The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-10

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TO sit here in the Office until they are
released.
DO you ever take any particular inter-
est IN any OF these women who are ar
rested?" she was asked.
"Oh. once in a while | will find one for
whom will Go all can TO get some one TO
go her bond. but outside OF that seldom
take any personal interest in any OF tneIn'
the maITOn said. Il used to become inter
ested In some of these prisoners. especlalIy
girls, but II did no good. Miss Relnser anu
, myself frequently. when young girls Were
arrested. would write 10 their parents, Dut
| II did no good. When a girl reaches els ,-
cen OF twenty years and goes wrong her
parents can't do anything Tor her am
! not saying this from theory. but from
/ actual experience obtained by being thrown
with these girls for years.
report of the women arrested in New York
/ city il is said that each year they average
| Younger a nd that now the majority of them
brought IL by the police are mere girls
| Is the same true in this city?
FEW YOUNG GIRLS.
NO" r.plied Mrs. Gregoire, lit is not
In fact, SD far as the women of this city
are concerned. the majority of them who
are arrested are far from being girls. L
will further say that there are fewer girls
| under twenty years old arrested now than
ever before. and the monthly reports will
| bear out this statement. Last month there
were los prisoners brought to the woman's
department, and of this number there were
only eighteen who were under twenty. and
the month before it was practically the
same thing.
There is quite a large number of women
brought in here ranging in age from fifty
| five to seventy. and all of them are COM
| plete physical wrecks. Often when these
old women, who are confirmed drunkards.
nd h.
| become sober and completely free from the
| influence of liquor their nervous systems
are in such a state of collapse that they
| have to be supported when they walk. 1t
really makes one heart-sick to see them
| in such a pitiable condition. / remember,
not long ago, that old woman was
| brought up here who was over seventy
years old: she was drunkard of the worst
| type, and as complete physical wreck
| as 1 ever
Another class of women that always
| appeal to me, although / know that they
| really do not deserve any sympathy, are
those that the police call dope fiends.'
| Whenever a woman becomes addicted to
either the morphine cocaine habit she
| has sunk about as low as she can get There
| is no redeeming these women; they are
absolutely gone. Sometimes they are
| brought in here and when the effects of the
| drug have worn off they are absolutely
| wild. 1t is often necessary TO call the doc
| tor. and he administers small doses of the
| drug TO quiet them.
| AT what age do you find that the aver
| age woman commits her first offense for
| which she is arrested?" the matron was
| asked
| when a woman is brought in here" said
| the matron, ''she has been offending for a
| long time, probably, but this is the first
| time that she has ever been caught Those
| tween the ages of twenty-three and twenty
! five. and few of them are sentenced unless
| their offense is more serious than ordins -
| rily. Many times the matron will intercede
| with the judge for them and ask him TO
| give the prisoner another chance. which he
| generally does. Another thing when a
| girl Is brought here for the first time
| seldom put her behind the bars. for when
| ever you do this your girl is gone and she
will never amount to anything. Locking
| any girl behind bars on her first offense is
| bad thing and generally completes her
| ruin, for all of her self-respect leaves
| her and she seems to think that there is
no use in trying to reform.
| DO you notice that the women crimi-
nais of to-day are any more hardened in
character than they formerly were?'
| THAT is thing in which they never
| change, said Mrs. Gregoire. They have
! been hardened in character enough ever
| since criminal women have been i'm exist
| ence, although it takes them some time
| to become thoroughly hardened. There are
| three distinct stages in this process, and
| have often seen women go through all of
| them. When they are first arrested they
| become Inundated. and cannot be recon
| ciled TO the thought that they are under
| arrest. The next time they are brought
4
| the average woman will cry little the
| second time she comes. but not like the
first time. and she is much more easily
| consoled. But when she comes to the
| third stage of the hardening process she is
| completely changed. She is altogether in
different and has but one object in life,
| and that is dissipation. When she has
passed through this last stage, of course,
| she is low she get. She is
clear at the bottom and there is little hope
| for her.
OF LOW INTELLIGENCE.
do any of these women who are brought
in here ever display any great amount of
intelligence" Mrs. Gregoire was asked.
mo" she replied, there are few of them
who ever have any education or knowledge
to amount to anything. Those who have
more intelligence than the average, as a
be deadened. They don't seem to compre-
bend anything and their one thought seems
| to be of dissipation and debauchery.
"Of the women criminals, many display
| general thing, have been so dissipated that
| their intellect seems TO a certain extent TO
| a shrewdness that would do credit to men
| of the criminal class There is one strange
| thing about woman criminal, and that is
| that she will not talk. There is where
| she differs from the ordinary woman. She
| will not tell who was associated with her
| in her crime. and she is altogether hard
| person TO manage.
| Are long sentences to prison the means
of correcting and reducing crime so far as
| woman is cOncerned?'
| mo, indeed; whenever a woman is sent
| to prison she is lost. There is really
only one way to redeem women at all,
| and that is through the suspended SEN
| tence. They will behave themselves then
| out of fear, for, If when one of them is out
| on a suspended sentence and an officer
| finds her doing wrong she will have this old
| sentence TO serve, and this generally keeps
| her straight"
| lis bad compa nionship the general cause
| of a woman's downfall?'' the matron was
| asked.
| There are various reasons to which this
/ can be attributed. Some have bad home
| surroundings, their parents take no in
| terest in the girls and they have become
very often is stepparent who makes the
| life of a child miserable. Then you will
/ find many parents who too lenient
| with the girl and permit her to run around
/ all hours of the night, and the first thing
/ they know she Is arrested. These girls
| generally average in age from seventeen
| TO twenty
when a girl does become bad and is
| once arrested it is a hard matter TO redeem
her. for she then seems TO lose all self
| respect. | never fail 10 try 10 reform a
| first time and for the seven years that /
| have been here | still have my first one
/ To completely reform. | had one girl who.
/ think would have turned out all right
| but she died. The first time girl is
brought here she will promise 10 be good
| and never do wrong again. but IL will not
| be Ions before she will be put in again,
| and so far | have found no exceptions TO
| the rule. When a girl Is once arrested
4 - seem 10 he hOr for he. for cna