women and prison reform

[iverglas]

2. Australian angles

There's one to Elizabeth Fry as well -- and she also multi-tasked into the field of nursing and the care of mental patients, it seems:

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/reformmore/p/elizabeth_fry.htm

While Elizabeth Fry is known more for her prison reform activities, she was also active in investigating and proposing reforms for mental asylums. For more than 25 years, she visited every convict ship leaving for Australia, and promoted reform of the convict ship system. She worked for nursing standards and established a nursing school which influenced her distant relative, Florence Nightingale. She worked for the education of working women, for better housing for the poor including hostels for the homeless, and she founded soup kitchens.

http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/fry.htm

One area where she made important changes was in the treatment of prisoners sentenced to transportation to the colonies. One day in 1818 when she visited the prison she found some of the prisoners were about to riot because the next day they would be taken in 'irons' (hand- and ankle-cuffs and chains), on open wagons, to the ships that would carry them to Australia. Elizabeth Fry arranged for them to be taken in closed carriages to protect them from the stones and jeers of the crowds, and promised to go with them to the docks. In the five weeks before the ships actually sailed, the ladies of the Association visited daily, and provided each prisoner with a 'useful bag' of things the prisoners would need. They made patchwork quilts on the voyage, which were sold on arrival to provide some income. During the next twenty years she regularly visited the convict ships: in all 106 came under her care.

Huh!

There's a really comprehensive timeline of Australian prison reform movements here:

http://justiceaction.org.au/cms/about/history-of-the-prisoner-movement

Obviously the Australian situation is unique, since the earliest European settlers were prisoners themselves.

How about it, Australian cousin? Women and social reform movements in Australia?

edit -- googling Australia "social reform" women finds gazillions of them. Thread-worthy in themselves!

Anybody who thinks that women in history are properly accounted for in history lessons isn't paying attention, I think. Of course, one reason for their exclusion is the lack of attention paid to social reform and reformers and the problems they were attacking, generally ...