Word: framingham
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...November 10, 1947, an inmate at Framingham hung herself with a knotted bedsheet from a sprinkler pipe in her bedroom. Senator LoPresti and a lawyer who represented the girl's parents demanded an investigation. When the district attorney confirmed the original verdict of suicide last May, LoPresti went to the Department of Correction. he also went to the Boston American, which obligingly slapped his allegations on page...
LoPresti also made plain his views on penology. "Everybody seems to agree that the institution there (Framingham) is in an awful mess. But, they all add,what can you do about it?" he complained. He had opposed Dr. Van Waters' methods "in legislative hearings and from the floor of the Senate," but "no previous Commissioner has dared to differ with Dr. Van Waters. Even members of the legislature kowtow to her." LePresti's interest in Framingham was hardly limited to an investigation of the suicide. He felt that the Reformatory was a sinkhole of immorality and favoritism...
Dwyer made a quick investigation of Framingham, without bothering to keep in touch with the reformatory officials. He interrogated inmates privately, and Dr. Van Waters testified last month that his questions were "shocking" and reduced many girls to tears. He had asked "indecent questions" about the relationships between inmates, officers, and workers. In one instance, Dwyer questioned a released inmate who was so drunk and drugged when he talked to her that later she couldn't remember what she had said. Dwyer's report was handed to McDowell, who passed it on to Governor Bradford early in the summer...
LoPresti was apparently unwilling to leave investigations up to the Department of Correction. By June 15, he had persuaded the Legislature to set up a commission to look into Framingham. This commission subsequently gave him considerable trouble. He claimed that the three non-legislative members appointed by the Governor were pro-Van Waters, and intent on whitewashing her administration. The commission met a couple of times and visited Framingham, but refused to give LoPresti's accusations any support. In November, the commission decided that the new Legislature would have to finish the job. Over LoPresti's violent protests...
...Deputy Commissioner Dwyer had broken loose in the Boston Post. The American also procured large sections of that document, and printed it in installments. Just how these newspapers got hold of the report was never revealed, but it made sensational reading. There were "Shocking revelations" of homosexual activities at Framingham, where laws were "flouted" and the state of Massachusetts "mocked." The report claimed that discharged inmates who had formed: emotional attachments" at Framingham were allowed to return for weeks at a time. In his charges against Dr. Van Waters, the Commissioner included such a case. The evidence showed, however, that...