Elmira Reformatory.

In 1894, investigations undertaken by the State Board of Charities and the Commission to Hear Charges against Managers of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira revealed that order was maintained at the institution largely through the threat and imposition of severe corporal punishment. In an 1899 opinion, the State Attorney General declared that an 1847 act "for the better regulation of the county and State prisons of the State, and consolidating and amending the existing laws in relation thereto" applied to all penal institutions in New York State. The act (Chapter 460) banned corporal punishment of prisoners and stipulated that solitary confinement in a cell upon short rations was the means to be employed in cases where it was deemed necessary to "inflict unusual punishment in order to produce the entire submission or obedience of any prisoner."

Given the nature and purposes of the State Reformatory at Elmira and the legislative acts creating and continuing it, the Attorney General reasoned, it was apparent that the institution was a State prison and was subject to the provisions of general legislation governing such institutions. Shortly thereafter, solitary confinement replaced corporal punishment as the officially sanctioned means of disciplining inmates and maintaining order. By virtue of Chapter 378 of the Laws of 1900, physicians of reformatories were required to examine on a daily basis, "and as often as required by the superintendent," all prisoners undergoing punishment by solitary confinement. In addition, physicians were to "prescribe the allowance of food to each prisoner so confined."