The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 50) November 1911Pennsylvania Prison Society
History
The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 50) November 1911
Pennsylvania Prison Society
Charities -- Periodicals; Prisons -- Periodicals
For the past two years I have felt very strongly the importance of
visiting the prisoners at the Central Station, City Hall. The reason
for this desire was brought about through a young man who was held in
Moyamensing Prison on suspicion of larceny for a further hearing. I had
a talk with him and he told me he left Louisville, Ky., seventeen years
since, and had not written home in that time, and now he felt ashamed
to write. After a long talk with him, he consented to let me write.
When the letter came from the mother telling of her joy at the news of
her long-lost son, whom she had long thought dead, I at once went to
the prison and found the man had that morning been discharged--_the
letter came too late_. Had I met the man when he was first arrested,
that letter would have arrived before the second hearing, and upon his
discharge he would have gone home.
It is with much pleasure I am able to state that on November 16, 1910,
Director Clay granted me permission to visit the cell room at City Hall
and directed the Superintendent of Police to issue me a permit, which
reads as follows:
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY,
BUREAU OF POLICE.
PHILADELPHIA, November 16, 1910.
Permission is hereby granted Frederick J. Pooley, General Agent
Pennsylvania Prison Society, the courtesy and privilege of visiting
prisoners in Central Station committed to County Prison.
(Signed) JOHN B. TAYLOR,
_Superintendent of Police_.
Since receiving permission I have made daily visits to the Central
Station and have written 126 letters to different parts of the country.
One letter brought a young man’s father from Johnstown, Pa., and
another from Richmond, Va., and when the cases came to court they were
discharged. At the request of the Detective Department three women who
were found on the street without a home were placed in care of Mrs. H.
Fassitt, and Mrs. Fassitt had them sent to the Door of Blessing, and
afterwards had one woman sent to her home in West Virginia and another
to her home in Maryland, and the other to a hospital for treatment. In
some cases the magistrates have requested me to look into the case, and
upon my report they were discharged and sent home. I look for wonderful
results from this field of work. Only the other day a man came to me
and said, “We had not heard from sister for five months and had it not
been for your talk with her at the City Hall we do not know when she
would have decided to come home.” I think the words of our President,
Joshua L. Baily, to the Magistrate when he visited the City Hall
recently explains the new work of the Pennsylvania Prison Society when
he said. “Our new work here is to try to keep men and women from going
to prison.” The Magistrates and officials of the City Hall are doing
all they can to help to make the work of your General Agent a success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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