The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1904-12-23
FOR A WOMAN'S
REFORMATORY
Mrs. 9. B. Alexander Out
lines a Plan for This
Much Needed Insti-
tuition.
FAVORS The COTTAGE PLAN
Urges Women of Hudson to
Forward the Movement
Our Defective Jails,

Women interested in the establishment
of a woman's reformatory in New Jersey
are more than ever encouraged in their
work by several Influential men who have
recently had cause to express their favor
in regard to the matter. Mrs. c. B.
Alexander, or HobolSen who is an assist
ant probation officer of Hudson County,
is appealing to women for assistance in
tae matter. In a report recently read
By Mrs. Alexander al meeting of the
New Jersey State Conference Of Chari-
ties and Corrections, she said:-
''No one can have even cursory ac-
aueilitonce with our county institutions
without knowing something cf the jails,
and enc visit would De enough to con-
vince even the most casual observer that
their situation, construc ion and manage
men- absolutely preclude their becom-
ing places for the reformation of cffend-
ers-men, women and boys A point that
| shall not attempt to prove is that i'm
prisonment shall have for its principal
aim the reformation Of the prisoner, for
the good of society as we'll as his own.
II shall try to give you some idea Of
the reformatory for women, which we
hope and believe New Jersey will before
long have, taking as our text the recon-
mendation of the commission appointed
last Year by Governor Franklin Murphy.
which has lately been prepared for the
Legislature: we earnestly recommend
the establishment Of reformatory for
women on the cottage plan. to be under
the exclusive management Of women as
oficers,and to be managed under the gem
eral lines adopted in Massachusetts and
New York
Lack of classification is perhaps the
most crying evil of our present system in
jails, penitentiaries and in State prison,
and classification by the aid of the merit
system becomes the foundation of the
most successful reformatory work This
can be done more naturally and simply
and therefore more efficiently, by keep
ing the women in separate buildings
where many small privileges, granted or
withheld, form an incentive to good be-
havior.
Each cottage would have its own
matron, who could get into close rela-
tionship with her charges, and in those
for the higher grades each woman would
have a bright little room Of her own.
One cottage would contain the nursery,
saddest of necessities! A hospital cot
tage would also be needed, and an adj
ministration building which would con-
tain chapel, gymnasium and class
room. As we aim at nothing less than
perfection, we must include the disci-'
plinary cottage recently asked for at the
Bedford Reformatory.
eve all know how often children are
naughty when they are noticed and sub
side when they realize nobody is looking
at them. Many of these women are as
undeyeloped as children, and when we
add the hysteria 50 often found, we can
a whole corridor win often cause a night
of shrieks. This new building is to have
rooms lighted from the top, comfortable,
but with noiseless walls, and we can
imagine how soon tantrums will subside
when there is no one to fuss over them
OF be fused over"