection with the management
| of the institution. From first to last they
are all white. 1t would seem that as 1t is
| the policy of the management of this in
stitution to make and preserve 1t as a
negro prison, that it should. like the negro
schools of the District, be placed in the
hands of a competent negro management.
I am sure that simple Justice would con-
| cede this much. 1t is but right that 1
should state that the matron extended me
an invita- ton to come out to the prison
| some Sabbath day at the hour for public
| service. one thing is certain, these un-
| fortunate inmates need, more than any
| thing else, the grace of God in their