Liberty's Prisoners. Jen Manion

Keating and her child,” as well as reporting the purchase of two yards of flannel for Mary Gale’s child.⁸⁵ These children were probably infants or very, very young. The fact that women would keep their young children with them in prison was utterly shocking and astounding to reformers who complained about the practice. Writing to the Supreme Executive Council, PSAMPP members noted, “Children both in the goal and workhouse are frequently suffered to remain with their parents whereby they are initiated in early life to scenes of debauchery dishonesty and wickedness of every kind.”⁸⁶ Reformers sought to rid the prison of children for their own protection, despite the fact that many had nowhere to go. A single, divorced, or widowed woman’s children would have been removed to the almshouse or bound to a local family if other relatives were not available to take care of them during their mother’s imprisonment.⁸⁷