House of Refuge, Randall's Island, New York

The New York House of Refuge was the first

juvenile reformatory In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile de ...

established in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The reformatory was opened in 1824 on the

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, destroyed by a fire in 1839, and relocated first to Twenty-Third Street and then, in 1854, to

Randalls Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City,

. Through its 111-year history the reformatory was privately funded, receiving only guidance, supervision and additional funding from state agencies. Beginning in 1901 female inmates were removed to the newly opened New York State Reformatory for Women, now the

Taconic Correctional Facility Taconic Correctional Facility is a medium/minimum security women's prison in Bedford, New York operated by the New York State DOCCS. Although the prison has a maximum 387-person capacity, the incarcerated population was under 170 as of Novembe ...

. In the 1930s, younger male inmates (ages 12 to 15) were transferred to the new state training school at Warwick, and the older boys to the newly constructed state prison in Coxsackie. The House of Refuge closed on May 11, 1935.

References

External links

New York Public Library Digital Gallery
{{coord, 40.795, -73.923, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Juvenile detention centers in the United States Buildings and structures in Manhattan 1825 establishments in New York (state) Randalls and Wards Islands Bowery 23rd Street (Manhattan) 1935 disestablishments in New York (state)