[2] The initiative was a part of the contemporary Pietist movement, which encouraged religiously influenced social work among women.
Despite resistance from the clergy and the prison director, in 1854 the women were given permission to visit female prisoners and manage a form of Sunday school among them with the purpose of "with prayer, bible studies and moral talk try to bring comfort to the women placed under arrest and if possible influence their reform for the better".
Mathilda Foy described the work of the society in an interview which was published in English long after the events took place.
Betty Ehrenborg took charge of the vagrants, Maria Cederschiöld the thieves and Mathilda Foy the child murderers.
Foy remarked: "I was glad to have been rid of the gentlemen onlookers [the vicar and the prison director], but found it odd to be surrounded by 120 child murderesses."