Hero #054: Elizabeth Fry … (04/10/16)
Elizabeth Fry was an English prison reformer, social reformer, homeless advocate, and philanthropist. She was a major driving force behind new legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane, and has sometimes been referred to as the “angel of prisons” …
Prompted by a family friend, Fry visited Newgate Prison in 1813, and was absolutely horrified with what she saw there. And yet instead of turning her back on the squalor or judging the inmates as “mere criminals,” Fry returned the very next day with food and clothes for the prisoners. Deeply moved by the experience, she started regularly visiting the prison, and eventually funded a prison school for the children who had been imprisoned with their mothers. She also began a system of supervision during her visits, and required the women to sew and to read while she was there. In 1817 she helped found the Association for the Reformation of the Female Prisoners in Newgate, and organization which provided materials for women so that they could learn to sew and knit, that they might be able to earn money for themselves once they were out of prison. The success of this altruistic venture led to the creation of the British Ladies’ Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners in 1821, which proved to be the first nationwide women’s organization in Britain. Fry also promoted the idea of rehabilitation instead of harsh punishment; a proposal which was eventually adopted by the city authorities in London, as well as by many other lawmakers and prisons. She was often know to spend the night in the prisons she visited, and regularly invited nobility to join her and see the horrible conditions for themselves.
Fry also successfully campaigned for the welfare of prisoners who were being transported. As it turns out, the women of Newgate Prison were often transported through the streets of London in open wagons, often in chains, huddled together with their few possessions while they were pelted with rotten food and filth by the people of the city. In response to this egregious indignity, Fry first persuaded the Governor of Newgate Prison to send the women in closed carriages, and thereafter visited prison ships and persuaded their captains to implement systems to ensure that each woman and child would at least get a share of food and water on any long journey. Later she arranged for each woman to be given scraps of material and sewing tools so that they could use the long journey to make quilts and have something to sell as well as useful skills when they reached their destination. All in all, Fry visited 106 transport ships and saw 12,000 convicts, and her work helped to start a movement for the abolition of transportation.
Aside from her work reforming the prison system, Elizabeth Fry also helped the homeless and actively campaigned for the abolition of both the death penalty and slavery.
“When thee builds a prison, thee had better build with the thought ever in thy mind that thee and thy children may occupy the cells.” ~ Elizabeth Fry
“It is an honor to appear on the side of the afflicted.” ~ Elizabeth Fry
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