XIX
LITTLE USE FOR THE ONE RATIONAL INSTI-
TUTION FOR FALLEN WOMEN
LESS than fifty miles from New York City there is an institution known as the Bedford Reformatory. It exists for the reformation of delinquent women, and once in a great while a city magistrate will send a woman there instead of to the workhouse. I think I saw it stated that in the year 1909 three thousand women were sent to the workhouse and eleven to Bedford. This does not argue malevolence on the part of the magistrates. The fact is they cannot get it out of their heads that sending a woman to a reformatory is a punishment. They can't imagine doing anything for an unfortunate woman except punishing her; and Bedford they consider a
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