Woman in Prison

by Caroline H. Woods

[...]prisoners. Can they not do that on regular visiting days? Is it not only the work of humanity to see that crime is punished in a way that will not increase it; but also that of the legislator as a matter of civil policy; and that of the taxpayer as a matter of personal interest. It should interest every man and woman as a matter of personal protection from the depredations of vice to know how convicts are treated, and to judge whether that treatment tends to reform the criminal, or to harden and lead him deeper into crime when he is let out into the world again to pursue his own ways. Ought the punishment of criminals, who have been tried, convicted, and sentenced publicly, to be conducted in secret? It is to be presumed that the keeper of the prison is trusty. There should be no presumption in the matter. It should be known that he is so, and he should be kept so by the ceaseless[...].

132 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2012

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1869, this is an accounting of one woman's experience working as a prison matron (guard) for a short period of time. I thought it would have nothing relatable with the prison experience today, but other than the physical descriptions of clothing, food, and the cells, it read like passages out of Orange Is the New Black. The cruelty, mismanagement, and focus on punishment over rehabilitation appears not to have changed much over the last 150 years.

What made me shake my head throughout was the author's insistence that "if only people knew" then things would change. See this passage at the very end of the book:
"Let the prison doors be opened, and the inside of them exposed to the view of all. Knowledge awakens interest, and interest leads to action. If the people of this land could be roused to examine the subject, our prisons would soon be managed upon principles which would tend to the elevation of the wretched beings who now come out of them more degraded and hardened in the commission of crime than they go in."

Do we not know, or do we just not care?

(This book is an "always available" eBook available through the public library.)

[Hagay Giller · Rating 3 out of 5]

סיפורה של עובדת בכלא לנשים באמצע המאה ה-19 שמזדעזעת מהתנאים והבלגן, מנסה לשקם את האסירות ולהפוך אותן לנוצריות טובות, ו(ספוילר?) מגלה שלמנהלים בכלא לא כזה אכפת. מזל שאנחנו חיים בעידן הרבה יותר מתורבת :(((

[Lynne Bain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

I liked this book because it let me understand what the prisons were like at that time. I learned a lot.