Westfield State Farm Nursery Daybooks

Chronological.

The series consists of a daily log of attendance, scheduling, and treatment information for inmates at the Westfield State Farm nursery facility. There are entries from August 1961 to January 1962 (volume 1) and April 1963 to September 1963 (volume 2). Entries typically include date; population count (morning and evening); names of patients admitted or discharged; names of visitors (with time); names of officers and others on duty (and shift times); orders; and activity notes (on medications, monitoring, scheduling, etc.)

Orders and notes typically refer to regularly scheduled duties (such as taking babies' temperatures, or monitoring formula in the refrigerator), as well as individual medical orders and treatment directives. There are also scheduling notes for more personal activities, including baby baptisms, "nursery girls" writing "regular letters," and prohibitions against baby viewing "at the outside door" without special permission.

This accession resulted from a project by Archives staff in 1997 to accession or integrate estrayed or unidentified records.

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.