Maternal Justice: Miriam Van Waters and the Female Reform Tradition

Abstract

Maternal Justice: Miriam Van Waters and the Female Reform Tradition. By Estelle B. Freedman. Chicago, 1996 (University of Chicago Press, 5801 South Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637) $34.95 Of special concern to people interested in Massachusetts social history is Estelle Freedman's compelling and sensitive portrayal of the life of Miriam Van Waters, the reform-minded superintendent of the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women in Framingham from 1932 until 1957. Especially illuminating is Freedman's interpretation of the hearings in 1949 when the Department of Corrections sought to remove Van Waters from her position. Opinions held by both officials and citizens polarized the liberals (who wanted to rehabilitate prisoners) and the conservatives (who wanted to punish prisoners). Although Van Waters was removed, a subsequent hearing restored her to her position. Van Waters could not have had a more suitable biographer than Estelle Freedman. She is particularly qualified for this study by her earlier works, which include Their Sisters Keepers, on the origins of women's prison reform, and Intimate Matters (with John D'Emilio), on the history of sexuality. As in her earlier work, Freedman underscores the importance of a women's reform community that offered a safe harbor for progressive ideas and practices. Because the criticism of Van Waters was partially driven by fears of rampant lesbianism within the institution, fueled by the homophobia of the times, Freedman's carefully nuanced interpretation of the personal relationships among the women in the Framingham prison community is particularly successful. She includes both the staff, including Van Waters's own deep friendships, and the inmates. The daughter of the Rev. George Browne Van Waters, Miriam Van Waters absorbed the ethos of the Social Gospel movement, emphasizing the regeneration of the individual and society through good Works. Her childhood was spent on the Oregon coast. She loved the outdoors; even at Framingham she took early morning horseback rides. Van Waters came east to Clark University where she earned a doctorate in anthropology. Her first position was as a probation officer for the juvenile court in Boston, a position sponsored by the Boston Children's Aid Society. She returned to her family on the West Coast and became part of a national network of women reformers who helped develop the Frazer Detention Home in Portland, Oregon, for children waiting for hearings and the El Retiro School for Girls in Los Angeles, a semi-rural experimental school for girls who had been sent to juvenile court. The goal of El Retiro was to help residents learn self-government and develop self esteem. Concurrently Van Waters served as a referee for the Los Angeles juvenile court. Political conflicts resulted in her losing control of the school, in a foreshadowing of the Framingham controversy twenty years later. When Van Waters became superintendent at Framingham in 1932, she was able to build on an earlier reform tradition. Many inmates, who were generally first-time offenders, were convicted of "crimes against chastity" (p. 186), which included prostitution, adultery, and stubbornness, or for intemperance. The first two offenses, Freedman explains, were not used as reasons to send men to prison, only women. …