Rahway State Prison
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| Location | 1100 Woodbridge Road Avenel, New Jersey |
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| Coordinates | 40.59-74.27 |
| Status | open |
| Security class | mixed |
| Capacity | 1227 |
| Opened | 1901 |
| Managed by | New Jersey Department of Corrections |
East Jersey State Prison (EJSP), originally "Rahway State Prison", was established in 1896 as the first reformatory in New Jersey. It is a maximum-security institution operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections, housing approximately 1,500 men as of 2013[update].
In 1895, the New Jersey Legislature voted to establish the state’s first reformatory. A year later, construction began at Rahway on state property known as Edgar Farm. "Rahway State Prison" opened in 1901 and originally housed first-time male offenders between the ages of 16 and 30.
The first superintendent, J. E. Heg, served only for a year. He was succeeded by Joseph W. Martin, who led the institution until his death in 1909. Martin was succeeded by Dr. Frank Moore, who retired in 1929.
The prison features a large walled compound 21 acres (85,000 m2) in size, which contains the administration building, cell houses, schoolrooms, chapel, shops, and other buildings. The prison was surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland that the inmates worked. By 1908, there were two four-tiered cell houses. One cell house contained 256 cells measuring 9’x5’x8.6’H, while the other had 384 cells that were only 7.1’x5’x8’H. A 1928 inspection reported that the cells were equipped “with a fair quality of toilet and lavatory.”
When the institution opened in 1901, it was called simply the New Jersey Reformatory and held 193 men. The number of inmates had increased to 525 by 1912 and to 745 by 1928. Of the 514 prisoners admitted during 1928, 304 (59%) were under twenty years of age, 164 (32%) were twenty to twenty-four, and 46 (9%) were from twenty-five to twenty-nine years old, with a racial breakdown of 406 (79%) White and 108 (21%) African-American.
Rahway was originally run on a conduct “grading” system. A book of rules and regulations supplied to each inmate when he arrived discussed what was expected of him and the consequences of violating the rules. All inmates entered the prison in the “second grade” and had the opportunity to advance or be demoted depending on their behavior. Inmates in different grades were granted different privileges.
The inmates' days at Rahway consisted primarily of school and work. They woke at 5:45 a.m. with lights out at 9 p.m. Those who had to attend school went to classes for half the day and worked the other half. The prison offered vocational training and jobs, including tailoring, cooking, shoe-making, printing, electrical work, farming/gardening, plumbing, and painting.
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