Bridgewater State Hospital

Infobox Prison
prison_name = Bridgewater State Hospital


location = Bridgewater, Massachusetts
coordinates = Coord|41|56|48|N|70|57|08|W|region:US_type:landmark|display=inline,title
status =
classification = Level 4 (Medium)
capacity =
opened = 1855
closed =
managed_by = Massachusetts Dept. of Corrections
director =

Bridgewater State Hospital, located in southeastern Massachusetts, is a state facility housing the criminally insane and sex offenders. It was established in 1855 as an almshouse. It was then used as a workhouse for inmates with short sentences who worked the surrounding farmland. It was later rebuilt in the 1880s and again in 1974. Bridgewater State Hospital currently houses 386 inmates all of whom are adult males. [Kauffman,Kelsey:Prison Officers and their world, pg 42.Harvard Press.1988] . The facility was the subject of the 1967 documentary "Titicut Follies". [Cite news|title=Judge Proposes Compromise on Banned Film|work=The New York Times|date=September 30, 1989|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DC1431F933A0575AC0A96F948260|accessdate=2008-09-11]

History

By the 1970s Bridgewater housed four facilities: The State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, the Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons, a center for alcoholics, and a minimum security prison.

In 1968 there were hearings conducted after a study of Bridgewater showed that there were 300 inmates in the facility illegally. Most of the prisoners stayed at Bridgewater because they did ot have the legal skills or money available to help their claim. Many of the prisoner's terms had long expired. An example of this was a patient named Charles who was sentenced to Bridgewater in 1910 for breaking and entering. The maximum time for this felony was two years, and he still remained in the prison after 1967.

In 1967 a legislative committee investigated allegations of "cruel, inhuman, and barbarous treatment". There was witness that were able to describe problems with the water and sewage systems, insufficient medical, kitchen, and recreational facilities. As a result in 1972 John Boone, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Corrections closed the segregation unit at Bridgewater due to the fact it required maintenance. Bridgewater's facilities were not suitable for the standard means of health and living. There were 90 year old cell blocks in which did not have any toilets. Boone closed the Departmental Segregation Unit at Bridgewater to hold hearings for the sixteen inmates who had been transferred out of Norfolk.

Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to being the Boston Strangler, was an inmate at Bridgewater in 1967. He briefly escaped and was transferred to the maximum security prison at Walpole. [cite book|last=Kelly|first=Susan|title=The Boston Stranglers|pages=pp. 140–146|publisher=Pinnacle Books|year=2006|isbn=0786014660]

References

External links

* [http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eopsterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Law+Enforcement+%26+Criminal+Justice&L2=Prisons&L3=State+Correctional+Facilities&sid=Eeops&b=terminalcontent&f=doc_facility_statehospital&csid=Eeops Bridgewater State Hospital] - Mass. Executive Office of Public Safety