Westfield State Farm Reformatory Division Inmate Record Cards

Alphabetical by inmate name in two sequences.

This series consists of record cards relating to approximately 1,000 women received from about 1929 to 1940 at the Westfield State Farm and its predecessor, the New York State Reformatory for Women. The 8" x 9" cards include the following categories of information: inmate background (color, education, previous occupation, previous arrests, family, and marital status); crime (nature of crime, term of sentence, county of sentencing, and name of judge); psychological testing (inmate's mental age and IQ based on several psychological tests including the Binet, Healey, Pinter Patterson, and Porteus Maze tests); psychological or psychiatric classification (e.g., normal, feebleminded, moron, defective delinquent, neuropathic); medical (family medical history, physical data, and the results of a physical examination and testing for syphilis and gonorrhoea); names of cottage assignments at the reformatory; and date of release or transfer.

Summary information on adult inmates 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.