What state had the first state-run "Women's prison"?

When the Indiana Women's Prison opened in 1873, it was described as the first state-run women's prison facility in the entire country.

Even before that, though, privately run prisons for women - many of them known as "Magdalene Laundries" and overseen by orders of Catholic nuns - existed in the Hoosier state and elsewhere.

More Info: www.hoosierhistorylive.info

Test your knowledge

What are your thoughts on this subject?

9 Comments

Raymond Hodge

Cascades female factory Tasmania 1828 until 1856 as no country was specified

Pat Wells

Run by nuns who probably ruled with rulers.

Carolyn Brior

There is some debate about this topic. "Other sources point to Mount Pleasant Female Prison, a much earlier facility dedicated to women established in 1839 in Ossining, New York as the very first women’s prison. Randall G. Shelden (2010) writes about how female prisoners at majority male prisons were treated in the 19th century as the reason for this prison: “The conditions of the confinement of women were horrible — filthy, overcrowded, and at risk of sexual abuse from male guards. Rachel Welch became pregnant at Auburn (prison in NY) while serving a punishment in a solitary cell; she died after childbirth as the result of a flogging by a prison official earlier in her pregnancy. Her death prompted New York officials to build the Mount Pleasant Prison for women on the grounds of Sing Sing [Prison] in Mount Pleasant, New York in 1839.”

Kathryn A. Cobb

Good guess

Tammy Dellasandro

Interesting. Got it right

anthonygriffin

Dennis Myers, it's not about whether you're a man or woman. The bottom line is "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" in life.

anthonygriffin

It's interesting to know that the prison system had ties with the "Catholic Church" back in 1873. Apparently, that was one way of being "scared straight" in one's life.