175:(now Roosevelt Island). The workhouse was overcrowded, holding around 700 women on average in 150 cells. During her three and a half years at the workhouse, Harris oversaw a series of reforms. She fenced off an area of the prison yard so that the prisoners could exercise outdoors. She also started a library and permitted knitting and card-playing in the cells.
199:. As the assistant director of the Section on Reformatories and Detention Houses, Harris set up healthcare facilities and detention housing for women arrested in military training camp areas. She then returned to the state reformatory briefly before being hired in 1919 at the notoriously violent State Home for Girls in
191:. At the reformatory she allowed inmates to share in institutional management responsibilities and a degree of freedom. She continued reforms started by her predecessor, encouraging an inmate-run dairy and a self-governance initiative. Harris took a leave of absence from the reformatory later in the year to assist
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to protect the character of the institution. She retired from the
Federal Industrial Institution for Women in March 1941. Systems and reforms introduced at the women's prison later became standard at the Bureau of Prisons, which has called Harris a "pioneer in unit management, programming,
230:
As superintendent of the
Federal Industrial Institution for Women, Harris promoted vocational training and provided areas for physical activity and farming. She developed a classification system for individual inmates with programming geared towards individuals and a system for inmate
166:
In 1914, Harris was offered a position as a prison superintendent by
Katharine Bement Davis, who was then Commissioner of Corrections in New York City. Though she had no previous experience in the field, Harris took the job of superintendent of women and deputy warden at the
22:
235:, fostering self-respect, and that women usually committed crimes out of an "economic or psychological dependency, especially on men". It was widely publicized as a model federal reformatory for women. Following the formation of the
227:. Harris worked with architects in planning the layout of the prison, which opened in 1927. The $ 2.5 million facility was divided into 14 race-segregated cottages, each with its own kitchen.
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and Indo-European comparative philology. Prior to starting her career as a prison superintendent at the age of 40, she taught Latin and studied numismatics.
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and played tennis and basketball. She earned her A.B. in 1894 and her A.M. in Latin and classics in 1895, also from
Bucknell. She started attending the
44:, from 1927 to 1941. She implemented systems of inmate classification, decentralized housing, and other reforms that were later adopted throughout the
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Harris served on the
Pennsylvania Board of Parole until 1943 and was on the board of trustees for Bucknell University. She lived in
239:(BOP) in 1930, Harris resisted bureaucratic control, maintaining independence for the institution. She disagreed with BOP Directors
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and in Rome. She was a teacher and chaperone at Rome's
American Classical School. She returned to the United States in 1914.
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and a
Baptist minister. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth (nÊe Mace), died when she was five or six years old.
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self-governance. She insisted on having a staff that was predominately women. Harris believed in
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and
Bucknell University. In 1893 she received a music degree from Bucknell. She was a member of
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for women. She used women's networks, the prison's advisory board, and her relationship with
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215:'s executive secretary. Instead, she accepted an offer from U.S. Assistant Attorney General
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to head the first federal women's prison in the United States, the recently authorized
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Prisons and the
American Conscience: A History of U.S. Federal Corrections
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Harris traveled to
Washington in 1925 with the intention of becoming the
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State Reformatory for Women and Commission on Training Camp Activities
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Harris died of a heart attack on February 22, 1957, in Lewisburg.
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48:. During World War I, she served on the U.S. Department of War's
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workhouse. She also served on the Pennsylvania Board of Parole.
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and Indo-European Comparative Philology in 1900. She met
32:(1874â1957) was an American prison administrator and
498:
Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities
315:
Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia
268:, and wrote an autobiography, published in 1936 as
145:. She traveled to Europe in 1912 where she studied
256:classification, and decentralized housing units".
183:In 1918 Harris was hired as superintendent of the
91:Mary Belle Harris was born on August 19, 1874, in
544:McShane, Marilyn D.; Williams, Frank P. (2004).
436:
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317:. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications.
95:, the eldest of three children. Her father was
369:. Harvard University Press. pp. 315â317.
8:
447:. Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 39â41.
391:"History of Bucknell University: 1886-1895"
272:. The book was praised by prison reformers
137:, Maryland, from 1900 to 1910. She studied
52:. She was previously superintendent of the
444:Women in Prison: Gender and Social Control
129:Harris taught Latin in Chicago and at the
106:Harris began college in 1890, studying at
367:Notable American Women: The Modern Period
16:American prison administrator (1874â1957)
600:People from Wyoming County, Pennsylvania
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213:International Policewomen's Association
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221:Federal Industrial Institute for Women
207:Federal Industrial Institute for Women
197:Commission on Training Camp Activities
50:Commission on Training Camp Activities
38:Federal Industrial Institute for Women
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60:, and prison superintendent at the
195:with the U.S. Department of War's
87:Early life, education and teaching
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412:Heffernan, Esther (Spring 1992).
550:Encyclopedia of American Prisons
311:"Harris, Mary Belle (1874â1957)"
280:. She also wrote about the poet
75:. She earned her Ph.D. from the
36:. She was superintendent of the
546:"Mary Belle Harris (1874â1957)"
203:. She stayed there until 1924.
118:in 1896, earning her Ph.D. in
1:
615:University of Chicago alumni
157:Prison administration career
525:. Federal Bureau of Prisons
361:Schweber, Claudine (1980).
185:State Reformatory for Women
67:Harris was the daughter of
54:State Reformatory for Women
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610:Bucknell University alumni
474:. SIU Press. p. 105.
441:Heffernan, Esther (2003).
313:. In Commire, Anne (ed.).
309:Reveal, Judith C. (2002).
162:Blackwell Island workhouse
93:Factoryville, Pennsylvania
595:American prison reformers
237:Federal Bureau of Prisons
126:while at the university.
46:Federal Bureau of Prisons
233:indeterminate sentencing
217:Mabel Walker Willebrandt
143:Johns Hopkins University
605:Keystone College alumni
590:American prison wardens
495:Bosworth, Mary (2005).
421:Federal Prisons Journal
266:Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
249:maximum security prison
225:Alderson, West Virginia
151:Kaiser Friedrich Museum
42:Alderson, West Virginia
468:Keve, Paul W. (1995).
260:Later life and writing
124:Katharine Bement Davis
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501:. SAGE. p. 394.
393:. Bucknell University
270:I Knew Them in Prison
116:University of Chicago
77:University of Chicago
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414:"The Alderson Years"
363:"Harris, Mary Belle"
189:Clinton, New Jersey
101:Bucknell University
69:Bucknell University
58:Clinton, New Jersey
247:on the need for a
193:Martha P. Falconer
141:and archeology at
97:John Howard Harris
73:John Howard Harris
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559:978-1-135-58270-8
508:978-0-7619-2731-0
481:978-0-8093-2003-5
454:978-1-58826-228-8
376:978-0-674-62733-8
278:Austin MacCormick
253:Eleanor Roosevelt
30:Mary Belle Harris
25:Mary Belle Harris
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139:numismatics
112:Pi Beta Phi
574:Categories
291:References
71:president
169:workhouse
135:Baltimore
282:Kalidasa
120:Sanskrit
81:Sanskrit
34:reformer
201:Trenton
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417:(PDF)
554:ISBN
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