PRISON INVESTIGATIONS On the one hand, interested in all that pertains to court procedure and the judicial function and the prevention of delinquency and crime, women are, on the other hand, interested in the internal conditions of correctional institutions of all kinds, and are suggesting remedies and new experiments all the time. Many states have their women’s prison associations. Indeed, since the days of Elizabeth Frye, nearly a century ago in England, women have been closely associated with prison work. The American name that stands out in fitting companionship with the name of Elizabeth Frye is that of Isabel Barrows whose death two years ago laid to rest one of the foremost prison reformers of the world. In Chicago, boys in the county jail have been studied by the Juvenile Protective Association, and a report based on the study is issued by Mrs. Louise Bowen, who suggests a court for the juvenile adult—the boy between seventeen and twenty-one years of age, who is too old for the Juvenile Court—as an effort toward the rehabilitation of boys in the later stages of adolescence. In New York, the Women’s Prison Association was organized in 1844 as the Female Department of the Men’s Prison Association. Members soon discovered that it existed to raise funds for others to spend. In 1853 they formed a separate society, the Women’s Prison Association, and founded the Isaac T. Hopper Home. They have brought about many reforms, such as laws concerning police matrons, patrol wagons, probation systems, appropriations for Bedford Reformatory, and the State Farm for women misdemeanants. The nature of their legislative efforts is indicated by this extract from their report of 1914: It was decided last fall, at a special meeting of the Women’s Prison Association, to try to get five bills through the Legislature. They failed in toto, but one clause which was incorporated in the Goldberg Bill abolishing fines for women misdemeanants was a suggestion made by this Association. The bills were: An Act to provide for the appointment of police matrons for duty in places of amusement. An Act to change the present method of temporary care of prisoners, insane, injured, or dangerously ill. An Act to provide a Board of Managers and a Woman Superintendent for the State Farm for Women. An Act to provide a separate Court for women. An Act to provide a resident physician for Blackwell’s Island. The Women’s Prison Association, the Salvation Army, and charity societies often coöperate, and are discussing at present a national association for the promotion of prisoners’ aid. Such associations are always deeply interested in the advanced experimental methods aimed to improve, through scientific study and observation, the systems of dealing with delinquents in private and public institutions. They are equally interested in extending present facilities for the care of these wards of the state.