New Castle County Workhouse-Women's Ward, 1929-1975

New Castle County Workhouse-Women's Ward, 1929-1975. . Constructed on this site in 1929, the New Castle County Workhouse-Women's Ward was the first women's prison in the State of Delaware and originally served as part of a larger penitentiary complex completed in 1901 at Greenbank. The building operated as a women's prison until 1975, when it was repurposed as the Department of Correction Pre-Trial Annex for male inmates. In 1994, it was renamed Webb Correctional Facility in honor of John L. Webb, Delaware's first Black corrections officer and warden, who oversaw the Pre-Trial Annex.

A 'Model' Prison
The women's ward reflected design principles of early-twentieth century penal reform including construction without exterior prison walls, dormitory-style inmates' quarters instead of cell blocks, and improved interior lighting, ventilation, and sanitation, as well as outdoor space for exercise, recreation, and fresh air. Upon its completion, the facility was considered a model prison by reform leaders and influenced the design of other similar institutions.

Criticism
Beginning in the 1930s, the women's prison was subject to intense criticism, with reformers citing concerns regarding fire safety and provision of adequate medical services. In the following decades, the facility increasingly functioned as a detention center for inmates with short-term sentences, who would have benefitted from other arrangements like halfway houses and who were mostly incarcerated on lower-level charges. Its population was comprised predominantly of minority women and overwhelmingly those of lower socioeconomic status who were unable to afford bail. Pre-trial inmates were held alongside those who were sentenced, which by the 1960s was against Delaware Code. Fire safety remained a serious concern, with dormitories located on the second and third floor without emergency escape. Funding was also insufficient to employ necessary support personnel, including full-time counselors and medical staff.

Closure
In 1974, the Delaware Council for Crime and Justice urged the state to close the prison and transition inmates to residential facilities, arguing that it was essentially a detention center for those who could not raise bail, public costs were too high, many inmates were committed to the prison when they should have instead been sent to state detoxification centers, and little community protection resulted from these incarcerations when 90 of those sentenced were committed for a year or less. The following year, the women's prison closed and was subsequently used as the Department of Correction Pre-Trial Annex holding male inmates awaiting trial. The Department of Correction permanently closed the facility in 2016, and the building was razed in 2023 for the expansion of Delaware State Police Troop 6 headquarters.

Development of Women's Prisons in the U.S.
While nineteenth century penal reformers had long argued for the separation of inmates by sex, the late-nineteenth century witnessed increased advocacy for separate facilities for women, as the needs of female offenders and their propensity for reform was viewed as wholly different from that of male offenders. During the nineteenth century, the concept of "true womanhood" had taken hold within white, upper- and middle-class society, which positioned women squarely within the private sphere of home and family, in the role of wife and mother, and advanced the ideal womanly virtues as piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness.

This values system informed the way in which reformers--often white, upper- and middle-class women--viewed female offenders and their needs, proposing "feminine methods of corrections," which included domestic training in traditional women's work like cooking, cleaning, laundering, sewing, and gardening. Reformers also called for alternative prison designs from those of male penitentiaries, such as providing small, private rooms instead of cells, with beds and linens versus cots, and allowing well-behaved prisoners to decorate their rooms--all of which served to make their spaces cozier and more homelike.

Reformers additionally advocated for solely female administrators at women's prisons, to not only eliminate potential abuse and exploitation by male guards but because it was thought that female administrators would be more understanding of and sensitive to the needs of the female offenders.