Editing Elizabeth Fry (section)

===Prison reform and prisoner rehabilitation===
Fry returned to her project in 1816, and was eventually able to fund a prison school for the children who were imprisoned with their mothers. Rather than attempt to impose discipline on the women, she suggested rules and then asked the prisoners to vote on them. In 1817, she helped found the Association for the Reformation of the Female Prisoners in Newgate. This association provided materials for women so that they could learn to sew patchwork, which was calming for the women and also helped them develop skills such as needlework<ref>{{cite book |last=Hunter |first=Clare |title=Threads of life: A history of the world through the eye of a needle |publisher=Sceptre (Hodder & Stoughton) |location=London |year=2019 |page=50 |isbn=978-1473687912 |oclc=1079199690}}</ref> and knitting; this opened up a prospect, when in future they were released from prison, of them entering employment and earning money for themselves.<ref name=howard>{{Cite web|url=http://www.howardleague.org/elizabethfry/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130327215033/http://www.howardleague.org/elizabethfry/|url-status=dead|title="Elizabeth Fry", The Howard League for Penal Reform|archivedate=27 March 2013}}</ref> This approach was copied elsewhere and led to the eventual creation of the British Ladies' Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners in 1821.<ref name=lyd/> She also promoted the idea of rehabilitation instead of harsh punishment which was taken on by the city authorities in London as well as many other authorities and prisons.

"A Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to examine into evidence respecting the prisons of the metropolis" and Elizabeth Fry was called to give evidence on 27 February 1818.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pitman |first=E. R., Mrs. |title=Elizabeth Fry |publisher=Roberts Brothers |year=2005 |edition=Ebook |location=Boston |chapter=VII. Evidence Before the House of Commons |orig-date=1884 |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16606/16606-h/16606-h.htm#CHAPTER_VII |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref>  It is believed that she was the first woman ever to be called to give evidence to a Select Committee of the Houses of Parliament.

The passing of the Gaols Act in 1823 had a limited effect on prison conditions. It was largely ineffective, as it contained no mechanism to ensure its provisions were followed; some institutions, such as town gaols and debtors' prisons, were not regulated by the Act. The one change widely and successfully adopted was the separation of male from female inmates. Fry, whose ideas and representations had been influential in the drafting and passage of the Act, was well aware of the shortcomings in its implementation. She gave evidence to a Select Committee of the House of Lords in 1835, saying of prisons in England and Wales, that, despite the Gaols Act, "in many instances their condition is melancholy...they may truly be called schools for crime" and that some still had "no instruction, no employment, no classification [of inmates]...and they get into a most low and deplorable state of morals...I would not say that all are in that condition, but I fear many are". Only with the passing of the [[Prisons Act 1835]] were prison inspectors appointed, and all gaols and prisons brought under central control.<ref name="isba excellent"/>{{rp|139–144}}