The Sherborn Massachusetts Reformatory Prison for Women.

Abstract

For reasons which it is not here necessary to state, the subject of prisons, imprisonment, and prison discipline, has claimed somewhat of my attention. I would briefly direct your attention to the Massachusetts Reformatory Prison for Women, at Sherborn, not many miles outside Boston. This prison for women, managed and officered by women, is by far the most interesting and cheering institution of the kind I have ever visited. Much of the remarkable success of the establishment is doubtless due to the capacity and strong individuality of the superintendent, Mrs. Ellen C. Johnson, a lady of independent means, who some years ago was induced to accept the position she now holds. Sherborn proves what can be and what might be done, by the application of the highest principles to the reformation of the weakest and most erring of our population. During a tour of nine months abroad, I saw much that was deeply interesting, but nothing that approached in interest Sherborn Reformatory Prison for Women.