#reformatory

[studyguideexams]

Case Study For The Reformatory By Tananarive Due First Edition Comprehensive 2025 2026 Exam Prep To Pass On Your First Attempt

Unlock a comprehensive analysis of Tananarive Due's acclaimed novel, 'The Reformatory.' This updated 2025/2026 case study delves into the ha

[mus1g4]

State prison cell block with 5 tiers (appears to be San Quentin Dearh Row based on the inmate uniforms and cell door design)

[revoltedstates]

I recently picked up this stereoview showing young inmates of the Michigan State Reform School engaged in military drill, likely dating between 1876-1882. Located in Lansing, MI, the Reform School was founded in 1855 as a state-run penal institution for minors and included a school, farm, and workshops where the inmates were employed manufacturing clothing, cigars, and furniture. While many of the boys were convicted of crimes such as larceny and burglary, many others were vagrants left homeless by the deaths of parents or because they had been compelled to flee abusive circumstances. Military drill, while exercised there for years, became a daily part of the institution's educational program starting in 1876, when "serviceable state arms" were first authorized to be issued to the young inmates. The school hired Civil War veterans to serve as drill masters, and outfitted the boys in "a very neat military uniform of dark blue jacket and cap , with gray pantaloons" which were made by the inmates themselves. The superintendent claimed that drilling benefitted the boys by giving them "a manly bearing and a correct idea of discipline..." The institution closed in 1972 and most of the buildings were demolished within the following year. 60 inmates lay buried in unmarked graves at a local cemetery, but in 2019 an effort by The Friends of Lansing's Historic Cemeteries sought to raise funds in order to add markers.

[revoltedstates]

Inmates accused of “sexual perversion.” Elmira State Reformatory, 1916. Via Lane Genealogy.

[zauddu]

Ph David Seymour - Riformatorio a Vienna 1948

[electronicsquid]

Musical revue performed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville

(Jack Wilkes. 1944)

[libraryofva]

Recent Acquisition - Photograph Collection

Original July 1933 caption: "RIOT THREATENED AT 'COUNTRY CLUB' INSTITUTION. Forty Washington DC police with machine guns and tear gas have reinforced the normal guard at the District of Columbia Reformatory at Lorton, Va., where 1100 inmates threatened to set fire to the unwalled and unbarred 'Country Club' institution. Fire apparatus has been stationed nearby and Virginia National Guard units prepared for quick mobilization, if necessary. Trouble began when prisoners complained that the food was poor and began to riot in the dining room. This photo shows the dining room, scene of the riot."

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Massachusetts - The Reformatory and Correctional Institutions of the City of Boston, on Deer Island,” from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine. November 3, 1883. Page 165.