Inmate canning green beans photograph

Dated ca. 1935-1965, this photograph shows an inmate at the Ohio Reformatory for Women with canned green beans. At one time, inmates canned food stuffs produced on the farm on the grounds. In 1911, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the establishment of a separate women’s penal institution. On September 1, 1916, the Ohio Reformatory for Women opened in Marysville, Ohio, with a population of 34 inmates. When Marguerite Reilley was appointed superintendent of the Reformatory in 1935, she found dirty and unkempt inmates with excessively restricted living habits. She instituted the “human being” program which provided recreation, entertainment, jobs, and vocational training for the inmates. State Archived Series 1679 AV consists of 234 photographs which illustrate daily life in the Ohio Reformatory for Women, as well as photographs of the buildings and grounds, superintendents Marguerite Reilley and Martha Wheeler, and notorious inmate Velma West