Room is provided in the basement for milk pasteurizer with 144 bottle capacity. This is connected with high pressure steam.
Adjoining the nursery is a specially equipped infants’ bath-room. A small bath-tub and two bath-slabs provide ample bathing facilities for both small infants and those of larger size. Tiled floors and hard finished walls make this a most sanitary arrangement.
[Illustration: CAROLINE BAYARD WITTPENN MATERNITY COTTAGE, STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN, CLINTON, NEW JERSEY--SOUTH ELEVATION
This building is constructed entirely of hollow tile and stucco corridors of cement, and rear stair and front stair fireproof towers of metal, and fire glass construction with cement stairways. The room floors and nursery floor, living room floor, and dining room are of hardwood construction, but you will note that all exits and main corridors are fireproof.
General plan of using gray slate roof on our institution buildings has been adopted. Dormer windows in the roof give ample storage space in the attic for clothing and other stock. The laundry is situated in the basement, and here the mothers are taught properly to care for their infants’ clothing.
The other cottages are similar to those which are built for younger delinquent girls in State industrial schools, without prison construction, strong doors, or window-bars, except that in some cottages the lower window-sash is protected by an iron grill which obstructs but does not prevent egress. Some of the cottages are old farmhouses which have been repaired and equipped with plumbing in order to adapt them to their present use.
[Illustration: MATERNITY COTTAGE--FIRST FLOOR PLAN]
It must be borne in mind that all the women in this institution are committed for criminal offenses, including many petty offenses and sex offenses. They include also such crimes as grand larceny, burglary, assault with intent to kill, atrocious assault and battery, highway robbery, and manslaughter.
There are no walls or high fences surrounding the buildings.
Notwithstanding the absence of prison walls and prison buildings, the number of escapes is very small and escaping prisoners are usually recovered within a few hours.
The institution was opened January 8, 1912, and it has received 584 women. Of these, 33 have escaped, of whom 25 have been recaptured and 8 still remain at large. This makes a record of only one and one-third per cent of successful escapes, which in view of the absence of prison restraints is a remarkable record. It certainly justifies the policy of the Board of Managers in adopting the cottage plan and discarding prison walls.