DR. DAVIS STOPS PRISON MUTINY.

White Ribbon, Volume 20, Issue 237, 18 March 1915, Page 10

DR. DAVIS STOPS PRISON MUTINY.

Woman Commissioner Wins Response by Striking Human Note in Penitentiary. A short time ago there was an up rising among the 1400 prisoners in the* penitentiary in New York. The new “dope law had gone into effect, and 500 men, deprived of their customary drug, were crazed. All eyes of the public were centred on Commissioner Katherine Davis. What would she do? Would she prove out? She did a very simple thing. She moved into the penitentiary. She met the prisoners personally, and listened to their individual grievances; she corrected a few injustices; she listened to 1400 men give their ideas about how a prison should be run. In all the history of prisons no one ever heard of sue h a thing before. One man had so many ideas about kindness that she asked him to submit it in writing. Ihe C ommissioner gave the ideas to the newspapers, so that everyone might learn from the philosophy of a prisonei in the penitentiary. Sunday came, and she preached three times; one sermon to the Jew s, one to the Catholics, one to the Protestants. There was no one to play the organ, so she played it herself; there was no one to lead the singing, so she led it herself. The following day 1200 men went back to work; quiet and order were restored.—“ The Woman’s Journal.”