New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-02
Hylan Forced
'l'o Give Women
Aid
Day-Old Policy of Sending
Accused Persons to Vel
fare Island Stopped Sud
denly at Courts Request
Many Faced Hardships
''Ridiculous and Illegal,
Mayor Was Told Before
He Would Change System

Mayor Hylan, at the request of Act
ing City Magistrate John E. McGeehan,
yesterday put a stop to the day-old
policy of sending women prisoners
pending trial to Welfare (Blackwells)
Island.
1t was Thursday morning that a van
from the Department of Correction
drew UP unexpectedly at the women's
prison at the Jefferson Market Court
and the women were taken from their
cells and driven to a new house Of de-
tention on Welfare Island. The
matrons were taken with them, and the
new women's quarters in the prison,
renovated two years ago at a cost of
$4,000, were entirely deserted. The
order to transfer the prisoners was
made by Commissioner of Correction
James A. Hamilton.
indignation Meetings Held
Yesterday indignation meetings wers
held all over the women's court.
Prisoners complained that they were
unable to communicate with their
friends from the island. Bailees COM
planned that they could not arrange
bail at such distance from the court.
Probation officers foresaw weary
journeys from the court to the islani
whenever it was necessary to talk to
women pending sentence and re-
GREETED likewise the hardship to the
prisoners in the journey back and
forth to the court each day.
Patrolmen likewise were caught in
the net, for each visit of bailee to the
island required the attendance of an
accompanying police officer. jefferson
Market Court is long way from We'll
fare Island and the womens court in
the Raymond Street Jail, Brooklyn, is
even more inconveniently located in re-
gard to the island
Last night, however, Magistrate Nc
Geehan announced that the new system
would not be continued.
"It was ridiculous. and illegal" he
said. 81 called on Mayor Hylan yester-
day afternoon and reminded him of
the section Of the interior criminal
courts act, which specifies that prison
ers must be detained at prison near
where they are to be arraigned. AS soor
as the Mayor saw this, he called up
Commissioner Hamilton and ordered
the system abolished.
Humiiiating to Women
"It was particularly humiliating to
women prisoners to be subjected to
detention on Blackwell's Island when
perhaps they were never to serve a
term in prison there. Many women are
placed on probation and never are
The plan of the Department of
Correction was to house all women
prisoners in the new Correction Hos
pital on Welfare Island, on the as
sumption, it was said yesterday, that
they would be more comfortable there
thaa in the cramped quarters in old
prisons in the city.
Peter a. Mallon, warden of the Dis
trict Prison, said that only women
being sent to the island, and that this
was provided for under the laws Gre
ating the day court for women, by
which women should not be tried until
they had been cured of any ailment
from which they were suffering at the
time of their. arrest.
Warden Mallon also said that the
transfer to Blackwell's Island was In
accordance with an act of 1910, which
provided for new detention house
for women. Funds for this purpose
were held up during the war and it
was only last week that new quarters
were completed near the Workhouse.
The house was to have been officially
opened on July l.