Massachusetts. Division of Aid and Relief

In Massachusetts, the Division of Aid and Relief (Dept. of Public Welfare) received weekly returns from institutions under its total or partial jurisdiction. Among these was the State Farm at Bridgewater, the site successively of a State Almshouse (1854-1872) for so-called willing and needlessly dependent paupers, and the State Workhouse (1866-1887), for paupers convicted of misdemeanors as well as paupers generally (from 1872), and incorrigible juveniles (1869-1948). The State Workhouse was renamed the State Farm (1887-1955), which also included a State Farm Hospital for the medical needs of all inmates, as well as locals and poor admitted solely for medical treatment. The change in name was in deference to the admission of insane male paupers (1886), although it was followed by the admission of aged and physically or mentally infirm inmates of the State Prison (1890). Insane admissions were then limited for a time to criminals (1894), forming a division called the State Asylum for Insane Criminals (1895), which was renamed Bridgewater State Hospital (1909). Units at Bridgewater were later added for female prisoners (1909-1930), so-called defective delinquents (males from 1922, females 1926-1954)--mentally impaired inmates requiring segregation from standard inmate or institutionalized populations--and for drug and alcohol addicts (from 1922, females to 1930 only), eventually mostly voluntary admissions. All Bridgewater State Farm facilities and divisions (including prison, almshouse, insane, and medical hospital functions) were administered by a common superintendent. The running of the State Farm, including industries and extensive agricultural operations, relied on work performed by all capable inmates.

Although in 1919 the Dept. of Correction became responsible for the State Farm as a whole, the Dept. of Public Welfare, through its Division of Aid and Relief, was responsible for the remaining pauper admissions to the State Farm, largely those admitted to its hospital (Infirmary Dept.) for medical care. The division's settlements unit remained in charge of investigating settlements (through 1950) of those paupers admitted to the State Farm. The division's institutional unit had the Infirmary Dept. under its jurisdiction, and was charged with the admission and dismissal of Pauper Dept. inmates. Although Dept. of Public Welfare charges were generally sent to the State Infirmary at Tewksbury (later Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary), St 1921, c 486, s 28 allowed the department to transfer paupers from one state charitable institution to another, including to the State Farm for those whose labor could contribute to the cost of their support, or in an emergency. From 1930 onward, the Infirmary Dept. inmates admitted from the cities and towns were gradually discharged, with all thereafter sent to the State Infirmary, with the last one dying at the State Farm in 1939. Thereafter the department only oversaw care at the infirmary for those male indigents not chargeable to any city or town, generally those released from the State Farm Prison Dept.

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