The Reformatory

The Reformatory

**The Reformatory** is an all-women "Reform School" to make its occupants acceptable to society. The full name of the facility is technially *Vecellio Reformatory for Young Women*, though no one ever calls it that. Its halls echo with the footsteps and hushed voices of nurses moving between wards filled with girls between the ages of 13 and 24. Many have dead eyes and a hopeless slump to their shoulders. A few have eyes that snap with hate, their spines made of steel, refusing to break. These are the girls sent here for wild ideas or erratic behavior, unable or unwilling to be what Society said they should be. This place is discrete, especially for problems that need to disappear, either immediately or after a few months of isolation from the world's eyes. Few leave that quickly. Or they were convicted of loose and wanton behavior and can leave when a judge says so.

Nurses' dresses whisper soothing, numbing messages if one listens closely. But one shouldn't. For a time in 192x, the place is almost homey. Until one night in November, when all the warmth in the place seems to evaporate at once.

## The Building

The facility is meant to be a place for girls accused of any number of things - public indecency, lewdness, brashness, anything that labels them a menace to the traditional society. They are meant to be reformed, the sentences indeterminant until they are deemed fit to return to the world at large. Many never are, either they go mad or die prematurely from disease, suicide, malnourishment, or maltreatment.

### The Infirmary

The infirmary in for girls who become sick, distribute any drugs prescribed to the young women, and aid in the delivery of any babies to the unwed mothers ensconced within its walls.

### The Wards

Long rooms with uniform beds, a small place for non-existent personal possessions, with a locked closet at the end for shoes and a cubby for clothes.

### The Treatment Rooms

Treatment in this time included sedation, restraint, solitary confinement, and the misleadingly named hydrotherapy, which was typically submersion in a cold bath or showers for a period of time.

## Interacting with the Reformatory

If you wish to interact with the Reformatory a la #ooc-dice-rolling, you may use the following modifiers:

* Strength: +2
* Dexterity: -1
* Constitution: +2
* Intelligence: +1
* Wisdom: +0
* Charisma: +3

* The Reformatory is a place where they attempt to civilize the untamed girls of the City.
* A ward inside the Reformatory
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## Associated NPCs

* **Doctor Arnold Mooresby** is the head doctor at the Reformatory.
* **Florence "Flo" Dąbrowski** is one of Erin's first friends within the confines of the Reformatory and one of her fellow escapees. They were roommates for a time, until Nurse LeClerc's death, when Erin left in the night, unwilling to risk Flo's freedom.
* **Margot Prewitt** is a former inmate of the Reformatory, daughter of Mrs. Eunice Prewitt and Mr. Prewitt, former hellion, and currently cowed and engaged. Somehow, her fortune is in better shape than her parents, who have recently fallen on hard times, due to some rather careful market adjustments made by Lady Luck. She's still engaged...for now.
* **Mary-Alice O'Rielly** is a current inmate of the Reformatory; the eldest of 8 siblings who had dropped off after her parents had been unwilling to pay the fine the judge had imposed for being out too late and under suspicion of immoral activity. Erin escaped not long after her arrival.
* **Nurse LeClerc** was one of the Reformatory's staff until Erin objected to her breathing. Deceased.
* **Nurse Willens** is one of the Reformatory's staff.
* **Margot Prewitt** is the daughter of Eunice and Anthorp and a Reformatory girl deemed fit for Society once more; she's a wispy, limp-haired brunette seen in an extremely conservative mauve evening frock with too much lace at a fundraiser for the Reformatory. Her smile looks like it belongs to a china doll and she sits like a puppet with cut strings.

#### The Reformatory

   **The Reformatory** is a quasi-sentient building in charge of keeping the wild girls of the City caged. For their own protection, of course. Hell on Earth is a kind way to put it, if Hell is a slowly smothering pillow and a foggy mind. The facility is meant to be a place for girls accused of any number of things - public indecency, lewdness, brashness, anything that labels them a menace to the traditional society. They are meant to be reformed, the sentences indeterminant until they are deemed fit to return to the world at large. Many never are, either they go mad or die prematurely from disease, suicide, malnourishment, or maltreatment. Despite appearing to be a building, within its stone foundations lurks a sentience that makes it all the more terrifying.

### NPC Gallery

* Florence "Flo" Dąbrowski
* Mary Alice O'Rielly
* The Reformatory
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## References

1. ↑ Rogers, Helen Worthington. *Digest of Laws Establishing Reformatories for Women in the United States.* 13 J. Am. Inst. Crim. L. &
Criminology 382 (May 1922 to February 1923) https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1865&context=jclc
2. ↑ Refuges, Reformatories, and Training Schools for Girls: A Bibliography of Historical Studies https://prisonpublicmemory.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Bibliography-GIRLS-TRAINING-SCHOOLS-05-30-13-print.pdf