| The recent discovery of additional prison records for John Dillinger brought renewed attention to Indiana's most famous prisoner, whose Indiana Reformatory and Indiana State Prison records are in the State Archives. So are the records of D.C. |  |
Indiana's first prison opened at Jeffersonville in 1822. It received all prisoners, male and female, until 1860, when a second state prison opened at Michigan City. After that date the Jeffersonville facility was known as the State Prison South. The State Archives has a database to all prisoners confined at Jeffersonville from 1822 to 1897. Beginning in 1835 there are Descriptive Books with information on the individual prisoners.
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To relieve the overcrowding at Jeffersonville, Indiana opened a second prison at Michigan City in 1860. It was known until 1897 as the State Prison North. The State Archives |
Information on individual prisoners is found in a series of Prisoner’s Record and Identification Books. There are also commitment records and a sampling of the packets kept on individual prisoners. Two collections of special interest for the State Prison at Michigan City are the Life Prisoner Books and a run of prisoner "mug shots" from 1880 to approximately 1927.
In order to create a separate environment for youthful offenders, the State Prison South at Jeffersonville was converted in 1897 into the Indiana Reformatory. It remained at this location until 1923, when the new Reformatory was opened at Pendleton, its present site. The State Archives has an index to Reformatory inmates from 1897 until approximately 1950. There are Inmate Record Books and a sampling of packets.
| Indiana was the first state to provide a completely separate institution for female offenders. The Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls opened at Indianapolis on October 4, 1873, with the transfer of all women prisoners from Jeffersonville and Michigan City. The Indiana State Archives has the Admission Books, Prisoner History Books, Commitment |  |
A separate facility for male juvenile offenders was established at Plainfield in 1867 and known as the House of Refuge for Juvenile Offenders. The name was changed to the Indiana Boys' School in 1903. The State Archives has a database to inmates of the Boys' School from 1868 until 1931. Information on inmates is found in the Commitment Records (1883-1928) and in Inmate Packets, which begin in 1868.
Female juveniles were housed at the Indiana Women's Prison from 1873 until 1899, when a separate Indiana Industrial School for Girls was created within the prison. In 1907 the name was changed to the Indiana Girls' School and the facility was relocated at Clermont. There is a database at the State Archives for admissions to the Girls' School from 1873 until 1945. Information on inmates may be found in the Inmate Record Books and the Commitment Packets. There are photographs of some inmates.
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Locating information on persons housed in Indiana correctional facilities between 1889 and 1989 has been simplified in recent years by the transfer from the Indiana Department of Correction to the State Archives of two master card files for inmates confined at the six institutions mentioned above. The cards give not only the institutional name and number of the inmate but personal information as well. No longer does |
Using correctional records in the Indiana State Archives can help family historians fill in many gaps in their research. For more information about these records, please contact the Indiana State Archives.
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2003 Friends of the Indiana State Archives, Inc.
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