Emma Amelia Hall
Emma Amelia Hall was a pioneering prison reformer born in Raisin Township, Michigan, in the 19th century. She was one of six children in a family with English roots dating back to early Massachusetts settlers. After completing her education at Michigan State Normal School, Hall began her career as a teacher in Detroit public schools and later at a private seminary. Her notable work began when she was appointed as a teacher at the House of Shelter for Women, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at helping female inmates transition back into society.
As the head matron, Hall played a crucial role in creating a supportive environment for women, emphasizing education and rehabilitation over punishment. She believed that many female offenders were products of unfortunate circumstances, advocating for compassion and understanding in their treatment. Despite facing challenges and opposition from conservative authorities, Hall's innovative approaches led to the establishment of the state female reform school in Adrian, Michigan, which focused on rehabilitation within a cottage system rather than a traditional prison structure.
In her later years, Hall served as a missionary teacher in New Mexico, where she unfortunately passed away at the age of 47 from heart disease. Her contributions to prison reform left a lasting impact, and her work continues to be recognized in discussions of the reformatory movement.
Subject Terms
Emma Amelia Hall
- Emma Hall
- Born: February 28, 1837
- Died: December 27, 1884
Prison reformer, was born in Raisin Township, Michigan, the first daughter and second of six children of Reuben Lord Hall, a farmer and schoolteacher, and of Abby Wells (Lee) Hall. Both parents were descended from English families that had settled in Massachusetts early in the seventeenth century. Her father had lived in Michigan since 1830.
Hall was educated in the local county schools and the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsilanti. After graduating in 1861, she taught in the Detroit public schools, but in 1867 she joined the faculty of Professor John Sill’s Seminary for Young Ladies, also in Detroit.
A gifted teacher, she soon came to the notice of Zebulon Reed Brockway, one of the most innovative prison administrators of the nineteenth century. Head of the Detroit House of Correction, Brockway was an early proponent of the reformatory approach to corrections: inmates were committed for indeterminate sentences, their release being conditional on their readiness to live as good citizens. The system relied heavily on a vigorous program of general and industrial education and on helping released inmates to find jobs.
In 1868 Brockway added a House of Shelter for Women, which he intended as a means of helping newly released female prisoners make the difficult transition to life outside prison. As head matron he chose Mrs. A. A. R. Wiggin and as teacher for the inmates Emma Hall. Hall, a religious woman with a deep belief in the Christian duty to help others, immediately accepted the post. She made the teaching program a success, and in 1871 became head matron of the shelter, which by this time also included some of the better-behaved prisoners.
Hall was thus for several years head of what was virtually the first women’s reformatory in the United States. She lived with about thirty inmates, acting as confidante and house mother and overseeing their lives. She taught evening classes for women at the reformatory, with such success that classes for the male prisoners were also begun. Like Brockway, with whom she worked harmoniously, Hall believed that most female offenders were victims of circumstances beyond their control. Her desire to work with these women became “very strong,” she noted, because “our own sisters might have been as unfortunate (indeed these are our sisters).”
Despite their successes, both Brockway and Hall met constant resistance from the city administration. In 1873 Brockway resigned, followed by Hall the next year. The House of Shelter was discontinued, ostensibly because its facilities were needed for the detention of prisoners.
Hall immediately became matron of the state school for handicapped and homeless children at Coldwater, Michigan, but resigned within a year because of disagreements with the governing board. From 1875 to 1881 she was matron of the state school for the deaf and dumb at Flint.
Perhaps Hall’s greatest contribution to reform was in designing and establishing the state female reform school at Adrian, Michigan. According to her innovative plan, the inmates lived in cottages rather than in cells, each cottage organized as a small living group. The inmates, ranging in age from eight to sixteen, were encouraged to learn skills and attitudes that would help them return to society. As in her other positions, however, Hall encountered opposition from a conservative governing board, which was put off by her passionate and single-minded quest for an enlightened rehabilitation system. After a three-year tenure as superintendent (1881-84), she resigned, but the Adrian reform school remained as a model for other states and a major influence on prison reform.
After a brief vacation, Hall became a missionary teacher in New Mexico, working with Indians at Albuquerque. After only two months of this work, she died, at the age of forty-seven, of heart disease probably aggravated by difficult living conditions. She was buried at Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Hall’s papers and diaries are in the Michigan Historical Collections, University of Michigan. The best sketches are in Z. Brockway, Fifty Years of Prison Service (1912) and Notable American Women (1971). Her role in the reformatory movement is discussed in B. McKelvey, American Prisons: A History of Good Intentions (rev. ed. 1977).