The English Quakers and Prison Reform 1809-23

THE ENGLISH QUAKERS AND PRISON REFORM 1809-23 By Robert Alan Cooper* I. An examination of English prison reform in the nineteenth century cannot be divorced from the efforts of the Quakers, who played a dominant role in the agitation for the reform of the prisons, just as they did in the agitation for the abolition of slavery, the improvement of education, and other philanthropic endeavors. Such Quaker activities indicated a strong sense of responsibility toward both the spiritual and physical conditions of humanity. So secular a periodical as the Edinburgh Review could not but praise "that exemplary sect, which is the first to begin and last to abandon, every scheme for the practical amendment of their fellow-creatures." More impressive still was the Quakers' "spirit of practical wisdom, of magnanimous patience, and merciful indulgence, which puts to shame the rashness, harshness, and precipitation of sapient ministers , and presumptuous politicians."1 Such admiration was all the more remarkable when coming from a periodical which generally championed the virtues of harsh punishment. Quaker interest in prison reform was generally coupled with an opposition to capital punishment. This tradition can be traced to the founder of the sect, George Fox, who when incarcerated in Derby gaol in 1651 was appalled by the indiscriminate crowding together of the prisoners and the hanging of young girls for theft. Fox observed in his Journal "how that they [the prisoners] learned badness one of another in talking of their bad deeds. . . ."2 Fox's humanitarianism left its mark upon his movement. The Quakers maintained an interest in prison reform throughout the eighteenth century. John Bellers3 wrote on the subject, *Dr. Cooper teaches at the Indian Springs School, Helena, Alabama. 1.Edinburgh Review, XXX (1818), 480. 2.George Fox, The Journal of George Fox. (Ed. John L. Nickalls, Cambridge : The University Press, 1952), p. 66. In 1802 a concerted campaign for abolishment of capital punishment was generated through the Quaker administrative structure (Yearly Meetings of the Society of Friends, XXII (1802), 49. 3.John Bellers (1654-1725) was a Quaker, a landed gentleman and a philanthropist. Among his schemes was a plan to outlaw war, a program for the education of small children, and a proposal for the establishment of hospitals in London. 4 QUAKER HISTORY though with an emphasis on the salvation of the prisoner rather than the improvement of actual prison conditions.4 Yet by the end of the century such Quaker humanitarians as John Fothergill and John Coakley Lettsom had become much involved in prison reform agitation. Fothergill was the trusted associate of the greatest of all prison reformers, John Howard, and was a member of the committee that attempted to create the first national penitentiary in 1779.5 Lettsom wrote an exposé of conditions in Newgate and a series of articles for the Gentleman's Magazine based on reports received from the indefatigable prison visitor James Neild.8 The impact of such reformers as Fothergill and Lettsom was further reinforced by the activities of the Quakers in Philadelphia, who developed the first penitentiary.7 As a result, by the early nineteenth century there was a great deal of sympathy among English Quakers for the ideal of a healthy reformative prison regimen, and from the years 1809 to 1823 the Quakers would play a leading role in the development of penal policy, especially through the medium of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline. In 1809 the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge upon the Punishment of Death and the Improvement of Prison Discipline was founded by William Allen and Basil Montagu.8 Allen, the Quaker philanthropist, and Montagu, a close friend of Romilly, had both been impressed by the success of the Philadelphia Society9 as well as that of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave 4.John Bellers, An Epistle to Friends of the Yearly, Quarterly, and Monthly Meetings: concerning the Prisoners and Sick, in the Prisons and Hospitals of Great Britain (1724). 5.James Baldwin Brown, Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of John Howard, The Philanthropist (London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1823), pp. 172, 345. 6.James Johnston Abraham, Lettsom: His Life, Times, Friends, and Descendants (London...