State Farm for Women at Niantic, Connecticut—Reception Building
State reformatory institutions for women are rapidly being developed in the United States. The first two institutions of this class, the Indiana State Reformatory for Women at Indianapolis and the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women at Framingham, were prison structures, less rigid and formal than typical prisons for men, but still following prison models.
In the meantime the cottage system for younger girls grew up, and it was soon found that delinquent girls could be safely kept in ordinary cottages without any surrounding wall and without prison construction.
When the New York State Reformatory for Women was built at Bedford, cottages were erected instead of a large congregate building, and the gates of the institution stood open day and night. While occasionally escapes took place, the number was not large, and the fugitives were usually speedily recaptured.
All the new institutions for delinquent women are on the cottage plan, and in most cases the cottages are of simple construction, without window gratings, strong bars, walls, or even fences. In some cottages an iron grill protects the lower sash; sometimes this grill is masked by window plants.
The Connecticut State Farm for Women receives women committed for misdemeanors from all parts of Connecticut. There are only eight women convicted of felonies in the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield, but a considerable number of women are still committed to the county jails throughout the State. All the women at Niantic are committed for criminal offenses.
Three old farmhouses have been refitted to serve as cottages, and one new Reception Building has been erected to accommodate 27 incoming women. This is a wooden building, similar in construction to a well-built farmhouse. On the first floor are a kitchen, a dining-room, a living-room, and a reception department for incoming prisoners, with hospital wards, isolation wards, and accommodations for officers.
RECEPTION BUILDING—FIRST FLOOR PLAN
The dining-room and living-room are practically one room, so that the dining-room with its tables is available as an evening sitting-room and living-room.
On the second floor are single rooms for inmates, with accommodations for the matron and her assistant. The rooms are about 7 by 10 feet. They are simply but neatly furnished. Notwithstanding the fact that this cottage is designed for the incoming prisoners who are most likely to run away, the doors of this house are unlocked throughout the day.
The farm contains about 500 acres. Three old farmhouses, having been repaired and supplied with plumbing, furnish houseroom for three groups of women, each under charge of a matron. No one of these buildings is in any sense “secure”; but escapes are infrequent, and escaping prisoners are usually recaptured.
RECEPTION BUILDING—SECOND FLOOR PLAN
The only secure place on the farm consists of three small “thinking rooms” located in the basement of the receiving cottage. These rooms have strong doors and barred windows. Their construction is not satisfactory, but they will be replaced by more suitable detention rooms when additional buildings are erected.
The present buildings are inconvenient and ill adapted to the care and supervision of the women. When permanent buildings are erected, the work of the officers will be greatly simplified; but the probability is that the new buildings will be of simple construction, similar to that of the buildings that have already been erected.
RECEPTION BUILDING—BASEMENT PLAN
The small number of escapes from the Connecticut State Farm for Women and Clinton Farms in New Jersey appears to be due to the establishment of a certain morale among the women. This morale rests partly on the fine spirit of the superintendents and their staffs, partly upon the certainty of recapture, and partly upon the spirit of the inmates. Running away is contrary to the practice of the place. “It isn’t done.”
Newcomers have to be carefully watched for the first few days until they overcome homesickness and become won to the place. After that they are less likely to attempt to abscond.