Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Concord

The Massachusetts Reformatory was established pursuant to St 1884, c 255, at the Concord site of the State Prison; the latter institution was moved back to Boston (Charlestown), where it had been located until 1878. Certain inmates of the State Prison (s 3), inmates of county jails or houses of correction (s 12), and inmates of the State Reform School at Westborough, whose population was henceforth to be limited to boys under the age of fifteen (ss 11, 13), were all possible candidates for transfer to the reformatory, which was as proposed by: Annual report of the Commissioners of Prisons, 1880 (PD 13: Jan 1881), for "young men who have committed criminal acts rather than fallen into criminal habits, and who need the elevating influence of a reformatory." Provision was made for "permit of liberty" (i.e., parole) to any inmate who "has reformed" (St 1884, c 255, s 33)

St 1885, c 36 allowed the transfer of those held under sentence at the State Workhouse at Bridgewater. St 1888, c 49 limited admittance to those aged forty and below, and excluded those convicted of more than three penal offences. St 1892, c 302 (amending St 1886, c 323) limited terms for state prison-type offenses to a maximum of five years, unless otherwise fixed; others to a maximum of two years. St 1891, c 427, s 5 limited the term for drunkenness to a year, and St 1892, c 303 further limited such confinement at the reformatory to those aged thirty-five or less.

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