GCSE Religious Studies: Crime and Punishment.

Elizabeth Fry: Quaker Campaigner for Prisoners Rights

Elizabeth Fry was a Quaker who became famous for her work
to reform the prison system in Britain in the early nineteenth
century. By her example she inspired other women to play a
fuller role in society: it was unusual for women to have a voice
outside the home. It was also unusual for a Quaker to be so
prominent because at that time the Quaker movement was
!oin! throu!h a "#uietist" phase and was very inward lookin!.
It was not unusual however for a Quaker to be concerned
about the welfare of prisoners because prison reform has always been important to
Quakers. $he early Quakers were put in prison for their beliefs and so they saw for
themselves the dreadful conditions inside the prisons. $hey feel that there is
somethin! of %od in everyone even in people who have committed crimes so the
aim of puttin! people in prison should be to try to reform them and not &ust to punish
them. ' century before Elizabeth Fry the Quaker (ohn Bellers )*+,- . */0,1 was
one of the first publicly to call for the abolition of the death penalty.
In *2*0 a!ed 30 she wrote in her diary 'I fear that my life is slipping away to little
purpose'. 4ot lon! afterwards 5tephen %rellet came to see her to ask for help. 6e
was a French aristocrat who had !one into exile because of the French 7evolution.
In 'merica he had become a Quaker. 8hile visitin! Britain he had been !iven
permission to visit some prisons and had been horrified by the conditions he had
seen in the women"s prison in 4ew!ate. 6e found prisoners lyin! on the bare stone
floors and some newborn babies without clothin!. 6e went to Elizabeth Fry who
immediately sent out for warm material and asked other women Friends to help her
make clothes for the babies.
$he next day she went with her sister.in.law to 4ew!ate prison. 't first the turnkeys
did not want to let her in as the women prisoners were wild and sava!e but physical
dan!er did not fri!hten her in the way that public speakin! and audiences did.
Elizabeth and her sister.in.law did !o in and were very shocked at the conditions
they found there . particularly when they saw two women strippin! the clothes off a
dead baby to !ive them to another child. $hey !ave out the warm clothes for the
babies and comforted the ill prisoners. 4ext day they returned with more warm
clothes and with clean straw for the sick to lie on. 9n a third visit she prayed for the
prisoners who were moved by her sincere words of love for them.
$he Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate not only
or!anised a school for the children they arran!ed for a woman to be appointed as
matron to supervise the prisoners and promised to pay her wa!es. $hey also
provided materials so that the prisoners could sew knit and make !oods for sale in
order to buy food clothin! and fresh straw for beddin!. $hey took it in turns to visit
the prison each day and to read from the Bible believin! that hearin! the Bible had
Elizabeth Fry and Prisoners Rights.
GCSE Religious Studies: Crime and Punishment.
the power to reform people. 8hen they applied to the :orporation of ;ondon for
fundin! for the school the ;ord <ayor of ;ondon came to hear Elizabeth readin! the
Bible to the prisoners and he a!reed to pay part of the matron"s wa!es.
9ne area where she made important chan!es was in the treatment of prisoners
sentenced to transportation to the colonies. 9ne day in *2*2 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 chains1 on open wa!ons to the
ships that would carry them to 'ustralia. Elizabeth Fry arran!ed for them to be taken
in closed carria!es to protect them from the stones and &eers of the crowds and
promised to !o with them to the docks. In the five weeks before the ships actually
sailed the ladies of the 'ssociation visited daily and provided each prisoner with a
"useful ba!" of thin!s the prisoners would need. $hey made patchwork #uilts on the
voya!e which were sold on arrival to provide some income. =urin! the next twenty
years she re!ularly visited the convict ships: in all *>+ came under her care.
Elizabeth Fry and Prisoners Rights.