Elmira Reformatory Biographical Register of Incarcerated Individuals at the State Industrial School Ordered to Serve Definite…

Chronological by admission date.

Chapter 375 of the Laws of 1891 authorized the board of managers of the New York State Industrial School to petition a judge of the State Supreme Court or the county judge of Monroe County for an order authorizing the temporary confinement of an incarcerated individual at the State Industrial School to the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. The law stipulated that the board of managers could seek such an order in cases where the juvenile under their supervision had attempted to set fire to institutional buildings; openly resisted the lawful authority of the institution's officers; attempted by threats or otherwise to encourage others admitted to the institution to resist such authority; or by gross or habitual misconduct, had exerted a "dangerous and pernicious" influence over fellow incarcerated individuals.

If the judge to whom the board of managers applied determined that the allegations against the juvenile in question were true and concluded that the goals of the State Industrial School regarding said individual would be furthered by so doing, he was authorized to issue an order confining them to the New York State Reformatory at Elmira for a temporary, but definite period. When that period had elapsed, unless the board of managers of the State Industrial School had directed so earlier, they were to be returned to the custody of the State Industrial School. The law also stipulated that no "delinquent who is under sixteen years of age shall be committed to the New York state reformatory at Elmira."

This series consists of thirty-seven, two-page biographical entries relating to incarcerated individuals at the New York State Industrial School who were ordered to serve temporary, definite sentences in the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. These entries were recorded in the back of the first volume of Series B0129, Elmira Reformatory Biographical Registers of Federal Prisoners, 1902-1934, and therefore include the same general type of information. Entries include past criminal history, most notably dates of confinement in the State Industrial School and date of order confining the incarcerated individual at the State Reformatory; age, nativity, and nationality; names of closest relatives; family history; personal history; physician's report at time of confinement and at time of departure; vocational assignment while confined; and criminal history following departure.

B2563-80: The volume containing this series was transferred to the State Archives by Elmira Correctional Facility in 1980 and accessioned as part of Series B0290. The entries that comprise B2563-80 were discovered at the back of this volume by staff in 2017 and accessioned as a separate series at that time.

Summary information on adult incarcerated individuals is disclosable under law. State Archives staff will review records containing probation, parole, medical, and juvenile criminal history data and disclose information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law and Personal Privacy Protection Law. The identity of victims of sex crimes is not disclosable. Unless a specific law forbids disclosure indefinitely, all records must be disclosed after 75 years.