Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 until 1872.  Admission was contingent on receipt of a certifying statement from local authorities as to lack of settlement (St 1852, c 275, s 5).  Permits consisting of such statements document legal admission of persons to the institution.
Arrangement: Arranged  chronologically
Notes: Formerly kept as separate series: Paupers certificates from overseers of the poor
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Tewksbury opened in 1854.  It was renamed successively the State Hospital (1900), the State Infirmary (1909), Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary (1939), and Tewksbury Hospital (1959)
Arrangement: Arranged by registration no./chronologically by admission date
Restrictions: Public health hospital/clinic client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 111, s 70. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Spine title varies: State Almshouse permits; State Hospital permits; State Infirmary permits
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: Lakeville State Sanatorium opened in 1910.  It was renamed Lakeville Hospital in 1963, which closed in 1992.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no./chronologically by date of admission
Restrictions: Public health hospital/clinic client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 111, s 70. For conditions of access consult repository         
Notes: Transferred to Archives, June 1992. Volume [1]: 1910-1915.  Volume [2]: 1915-1924, with initial entries copied from previous volume.  Volume [3]: 1924-1932 (with index); called [volumes] 1. Volume [4]: 1932-1939; called [volumes] 2. Later entries disbound: parallel records with differing data, Dec. 1974-June 1976.  Anterior poliomyelitis patient entries, 1937-ca. 1960, in red.  Additional entries in red, 1971-1976
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  Series was created to administer and record their admission to the institution.
Arrangement: Arranged within each Volume by almshouse no./chronologically by admission date
Notes: Reel GSU 454: volumes 1.  Reel GSU 455: volumes 2-3; Index volumes 1-4, A-U.  Reel GSU 456: Index volumes 4, U-Z.
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The State Primary School, opened at the State Almshouse at Monson in 1866 and continuing after the almshouse’s closing in 1872 until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  Series was created to administer and record their admission to the institution.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Full admission (2) Support or temporary custody; Arranged within each Volume by school no./chronologically by admission date
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: Programs and institutions for the mentally ill and retarded of Massachusetts were among the responsibilities successively of the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240), State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (St 1879, c 291), and State Board of Lunacy and Charity (St 1886, c 101).  They were then the sole responsibility successively of the State Board of Insanity (St 1898, c 433), Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases (St 1916, c 285), Dept. of Mental Diseases (St 1919, c 350, ss 79-81), and Dept. of Mental Health (St 1938, c 486)
Arrangement: In two subseries; Arranged within each subseries by institution, thereunder alphabetically by patient
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: In 1955 the Massachusetts correctional system was reorganized, so that the State Farm at Bridgewater became the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Bridgewater, commonly called MCI Bridgewater. With this change, Bridgewater’s admittance of misdemeanor convicts (since 1866), state charges (i.e., almshouse paupers, since 1872), and aged or infirm state prisoners (since 1890) was terminated, leaving the prison population (i.e., aside from Bridgewater State Hospital) almost entirely those with alcohol or drug-related convictions. In 1958, a specialized unit serving the whole state corrections system, the Massachusetts Treatment Center of the Sexually Dangerous, was added.  The population of MCI Bridgewater changed again with St 1971 c 1076, which abolished the crime of public intoxication, limiting drug and alcohol admissions to civil commitments, voluntary or otherwise; also abolished was the then-controversial unit for defective delinquents (since 1922). The Bridgewater State Hospital serving the insane was placed under separate administration in 1987, the Old Colony Correctional Center opened in 1987, and in 1990 the MCI addiction center was placed under the Southeastern Correctional Center, which had opened in 1976. Since by 1990 the Treatment Center of the Sexually Dangerous had also become a separate unit, at that point the existence of MCI Bridgewater as an administrative entity ended. After SECC’s closing in 2002, addiction treatment was provided at the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center. A Massachusetts Boot Camp for youthful offenders was located at Bridgewater from 1992 until after 2000.
Notes: Box 1: 1956, 1959-1961. Box 2: 1962-1966, 1968. Box 3: 1969-1972. Box 4: 1973-1975, 1978, 1980-1981. Box 5: 1982-1983, 1986-1988
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: Bridgewater, Mass., was the site successively of a State Almshouse (1854-1872) for so-called willing and needlessly dependent paupers, and the State Workhouse (1866-1887), for paupers convicted of misdemeanors as well as paupers generally (from 1872), and incorrigible juveniles (1869-1948). The State Workhouse was renamed the State Farm (1887-1955), which also included a State Farm Hospital for the medical needs of all inmates, as well as locals and poor admitted solely for medical treatment. The change in name was in deference to the admission of insane male paupers (1886), although it was  followed by the admission of aged and physically or mentally infirm inmates of the State Prison (1890). Insane admissions were then limited for a time to criminals (1894), forming a division called the State Asylum for Insane Criminals (1895), which was renamed Bridgewater State Hospital (1909). Units at Bridgewater were later added for female prisoners (1909-1930), so-called defective delinquents (males from 1922, females 1926-1954)–mentally impaired inmates requiring segregation from standard inmate or institutionalized populations–and for drug and alcohol addicts (from 1922, females to 1930 only), eventually mostly voluntary admissions. All Bridgewater State Farm facilities and divisions (including prison, almshouse, insane, and medical hospital functions) were administered by a common superintendent. The running of the State Farm, including industries and extensive agricultural operations, relied on work performed by all capable inmates.
Restrictions: Criminal offender record information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 6, ss 167-178. For conditions of access consult repository 
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The Division of Legal Medicine was established in 1956 to provide psychiatric services to courts and correctional institutions and to ensure that persons who came into contact with the criminal justice system received needed mental health care.  An adult after-care clinic was responsible for treating and evaluating, on an outpatient basis, persons who had recently been paroled or discharged from correction facilities whether such treatment was a condition of parole or was voluntarily requested.  Adult after-care clinic case files were created to provide a record of the treatment and psychiatric evaluation of these persons.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Case files; arranged alphabetically; (2) Case files; arranged by case no
Restrictions: Criminal offender record information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 6, ss 167-178. Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Box 1: A-M. Box 2: O-S. Box 3: S-Z. Box 4: No. 1-101. Box 5: No. 102-268
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The Advisory Council on Alcoholism was established in 1956 (first meeting in 1957) in connection with the office of the commissioner on alcoholism (until 1959) and the Division of Alcoholism in the Dept. of Public Health.  In 1982 it merged with the Dept. of Public Health’s Division of Drug Rehabilitation, accompanied by its Drug Rehabilitation Advisory Board.  With the merger of the two divisions in 1986 (known since 1991 as the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services), the two advisory bodies began to meet jointly, and since 1990 have been known informally as the Governor’s Advisory Council on Alcoholism and Drug Rehabilitation, and, since 1995, as the Governor’s Advisory Council on Substance Abuse Services.
Notes: Box 1: 1956-1992.  Box 2: 1993-1997
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC