Female Life in Prison (Volume 2) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1862. Excerpt: ... 206 CHAPTER XVII. FULHAM BEFUGE. When a matron shall write her life and experience at Fulham Refuge, it is possible that her story will take shades less deep and dark. It mayinclude stories of a fair repentance and a new life, with much to encourage the philanthropist, and to maintain our faith in the grand old adage that there is " good in everything." It will be a record of experience with the best class of prison women, with those who have been selected from Brixton for evincing some desire to walk in a different path, and to turn away from that which led them to the brink of ruin. It is not to be wondered at that in my chronicles I have shown so little of the bright side, the best prisoners constantly and regularly passing away from our observation. So much has been said in previous pages concerning Fulham Refuge, that a little sketch concerning it and its discipline may not be considered out of place. Fulham is the last stage of female prison life. Having followed through two phases pretty closely, we can now afford the time to take a cursory glance of that institution which offers so many advantages to those willing to receive them. It is almost unnecessary to repeat that Millbank Prison represents the probation and third class stage of discipline, and Brixton the first and second. Only women of the first class, strong, industrious, well-behaved prisoners, who have received but a few reports during a long term of imprisonment, and have shown symptoms of a desire to lead a new life, are eligible for Fulham. As its name implies, it is scarcely a gaol; it is' the neutral ground between prison life and the world wherein lurk all the old temptations to which offenders formerly succumbed, and thus became exposed to punishment. It is, moreover, the vantage ground from which may be se...