Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham, Mass. (1955-)

The Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham serves as the general penitentiary for women convicts for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

A carceral facility for female convicts was first established with An Act to Establish a Reformatory Prison for Women (St 1874, c 385), which authorized the Commissioners of Prisons to plan for the erection of a reformatory prison suitable for five hundred prisoners. The commissioners were charged with the general supervision of the prison, while a superintendent regulated its day-to-day operations. The commissioners were also empowered to transfer to the new facility female prisoners from any jail or house of correction, from the workhouse at Bridgewater, or from the house of industry at Deer Island.

"A site of thirty acres in the town of Sherborn, about one mile from the South Framingham railway station" was approved by Acting Governor Talbot in Nov. 1874. The reformatory was completed and duly established Nov. 7, 1877, by executive proclamation.

Women convicted of any offense mentioned in sections 28 and 35, chapter 165 of the General Statutes were sent to Sherborn, with sentences of not more than two years. The minimum term of sentence was set at one year (St 1880, c 114). The reformatory's rehabilitative function was evidenced by St 1881, c 90, whereby permits of liberty (i.e. early release or parole) could be issued, subject to revocation, to prisoners considered reformed.

By St 1879, c 229, a reformatory prisoner could with her consent be contracted out for domestic service during the remainder of her sentence, conditional on her good behavior. St 1880, c 151 extended this provision to women in county facilities and subsequent legislation essentially maintained this system until 1950, when St 1950, c 727 provided for day work of unspecified nature. After that law's repeal by St 1972, c 777, s 17, prisoners at what was now MCI Framingham became subject to general education, training, and employment provisions for prisoners within eighteen months of parole (s 13).

St 1887, c 426 specified that females convicted in federal as well as state courts were admissable. St 1900, c 260 instructed the superintendent to keep a record of prisoner body measurements, coloring, and markings, the so-called Bertillon Method, named after criminologist Alphone Bertillon, originally mandated for the State Prison in 1890.

St 1903, c 209 set the term of incarceration for women at the reformatory at no more than five years (unless sentenced for a longer time) for a felony and at no more than two years for a misdemeanor. Under St 1909, c 504, s 105 insane prisoners at the reformatory could be removed to the state hospitals for the insane; St 1910, c 345 specifically vested this power in the first Southern District Court of Middlesex. St 1913, c 796 provided that the reformatory establish a department for defective delinquents.

Physical examinations of inmates in the state's prison facilities were required by St 1918, c 58, to be under the supervision of the State Dept. of Health. St 1918, c 79 provided that an attending physician could initiate the release of a pregnant woman from prison where "the best interests of the woman or her unborn child require that she be paroled or discharged...." Under St 1938, c 456 women about to give birth were to be removed to a nearby hospital. Any expenses incurred during the transfer were to be paid by the Commonwealth. By St 1958, c 588 children born to inmates were put in the custody of the Dept. of Public Welfare. St 1956, c 715, which established the office of Commissioner of Alcoholism, provided for a clinic for the examination, diagnosis, and treatment of chronically alcoholic inmates (s 15).

By St 1911, c 181 the reformatory's name changed from the Reformatory Prison for Women to the Reformatory for Women, and by St 1932, c 180, s 24, as the result of a redrawn boundary line, its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham. Meanwhile the Commissioners of Prisons had been replaced in turn by the Board of Prison Commissioners (St 1901, c 364), the Massachusetts Bureau of Prisons (St 1916, c 241), and the Dept. of Correction (St 1919, c 350, ss 82-86). None of these changes had a direct effect on the reformatory except in one area: continuing the practice of early release by permit administered by the Commissioners of Prisons, a Board of Parole for the Reformatory for Women was set up by St 1913, c 829, consisting of the chairman and the two women members of the Board of Prison Commissioners. This was replaced in 1916 by a general Board of Parole under the Massachusetts Bureau of Prisons.

In 1948 a special commission was formed to investigate the conduct of the reformatory (Resolves 1948, c 89), consisting of three members of the Senate, five members of the House of Representatives and three gubernatorial appointees. Its report (1949 S 521) resulted in a call for investigation of the state penal system as a whole (1949 S 644), which was rejected by the Senate.

St 1948, c 310, s 25 authorized the commissioner of correction to transfer any girl under seventeen interned in the reformatory to the custody of the newly created Youth Service Board.

The reformatory came by its present name, Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham (or MCI Framingham), as the result of a reorganization of the Dept. of Correction (St 1955, c 770).

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agencies described above can be found by searching the following access points for the time period stated: 1877-1911--Massachusetts. Reformatory Prison for Women; 1911-1955--Massachusetts. Reformatory for Women; 1955-present--Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.