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. –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.
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Scope and Content: The State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, established in 1832 and opened in 1833, was successively renamed Worcester Lunatic Hospital in 1862, Worcester Insane Hospital in 1898, and Worcester State Hospital in 1909.
Notes: Presented to Archives by Peter Wackell, July 16, 1993; previously acquired by him as deaccessioned by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which had acquired the volumes from the Worcester State Hospital
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts Resolves 1846, c 117 appointed Commissioners on Idiocy to inquire on: the condition of idiots in the commonwealth and if anything can be done for them. The commission’s report, written by Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, led to the establishment by Resolves 1848, c 65 of the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, located at the Perkins Institution. The school was incorporated as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth (St 1850, c 150), located near Perkins in South Boston, with Howe serving as president until his death in 1876. It was renamed the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded by St 1883, c 239, reflecting the establishment of a separate asylum department for those beyond school age or not capable of being helped by the school’s instruction. Funds for the construction of a new facility in Waltham were provided by Resolves 1888, c 82, and occupation of the new site began in 1890, with the South Boston facility closing in 1892. St 1925, c 293 renamed the institution the Walter E. Fernald State School, in honor of the superintendent of the school, 1887-1924. A 2003 gubernatorial initiative to close the Fernald School (known as the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center since 1993) by 2007 was contested during the subsequent decade, until the institution was shut down permanently in Nov 2014.
Arrangement: In five subseries
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constitutent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis.  The Resource Inventory Project was undertaken to provide information on resources controlled by or available to the office to aid it in carrying out its responsibilities.
Arranged: Arranged numerically by area
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Scope and Content: The Dept. of Mental Health is responsible for mentally ill persons in Massachusetts (and for mentally retarded persons until 1986, when the Dept. of Mental Retardation was established) through a comprehensive program of services and facilities. The department conducts research to assist in its planning, review, and delivery of services to clients and to prepare reports mandated by the legislature, including collection of data about clients and statistics from public and private institutions providing residential care. This includes gathering data on the use of restraint and seclusion as a therapeutic procedure for patients endangering themselves or others, institutionalized at facilities under the department’s jurisdiction.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children conducted at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind from 1848 was incorporated by Massachusetts as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth in 1850.  It was renamed Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1883 and Walter E. Fernald State School in 1925.
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Scope and Content: Cushing Hospital in Framingham, Mass., intended for the care and custody of elderly persons, was purchased by the Commonwealth from the federal government in 1955, opened in 1957 under the Dept. of Mental Health, transferred to the Dept. of Public Health in 1984, and closed in 1991. Round the Square as a hospital staff newsletter recorded messages from the superintendent, institutional news of general concern, as well as professional and volunteer activities and personal milestones of staff members.  It was preceded/succeeded by various other similar publications, 1979 and 1990, scattered numbers of which are filed with miscellaneous publications in: Annual reports with real property records and miscellaneous publications, 1947-1991 ((M-Ar)1318S).
Notes: Transferred to Archives by the Public Health Museum, Tewksbury, Mass., Mar. 2016. From Mar. 1988 subtitle reads: a publication for the employees of Cushing Hospital.  Holdings: Feb. 1982-Oct. 1989. Somewhat irregular, chiefly published monthly. Issues for 1981, Jan. 1982, Mar. 1983, and Jan.1985 lacking
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  The State Primary School, opened at the almshouse in 1866 and continuing after its closing until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  The institutions managed an annual budget to sustain operations.  Attendant financial records include schedules of bills, listing expenditures for goods, services, and salaries by account monthly.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Spine title:  Schedule book. Contents: Oct. 1863-Oct. 1868.  Oct. 1868-June 1873.  Oct. 1878-Sept. 1887.
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Scope and Content: The Boston Lunatic Hospital was established as a municipal agency in 1839; it was renamed Boston Insane Hospital in 1897.  It was made a Massachusetts state agency under the name Boston State Hospital in 1908 and closed in 1981.
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constitutent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis. Series is created to administer the office, oversee its departments, and respond to requests for information and action.
Arrangement: Arranged chiefly by chronological spans
Restrictions: Personal information is restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Files for 1978-1982 lacking
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