Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Norfolk

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Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk, or MCI-Norfolk, is a medium security prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts with an average daily population of 1500 inmates. Though it is rated medium security, it also houses up to 98 maximum security inmates. Opened in the early 1930s, MCI-Norfolk is the largest state prison in Massachusetts. One notable inmate of MCI-Norfolk was Malcolm X.

[edit] History

MCI-Norfolk was originally founded in 1927 as the Norfolk Prison Colony, a "model prison community"^[1] conceived by sociologist and penologist Howard Belding Gill, who was appointed its first superintendent in 1931.^[2]

Gill was dismissed in 1934 after an escape by four inmates, and replaced by his deputy Maurice N. Winslow, who served as superintendent from 1934 to 1950. The name of the prison was changed to the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Norfolk in the mid-1950s. The current superintendent as of 2006 is Luis Spencer.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Johnsen, Thomas C., "Vita: Howard Belding Gill: Brief Life of a Prison Reformer: 1890-1989," Harvard Magazine, September-October 1999, p. 54.
2. ^ Conrad, John P., "A Lost Ideal, a New Hope: The Way toward Effective Correctional Treatment", Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 72, No. 4 (Winter, 1981), pp. 1699-1734.

[edit] References

• Conrad, John P., "A Lost Ideal, a New Hope: The Way toward Effective Correctional Treatment", Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 72, No. 4 (Winter, 1981), pp. 1699-1734.
• Johnsen, Thomas C., "Vita: Howard Belding Gill: Brief Life of a Prison Reformer: 1890-1989," Harvard Magazine, September-October 1999, p. 54.
• M S Serrill, "Norfolk - A Retrospective - New Debate Over a Famous Prison Experiment," Corrections Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4 (August 1982), pp. 25-32.
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2006). MCI-Norfolk. Mass.gov. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.