Female Admissions and Paroles of the Western House of Refuge in the 1880s: An Historical Example of Community Corrections

Abstract

The Western House of Refuge in Rochester, New York, was one of the most famous nineteenth-century correctional facilities for juveniles. Using unpublished institutional records, this study examines the backgrounds, admissions, institutional lives, and paroles of the females admitted to the facility for a two-year period. These girls, labeled as deviant or criminal, were often the orphaned, abused, or neglected for whom the WHR was yet another institutionalization. Within the refuge, rigid discipline and intensive labor marked their lives before they were released. Community interests and characteristics played roles in their admissions and paroles. And the chaplains, who acted as parole officers, faced problems similar to those of parole officers today.