Annual Report (Volume 33)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...would be changed if the whole building covering the entrance to the wharf were assigned to the Charities Department. for then there would be ample room for the separation of the business in suitable rooms, and a consequent classification of the people. There are other docks which the Correction Department could use, which would be better adapted to its needs. CONTACT WITH CRIMINALS. The Twenty-sixth street dock is too close to the hospital and dispensaries for use by criminals. The presence, daily, of so many criminals is not calculated to build up the moral tone of the vicinity, while the workhouse laborers who load and unload the steamers for the Correction Department on the same wharf, to which self-respecting persons must go to transact business or take steamers for the islands, represent a degrading influence which should be banished. Owing to past associations with the corrections of the city, the Public Charities have been regarded as necessarily a refuge for the lower classes of the city population, but there is no reason why admission to any public institution of a charitable nature should carry with it a stigma of reproach. The public institutions are the generous provision of a sympathetic community for the poor, the aged and infirm, and the unfortunate. It is only when the acceptance of public relief is accompanied by a breakdown of energy and self-respect that it is a reproach. But moral determination and self-respect soon are undermined through enforced contact with criminals. The men clothed in stripes on duty on the wharf and boats are regarded after a time as good enough for association, and the stripes lose their character as a badge of disgrace. The two departments are different in character, and represent radically different...