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Alderson, Federal Prison Camp

The Federal Industrial Reformatory and Industrial Farm for Women at Alderson was opened in 1927 in 200 acres in the hills of West Virginia under the administration of warden Mary Belle Harris and a dedicated staff of women. Set in an open rural area, it had 14 “home-like” cottage-style buildings, each of which housed 30 women and a live-in warder. There was also a prison nursery. According to a detailed classification scheme, inmates were employed in an “industrial” farm and power sewing room and offered educational and treatment programs developed by and for women. They were also allowed to participate in inmate-led clubs. During its first years, Alderson became not only the showpiece women's reformatory, visited by Eleanor Roosevelt and other dignitaries, but also an example of broader progressive prison reform. It was viewed by many as providing a national and international model for women's reformatories. It is presently used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) as a minimum-security camp for women.

Background

Prior to the establishment of Alderson, the federal government contracted with other jurisdictions to house women convicted of federal crimes. Despite earlier efforts to provide prison space at the federal level for women, contracting remained the policy until a series of legislative acts significantly increased the number of women in federal courts. For example, the Selective Service Act of 1917, criminalizing prostitution near U.S. Army camps, brought new prisoners and federal funds for women's institutions. Likewise, the Harrison Drug Act and the Prohibition Amendment led to unexpected numbers of women being sentenced to federal prison.

During this period, a number of influential women were imprisoned for prohibited suffrage protests or, in the case of Kate Richards O'Hare, for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Their subsequent public appeals for reform of women's prisons strengthened the efforts to open a model women's reformatory at the federal level. Following the election of a Republican administration, aware of the role that the suffrage movement had played in their victory, Mabel Walker Willebrandt was appointed the first woman assistant attorney general. With responsibility for federal prisons, Willebrandt moved to provide not only a central administration for the male federal prisons, but, joined by a coalition of women's organizations, prison reform groups, and a network of influential women who administered state boards of corrections and reformatories, she successfully brought legislation for the construction of Alderson through Congress on June 5, 1924. With the gift of land at Alderson, provided in the hope that a model prison run “entirely by women” would bring thousands of visitors to West Virginia (including “experts from abroad”), the $2.4 million prison construction began with the aid of male prison labor.

Mary Belle Harris

Mary Belle Harris, named in 1925 as superintendent, was responsible for the construction and development of the reformatory and remained its articulate defender for 16 years until her retirement in 1941. Harris, a graduate of the University of Chicago with a doctorate in Sanskrit and philology, had been recruited after a career of teaching by Katharine Davis, a fellow graduate, to be superintendent of the women at the New York Workhouse, and subsequently superintendent of New Jersey's state reformatory for women. With the passage of Selective Service Act, Harris became the assistant director of the Section on Reformatories and Houses of Detention, responsible for the women and girls convicted and detained as prostitutes.

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