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The Online Catalog allows searching and browsing of information about the Florida State Archives’ holdings of over 48,000 cubic feet of state and local government records and historical manuscripts. The catalog provides descriptions of over 3,400 collections and lists the contents of containers and folders in many of those collections. For assistance with accessing and using State Archives collections, call our Reference Staff at 850.245.6719 or email us at archives@dos.myflorida.com.


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Record Group Number: 000670
Series/Collection Number: .S 2405
Creator: Florida. Division of Corrections.
Title, Dates: Inmate incarceration files, 1878-1935.
Amount: 118 microfilm reels
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Biographical/Historical:     The Division of Corrections was created under the Board of Commissioners of State Institutions in 1957 (Ch. 57-317, Laws).  The Board of Commissioners of State Institutions had been instructed to manage all state prisons since 1877 (Ch. 3033, 1877, Laws).  In 1969, the Division of Corrections became part of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (Ch. 69-106, Laws).  The Division's duties were increased in 1975, and it became the Dept. of Offender Rehabilitation (Ch. 75-49, Laws).  The Department was renamed the Dept. of Corrections in 1978 (Ch. 78-53, Laws).

Summary:     This series contains the inmate commitment forms for the Department of Corrections and associated documentation found within the inmate files. The majority of the records include a court sentencing with details of the crime committed and the duration of the term for hard labor at the Florida State Prison near Raiford, Florida. Other types of records include correspondence between Florida State Prison personnel and outside agencies both within and outside of Florida, including other state prison systems, convict leasing companies, coroners and the circuit court. Intake surveys describe prisoner appearances including race and sex in some instances.

    The series also contains death certificates, coroner's memoranda, accident reports, telegrams, booking photographs, fingerprint samples, notices of prisoner escapes and fugitive warrants, newspaper clippings and testimonial narratives also appear throughout the series. Correspondence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation can be found, including items signed by then director John Edgar Hoover.

    The types of crimes include, but are not limited to, the larceny of hogs and other livestock; highway robbery; hurtling of a missile into a railway car; bigamy; and desertion of a spouse. Corresponding agencies of note are the State Road Department for the convict leasing activities of road construction; the Chattahoochee State Hospital where injured or ill inmates were treated; the William J. Burns International Detective Agency; the Florida Pine Co. and the Florida Naval Stores, the latter in the turpentine business.

    The records are roughly chronological and arranged by prisoner number. The numbering system varies over the years and the number may not appear on the microfilmed copy of a document for several inmate files.
Finding Aids: Microfilm listing available.
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Subject Access Fields: Florida State Prison Farm.
Florida State Prison.
Prison administration Florida
Prisoners Florida
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