house of correction

[KalanNug 0]

(formerly) a jail or other place of detention for persons convicted of minor offences

[Jacobanade]

A residential penitentiary facility, an institution where criminals or wayward people (notably youth) are sent to have their ways corrected trough a penal regime officially intended to reeducate them

[gusepinax]

A house of correction is a type of detention facility, historically used in England, where individuals are detained as punishment for minor crimes or to reform through labor and discipline. Today, the term may refer to a jail or prison, particularly in certain jurisdictions in the U.S. Some modern houses of correction are designed more as rehabilitation centers than as regular prisons. The objective of such facilities is to facilitate reintegration of inmates into regular society after the completion of their sentences.

[Utpal Shuvro]

The house of correction was a type of establishment built after the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law, places where those who were unwilling to work, including vagrants and beggars, were set to work. The building of houses of correction came after the passing of an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law. However the houses of correction were not considered a part of the Elizabethan Poor Law system because the Act distinguished between settled poor and wandering poor. Notorious magistrate Allan Laing sent three youths to the house of correction for singing in the streets.
In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the term remains synonymous with state jails. The same is true for the State of Maryland.