Albion State Training School Inmate Admission Registers

Numerical by inmate case number.

This series consists of registers providing summary information on inmates admitted to Albion State Training School from its opening in 1894 to 1948.

Volumes 1-7 relate to inmates received at the institution from January 3, 1894 to June 27, 1931. They pertain to women with inmate numbers between #1 and #3167. The registers include: Admitting Information (e.g., crime, sentence, court); Facts Relating to Family (names, addresses, occupations, religion, education, habits, health, and criminal history); Facts Relating to Inmate (e.g., where born, residence, character of home life, moral character, criminal history, education, physical characteristics, family, previous institutionalization, and summary of circumstances of crime); Record of Parole (date paroled, conditions of parole, and name and address of person paroled to); and After Facts (relates to the inmate's life after release and includes information on her parole, residence, work, family, and subsequent criminal activity). Occasionally attached to individual pages are clippings from local newspapers relating to an inmate (e.g., attempted suicide, marriage, death, or placement of an infant during the mother's confinement).

Volumes 8-10 contain one page of summary information on each woman received at Albion from July 8, 1937 to March 2, 1948. In July 1931, Albion became an institution for the confinement of women judged to be defective delinquents. The records pertain to women with inmate numbers between #3168 to #4708. The form of the volumes changed from the earlier history registers that comprise volumes 1-7. The receiving blotters in volumes 8-10 contain information relating to the inmate only up to the time of admission to Albion; there is no information on the inmate during confinement or after release. The blotters contain a number of categories of information on each inmate including: personal (physical characteristics, date and place of birth, marital status, religion, habits, education, employment, mental age, etc.); crime (nature of present crime, place, accomplices, sentence); family (birthplace of mother and father, age of inmate when parents died, sequence of inmate in family, name of nearest relative); and criminal history (crimes, sentences, dates of sentences, institutions of confinement).

Volumes 11-13 provide three distinct alphabetical indexes to inmates, by last name and with corresponding case number. The indexes are undated. Cumulatively they cover the lowest case numbers through to numbers in the 5000 range. Thus, they apparently index records found in volumes 1-10 of the series, as well as other cases not found in the volumes. Names from A to Z are indexed in all three volumes. Some entries appear in more than one volume, but each index appears to be unique. All entries are in manuscript, by different hands.

The relationship among the three indexes is unclear. Volume 11 appears to be the most comprehensive, indexing the widest range of case numbers but missing significant numbers in the 4000 through 5000 range. Entries in volume 12 sometimes, but not always, duplicate those in volume 11, and cover only case numbers in the 2000 through 5000 range. Volume 13 contains the fewest total entries, and they are from the middle to upper hundreds through the 1000 range. Researchers should consult all three indexes.

Microform, with the exception of Volumes 8-10 (case numbers 3168-4708) that have not been reproduced, is available at the New York State Archives through interlibrary loan.

High resolution images of selected original documents in this series are available in State Archives Digital Collections.

Volumes 11 through 13 are alphabetical indexes of inmates with corresponding case number.

Volume and roll lists are available.

Originally accessioned as part of old collection #520, accession -446.

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.