The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-06
AT SHERBORH.
WORK BY MASSACHUSETTS, FOR
 TEMPERAMENT OF WOMEN.

and Says Much Is Accomplished fin
 the Way If Reformation.
 The state O. Connecticut, which with its institutions of learning and the phi lanthropy of it's citizens stands fore most among the states of the Union, has not yet reached a similar place in the work 1t has done for the reforma- ton of the criminal and the mild offend ing classes. Massachusetts is far in advance of Connecticut in this respect. Mrs. Sarah P. Kibbe. matron at the refermatory for women in Sherborn, Mass. is spending few days in this city as the guest of Matron Moore at the Hartford county jail and she talked Interestingly with reporter of ''The Courant" yesterday morning of the work of the Massachusetts institution. Mrs. Kibbe is a Connecticut woman. She was born in New Britain and her parents, MT. and Mrs. Chauncey T. Park, live at No. 42 Belden street in that city.
 The reformatory at Sherborn is the only institution in Massachusetts devo- ted exclusively to the reformation of women. It is located just over the South Birmingham town line and has massive brick buildings and is sur rounded by three hundred acres of land belonging to the state. All of the offi- cials connected with the prison proper are women and these include a chap lain and two women doctors. There are twenty-nine matrons connected with the institution. The state en- ploys about twenty-five men to work the farm. The women inmates of the Institution do such work on the farm as they are capable of-weeding of vegeta- ble beds, harvesting of crops and light work of similar character. In addi- ton to the raising of crops to supply the needs of the reformatory dairy is supplied with the milk of between twen- ty and thirty cows and all the pork and poultry used at the institution is raised on the farm and the raising of sheep is carried on extensively. The object of the state is to raise sufficient on the farm to supply the needs of the institu- ton, and butter, eggs and other farm produce are sold in the markets.
 The principal employment of the in- mates of the reformatory is in laundry work and the making of all classes of shirts, wrappers and waists. The classes of work mentioned are done for large manufacturers in New York, Bos- ton and Philadelphia, and Mrs. Kibbe said yesterday that family washings are received from Boston and New York
 Girls and women are committed to the institution from fourteen years of age upwards Girls of the age of fourteen are usually committed by the courts to the school at Lancaster, but there are certain crimes for which they are sent to Sherborn. The school at Lancaster is an institution similar to the Industrial school at Middletown, and when girls of the age of fourteen or under are committed for the balance of their mi nority to the Lancaster school they are transferred to the reformatory at Sher- born when they reach the age of sixteen years. No women or girls are commit ted to the reformatory for term of less than one year and the sent vary from one year to imprisonment for { life. and Mrs. Kibbe said there are in- mates of the institution who have sen- tences of one and two years for the common crime of drunkenness. Nancy Guilford, now at the Connecticut state prison, served ten years at the Sherborn refornatory. She was sentenced for the same crime, criminal malpractice, which she committed at Bridgeport and for which she is now in state prison here. When at the Sherborn institu- ton she was known as Alice Guilford.
 There are now two hundred and thir- ty-fiye inmates at Sherborn and few years ago there were between five and six hundred. All inmates received at the institution are put in isolation for three weeks to determine whether they are afflicted with any infectious disease and for the further reason, as is often the case, to brace the women up after long sprees In the isolation depart rnent the women are kept separate and during the period of isolation they see none of the other inmates. When in the isolation department they wear blue dresses. After being released from is- olation by good behavior they pass from the first, to the second, third or fourth division into which the inmates are classified. A woman committed to the institution for the first time goes from her isolation room to the second divi- sion. but all women who return to the Institution for second time are placed in the first division after being released from isolation. The time those spend in isolation who have been previously committed to the institution varies. The inmates of the first division wear dresses of blue cloth with one white check, the number of checks increase { by one as the women are advanced from one division to anather and the inmates of the hospital connected with the in- stitution have five white checks. It is easy from the checks for the natrons to tell to which division woman belongs if met in the railways or about the prison.
 As the inmates are advanced from one division to another they are accord ed more privileges than those granted in x the division below and the quality and variety of the food is greater. In the fourth division the inmates are given butter on certain days and they have knives and forks and table clothes on the tables.
 The state allows inmates thirty-sx days a year each for good time and in