In the Beginning

Back in the mid 1800's, America witnessed the beginnings of a widespread movement to provide social services and moral training to the poor, the disabled, and the offender. The nation saw an incredible proliferation of voluntary social outreach organizations. The YMCA, the Salvation Army, settlement houses like Chicago's Hull House and the Sunday School all had their origins during this period, most prompted by religious zeal to offer education and care for the dispossessed, the fallen, and the ill. These organizations were intended to reach a growing population of immigrants, rural people who had moved to urban centers, and those who had succumbed to the "demonic" lure of alcohol and gambling.

Friends of the Prisoners Society

Connecticut's educational, legal, and religious leaders joined the movement when they inaugurated the Friends of Prisoners Society in January 1875, to work in the brand new field of criminal rehabilitation. It only cost a dollar a week to join back then, and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) served on the group's first Board of Advisors. The first two years were dedicated to planning and recruitment. A local auxiliary in New Haven never got beyond the talking stage, but in Hartford, the idea bore lasting fruit. The group that gathered at the First Congregational Church in Hartford in March 1875 included Dr. Joseph Cummings, president of Wesleyan College, Rev. Noah Porter and Rev. Elisha Richardson, two prominent Congregational clergymen of the day, and State Court Judge Herman Barbour.

By December 1876 the founders had narrowed their focus to the inmates of the newly established Seyms Street Jail, built in 1874, and had changed the organization's name to the Connecticut Prison Association. From the very beginning, the agency's goals were identified:

• Benefit society by the reformation of criminals
• Assist prisoners in the work of self-reform
• Promote reformatory systems of prison management
• Aid discharged convicts in living honorably
• Cooperate in the prevention and repression of crime

A respected list of individuals led CPA on both the board and staff levels through its formative years. They included social workers, retired military leaders, judges, and educators.

The Growing Years

Between 1901 and 1950, CPA not only worked directly with hundreds of inmates annually as they served their time and after release, but the agency was also instrumental in a number of criminal justice innovations. The Indeterminate Sentencing Law of 1901, the establishment of the State Probation System (1903), the building of the Reformatory for Young Offenders (1909) in Cheshire, Connecticut, the opening of the Women's Farm and Prison in Niantic (1929), and the consolidation of the County Jails into a centralized state system in 1955 were all accomplished with the direct involvement and political influence of the Connecticut Prison Association.

From 1950 to 1980, a major change took place in criminal justice, seen in both the terminology and philosophy of the time. The term "correction" symbolized a new approach, and CPA was in the forefront of the creation of a Department of Correction by the state legislature in 1967. CPA's Executive Director, Rev. Joseph Gates, chaired the search committee for the first Commissioner, and in 1968 Gates himself was named head of the new Board of Parole. Rev. A. Ray Petty succeeded Gates as corrections entered a golden age for private sector agencies. It was a time of great faith in the possibility of rehabilitation of most offenders, particularly through education, and of the maximum use of positive incentives rather than punishment as the most productive response to crime. A Community Volunteers program was initiated in 1962, and in 1972 a federally funded legal program to provide civil legal assistance came under CPA supervision. Board chairmen represented the legal profession, but they also came from the business and academic worlds. By the early 1980's, CPA was a leading advocate of alternatives to incarceration, as offender populations soared and overcrowding became a hot political issue.

Recent History

With the Rev. Gordon Bates selected to lead the agency in 1980, the last twenty years of the century saw another radical swing in public policies and correctional philosophy. As the country grew more conservative politically and socially in the face of rising drug abuse and violent crime, faith in the possibilities of offender reformation gave way to the goals of public safety and the incapacitation of offenders. Harsher penalties led to longer jail and prison terms that led, in turn, to a call for more prisons and jails. In Connecticut alone, the number of correctional facilities doubled and the number of inmates tripled between 1980 and 2000. Offender profiles were increasingly characterized by drug-related problems, mental health issues, violence, youthfulness, and rising incidences of tuberculosis, AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases. And, as was typical across the nation, minority groups were disproportionately represented in all jails and prisons of the state.

Rising to the challenge during the 1990's, CPA experienced a dramatic shift in programming. Some programs lost their funding (Volunteer Sponsor and Legal Assistance to Prisoners), while other programs set the tone for the future. The innovative direction of one of CPA's legal program attorneys, Jim Greene, with the assistance of Department of Corrections Deputy Commissioner Larry Albert and others, enabled CPA to begin to offer the courts a menu of program options in addition to imprisonment. Board Chair Judge Raymond Norko, like Judges Barbour and Maltbie before him, actively promoted the use of non-profits like CPA. In cooperation with the DOC and the Judicial Branch, the expertise of Program Director Deanne Scaringe enabled CPA to extend opportunities for offenders in job placement, the arts, the treatment of AIDS and substance abuse, along with a growing list of community alternatives.

A New Director

In 1998, Maureen Price-Boreland, Esq. became the first woman and the first Black to lead CPA when she stepped up to the position of Executive Director. A lawyer by training, she assumed the responsibility for an agency that has become a $12 million operation, with more than 17 programs and 183 staff members.

One hundred and thirty five years have passed since the Friends of Prisoners Society first met. Changes unimaginable to prior generations have been experienced, creative responses to each shift in the cultural picture have been initiated, and enormous good has been done. All who have volunteered or worked with the agency know that, whatever the future holds, the pattern of service and success is not likely to alter for Community Partners in Action.