Who was Elizabeth Fry?

Today, we think of prisons as places for people who have done very bad things but 200 years ago people were also sent to prison for small crimes, like stealing bread. And if a woman was sent to prison, her children had to go too!

No matter what the crime, everyone was treated badly in these dark and frightening places.

One woman believed this was wrong and helped change prisons forever.

Elizabeth Fry was born into a rich Christian family. Her Quaker church taught that there was something good in everyone and Elizabeth knew she wanted to help people.

In those days, poor people often lived in filthy conditions and sometimes had to steal to survive. If they were caught, they were punished badly.

Aged 33, Elizabeth visited Newgate Prison, London. It was crowded and dirty with no beds, toilets or proper food and everyone, including babies, wore rags.

She gave babies in the prison warm clothes and brought clean bedding for the sick.

Elizabeth believed poor people only did bad things because they had to.

So she taught prisoners skills like reading and sewing so they could earn money to buy bread rather than steal it.

She helped make other changes too, like separating men from women and having women guards for women prisoners.

People saw this made things much better and began to do the same in other prisons.

Elizabeth organised campaigns to ask the government to treat prisoners more fairly.

To celebrate the courage and hard work of this religious woman, her image was put on the old £5 note for everyone to remember her.

Elizabeth Fry worked for what she believed was right and so that some of the poorest people, facing the hardest of times, could hope for a better life.