Matteawan State Hospital

Matteawan, a state hospital for the criminally insane, was founded in 1893 in Fishkill, New York. The institution was representative of the new practice of creating specific facilities to house mentally ill criminals. Despite its stated goal to “cure” insane patients who had committed crimes, Matteawan suffered from many of the problems typical of late-19th-century penal institutions such as overcrowding and neglect of inmates. After several administrative changes and the creation of new facilities on the Matteawan grounds, Matteawan closed in 1977. The ...