Wethersfield State Prison was the second state prison in the state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. Used between 1827 and 1963, it was later demolished and the site turned into a park on the banks of the Connecticut River.

History

Connecticut opened the Wethersfield State Prison in September 1827 as a replacement for the decrepit Old Newgate Prison, which had begun as a copper mine. Although the prisoners had no longer been housed in the former mine galleries by that point, the above-ground facilities were inadequate for the state's need. 127 inmates were shackled together and marched the 20 miles from East Granby to Wethersfield.Marlene Clark
"A Prison Where 73 Inmates Were Executed"
''The Hartford Courant'' (Hartford, CT) 13 February 2008, accessed on 27 October 2013 The new prison was intended to be state of the art and was modeled after the

Auburn State Prison Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility. History Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Pris ...

in New York.Connecticut State Library, ''Wethersfield Prison Records'', Connecticut State Library, 1999, http://www.cslib.org/wethers.asp, accessed on 27 October 2013 Wethersfield State Prison not only followed the physical model of Auburn, but it also followed the harsh

Auburn System The Auburn system (also known as the New York system and Congregate system) is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. ...

of prisoner control until 1900.Christopher Hoffman
"Historical Exhibit Tells Tale Of Wethersfield Prison, And Its Inmates"
''The Hartford Courant'' (Hartford, CT) 19 July 2013, accessed on 27 October 2013 Prisoners were required to march in

lockstep In the United States, lockstep marching or simply lockstep is marching in a very close single file in such a way that the leg of each person in the file moves in the same way and at the same time as the corresponding leg of the person immediatel ...

, forbidden from all talking, and expected to work to support the prison. Until 1880, the cost of running the facility was met exclusively through prison labor.Connecticut Humanities, ''Wethersfield Prison Blues'', ConnecticutHistory.org, 2013, http://connecticuthistory.org/wethersfield-prison-blues/ accessed on 6 November 2013 Both male and female inmates worked: men as

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tra ...

s, coopers, and

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

s and women as

domestic worker A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

s and cigar-makers. The prison was built on 44 acres at the edge of Wethersfield Cove and the grounds included the 1774 Solomon Welles House, used as the Warden's residence. Beginning as a single building, over the course of its 136-year history many more buildings and workshops were constructed until it became a "hodgepodge" of ill-matched structures within the surrounding walls. All

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

s carried out by the state of Connecticut between 1893 and 1960 took place at this prison. A separate "execution house" was the site of 55 judicial hangings and 18 executions by

electric chair An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...

.Erica Schmitt
"Escapes, executions in focus at tour of former prison"
''The New Britain Herald'' (New Britain, CT) 26 September 2013, accessed on 27 October 2013 Warden Jabez L. Woodbridge was granted for the automatic gallows used in the prison, also known as the upright jerker. The upright jerker was never very efficient at breaking the condemned's neck and was withdrawn from use by the 1930s. In 1960, nearly 400 prisoners staged a riot that required the assistance of 100 State Police troopers and a company of National Guard riflemen to quell."400 Convicts Stage Riot At State Prison; Police Hurl Tear Gas, Enter With Guns", ''The Hartford Courant'' (Hartford, CT) 7 January 1960, accessed on 5 November 2013 Tear gas and fire hoses from local fire departments were used against the prisoners, who were complaining of harsh conditions. In November 1963 the new State Prison in Somers was opened as a replacement for Wethersfield State Prison.Department of Correction, State of Connecticut, ''Osborn Correctional Institution'', Department of Correction, 2013, http://www.ct.gov/doc/cwp/view.asp?a=1499&q=265440, accessed on 6 November 2013 All prisoners from Wethersfield were transferred to Somers and two years later the old prison was demolished. The majority of the prison property was sold to the town of Wethersfield for $1.00 and is currently the site of Cove Park, while the remainder is the site of the headquarters of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles. The only visible remnant of the prison is a small marker for the former prison cemetery.

Prison Records

Surviving records from the Wethersfield State Prison are maintained by the Connecticut State Library. The Wethersfield prison was never a part of the Connecticut Department of Correction. Demolition of Wethersfield was completed by 1966, a year before the State Prison in Somers was transferred to the new Department of Correction.

Notable Inmates

Amy Archer-Gilligan Amy Duggan "Sister" Archer-Gilligan (October 31, 1873 – April 23, 1962) was a nursing home proprietor and serial killer from Windsor, Connecticut. She murdered at least five people by poisoning them. One of her victims was her second husban ...

: Nursing home owner and poisoner, inspiration for the play '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' * Gerald Chapman: The "Count of Gramercy Park,"

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

-era

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix ''-ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

and murderer * Lydia Sherman: Serial killer, the Derby Poisoner * Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky:

Spree killer A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations wit ...

, the last person executed via electric chair in Connecticut

References

{{State prisons in Connecticut Defunct prisons in Connecticut Buildings and structures in Hartford County, Connecticut 1827 establishments in Connecticut 1963 disestablishments in Connecticut Demolished buildings and structures in Connecticut Buildings and structures completed in 1827 Buildings and structures demolished in 1965