Dwight Correctional Center
Dwight Correctional Center, also known as Oakdale Reformatory for Women, and Illinois Penitentiary for Women at Dwight, was a women's prison in Livingston County, Illinois, United States, outside the village of Dwight, Illinois. It operated from 1930 to 2013.
It was established in 1930 as the Oakdale Reformatory for Women. Over the course of its 83 years the reformatory maintained a commitment to the concept of rehabilitating felons and misdemeanants for positive and productive re-entry into society. Adaptations were made and experiments conducted as inmate populations and changing conditions required.
The facility was closed in 2013 as the State of Illinois sought to balance its budget. At that time it was the only maximum security prison for adult females in the Illinois Department of Corrections, inclusive of women on death row until the death penalty was abolished in Illinois in 2011. The name "Oakdale Reformatory for Women" fell out of common usage in the early 1970s when the IDOC's co-ed experiment began. The DCC was also occasionally referred to by other names, including Dwight Reformatory and Illinois Penitentiary for Women at Dwight. The facility is located at 23813 E. 3200 North Road in Nevada Township, unincorporated Livingston County, Illinois.
1930 – Establishment
Interest in a reformed penal system for women arose as early as 1914 among women's service and advocacy groups in Illinois. In 1919 legislation was passed by the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives that would establish "a State sanitarium for females above the age eighteen", but no funding was provided at that time. Proponents of the women's reformatory attempted for several years following to obtain an appropriation, but failed. In 1925 twelve state women's organizations representing 300,000 women formed the Illinois Women's Joint Legislative Council and State Committee on an Illinois Reformatory for Women, which succeeded in securing $300,000 and begin building. At its founding the reformatory joined 22 other states in The United States which had separate reform facilities for women.Building of the reformatory
Once funding was secured, a location was identified for the new reformatory, and architects were engaged. The reformatory was located 75 miles south of Chicago on a 160-acre tract of farmland and forest about two miles outside of the city of Dwight, Illinois, which was easily accessed from Route 66, now Interstate 55. The buildings were constructed of yellow brick and stone and were architecturally of a French Norman style and set amid oaks and spruces. The administration building had slate roofs and full brass front doors. At the time of the dedication in 1930 there were eight cottages, as well as administration, industrial, service, and farm buildings. An easily climbed wire fence surrounded the whole tract, but served "merely to indicate the boundary lines of the reformatory property".The whole facility was at various times compared to a "swank country club", an ivy-league campus, "a noble experiment", "a monument to a handful of Illinois club women who fought for it for ten years", "the rich park of some multimillionaire", a "monument to crime", a monument to the belief "that in time crime can be abolished", and in 1976, "a monument to the Women's liberation movement". The administration building was described as "something of a gentleman's estate in old England and a fraternity house in America".
Aims of reform
At the dedication of the reformatory in 1930, the Superintendent of Prisons of the State of Illinois, Frank D. Whipp, stated that the program of reform would include training in "useful trades", including "domestic science, light forms of agriculture, and stock raising..." with the goal of "returning unfortunate girls and women to society, clean, healthful, and with character reconstructed."The founders of Oakdale Reformatory for Women described their task to be "the uplift of the unfortunate". Staff members were needed who could "understand fundamental causes, who can look at a storm and see something more than thunder and lightning, look into a mud puddle and see something more than filth, who can take the hand of a forger and read more than a name other than her own, look into the eyes of a murderess and see more than a knife, gun or bottle; who can understand something of the emotions of the homo-sexualist or open violations of sex sanity, and detect more than licentiousness or prostitution." The governor of the state, at the facility's dedication, stated that the reformatory was "a far cry from the days of the rack and thumb screw". Staff members of the reformatory were to be people who would say to parolees, "Go thy way, and sin no more." Workers were expected to follow the inmate through her period of incarceration and to prepare her for release.
The cornerstone of the Oakdale Reformatory for Women was laid and the facility formally dedicated on November 19, 1931, by Illinois Governor Louis L. Emmerson. In his address to the gathering, the governor reported that the structure being dedicated was built by the state at a cost of $850,000, with an additional $150,000 expected at that time to be spent on a "semi-security unit". He stated that the institution was not "a Sunday School" and that discipline would be maintained. "It must be fair and just, but firm" and inmates would need to earn liberties available to them. Helen Hazard, a woman educated and experienced in penal systems, was hired to be its first superintendent.
1930–1950 Helen Hazard's superintendence
Helen Hazard earned her Bachelor's and master's degrees at Columbia University in New York City. She spent time in England and on continental Europe studying penal systems for women, and previously served as superintendent of the Niantic, Connecticut, reformatory for women and assistant superintendent of the Alderson, West Virginia, institution for women. She began her duties at Oakdale on March 15, 1930, while the reformatory was still under construction so that she might bring a program perspective to the building.On November 24, 1930, Oakdale Reformatory received its first inmates. The initial plan was to receive only first offenders and women between the ages of 18 and 25, but within four years the institution had opened its program to any woman who had committed any crime. The population swelled when women incarcerated at the women's prison at Joliet were transferred to DCC, joining the nearly 600 women who had resided there up to that time.
The cottage model
Inmates were assigned to the eight cottages, each of which housed 15 to 28 women. Each cottage included a kitchen, living room, lavatory, shower, and sleeping quarters, which were secured at night. Each inmate had her own bedroom furnished with a bed with "deep springs and comfortable mattresses", a dresser, rocking chair, and closet. Some furnishings were of wicker made by prisoners at Joliet. Each had a fireplace, as well as a piano and radio for entertainment, and each was staffed with a female warden. Only one cottage had bars, and it was used for inmates requiring discipline or identified as needing higher security. It also included a hospital section where new inmates would receive orientation and undergo medical, psychiatric and psychological evaluations before being admitted to the general population. The hospital was reputed to offer excellent service to prisoners.Security
Entrance to the facility was neither guarded nor closed during the day, and inmates were locked in their bedrooms at night. Guards on campus were said to have been posted "to keep visitors out rather than inmates in".Security instead consisted of a system of tracking the women's movements around the campus according to the time it would take to pass between a point of departure and a destination. If an inmate did not arrive within the time allowed, an alarm would be raised. Freedom of movement depended on a system of merits and demerits, which also impacted the length of the woman's sentence. The trusted inmates were designated outwardly by their white stockings. Those who had not earned trust wore black stockings and had to be accompanied at all times by a white-stockinged inmate. Serious violations resulted in solitary confinement for a limited time and a diet of bread and water.
The reformation program
The reformatory also assigned each inmate a job that contributed to the maintenance and quality of the facility and community. In the cottages inmates were expected to keep their own and shared space clean. They took turns setting tables in the dining room and preparing meals in the kitchens, which were equipped with modern appliances. It was anticipated that many of the skills gained in daily life could translate into a vocation upon release. Inmates were also assigned to field work where "the women labored as men." There was poultry work, which included the feeding of chickens and gathering of eggs. Some planted the gardens, plowed and harrowed, harvested crops, and even laid tiles for drainage. Some herded the sheep on the farm, and others took care of the grounds. The women sawed wood for their fireplaces. The laundry occupied many with washing and ironing of prison attire, bedding, and other linens.Over 6% of the inmates at Oakdale were illiterate, and half of the women had under a "fifth grade intelligence rating". For these inmates the completion of an education was a full-time job. Women were expected to have at least a 6th grade education and urged to complete primary grades, and some were advanced to high school classes. Inmates also gained practical skills such as typing, stenography, stenciling, and use of Dictaphone. Those inmates assigned to the garment factory made all the clothes worn by women at DCC, as well as clothing for female inmates at other prisons. Within a few years American flags for other state institutions were made, as well as dresses, pajamas and other items for inmates being released. The long-range plan was that garment-making would be the main industry at Oakdale.
The reformation program also included recreation, which included parties, dancing, baseball, volleyball, and drama. A decade later the only sport was baseball, and that was in the summer only. In the winter the women read, sewed, or if behavior warranted, watched movies. Worship and Bible studies were provided according to inmate's choice of denomination. The program also included discussions in current events and lessons in etiquette.
In a report by the Osborne Association, Inc., of New York City in 1933, Dwight was identified among the best women's institutions in the country. The report stated that the management was progressive and constructive in programming. By 1934 Oakdale was considered a "model institution" by the National Reform Association.