Case in point... New Jersey Penitentiary House, 1816.
New Jersey State Prison, and indeed the entire New Jersey Department of Corrections trace their existence back to the original state penal facility in NJ, The Penitentiary House. Founded pursuant to an act of the NJ Legislature in 1796, that very first institution opened in the final days of 1798, which put New Jersey in the books for a few records. NJ comes in at third for the oldest State Law Enforcement Unit- VA and Mass founded dedicated State Prison units just prior to NJ with personnel appointed to work therein. The NJ Penitentiary House is the second purpose built State Prison in America; Massachusetts drops out of the running here because, while they did found a unit of State Officers to keep State prisoners before NJ did, they adapted a mine as a prison, kept the prisoners locked below ground in the mine where they worked and never put up a purpose built secure facility there on the property. Pennsylvania and their Walnut Street Jail hold the record for the first cell block that housed State Prisoners in penitentiary style cells, under the Pennsylvania System, but this was always a city/county jail staffed by city/county officers and was never a State Prison. Pennsylvania's first State Prisons and Officers didn't come along until the 1820's.
Because I seek to document the NJ State Correction Officer back to those first beginnings in 1798, my curiosity extends to clothing and equipment. Here is where matters get a bit gray. The facility itself survived in largely unchanged physical condition during those years between 1838 and 1928 when it served as the State Arsenal, and in those years it was photographed at several different times, examples of which survive. As for locks, there are a few remaining on the old Front House structure, and the keys can be surmised from those locks. The arms are no problem- The State Prison drew weapons and ammunition from the stocks of the State Militia and later the NJ National Guard until 1928. There are several examples of requisitions for, and mentions in the Arsenal's reports of muskets, rifles, and ammunition provided for the use of the State Prison from the early 19th Century on. As the weapons and accoutrements of the State Militia and later NJ National Guard are well known, the arms provided to the Armory at NJSP are likewise no secret.
From 1880 onward, images and knowledge of the uniforms worn by the Deputies at NJSP exist and are not only known to me but have been used to have new examples produced of the uniforms actually worn by the staff in various eras, which I have happily worn to various functions and historical demonstrations. Before 1880, however, clothing was not documented in words or images. The 1880 line in the NJSP Annual Report to the NJ State Legislature on the progress of the State Prison that year mentioned that the newly issued uniforms, which came into use on 1 May 1880 were the first at the prison. One would be tempted to take that as a definitive word on that subject and let the matter rest were I not well aware that where the past history of the State Prison and the department in general are concerned, definitive knowledge of the past of the organization is spotty on a good day. General Gershom Mott, the Keeper of the State Prison in 1880 (the forerunner of today's Commissioner of the NJDOC) may have stated that he issued uniforms for the first time, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those were the first- They were the first in memory.
There are common sense reasons why a uniform of sorts was probably worn in the decades before 1880, and most certainly in the Penitentiary House years. In 1829, the State Legislature conducted an investigation of the Penitentiary House as part of a move to seek appropriations to build a newer, more secure facility, an effort that was ultimately successful and resulted in the construction of the Fortress Penitentiary compound that still stands and is in use today, almost intact. The investigation looked into the records of the prison and discovered that there were well over 100 escapes from the Penitentiary House between 1798 and 1829! If you think that is a deplorable security record, get ready for this: The Penitentiary House considered an escape to be the successful escape of an inmate, not from the confines of the prison, but only if the inmate made it out of the city! This little tidbit serves to show that 109 inmates made it out of the prison AND out of town in the years before 1829, and there was an additional, considerable number of inmates who made it out of the prison who were apprehended in town and returned to custody.
Here is where common sense comes into the equation. The NJ Penitentiary House was what was colloquially known in the Old West as a "Leaky Jail", meaning that it was easy to escape from. In thirty one years, 109 inmates had made it over the wall and out of town, and at least twice as many were apprehended before they could get very far. There were a number of incidences of inmates being shot by State Prison Deputies as they ran down the streets surrounding the prison, and from the numbers of escapees we see in the records it's fairly obvious that seeing a fleeing prisoner with a keeper in pursuit with a musket and affixed bayonet was a common sight, especially at night. It is only common sense that the Principal Keeper of the Penitentiary House took steps to see that his assistant keepers were dressed in such a manner that when they were seen in public pursuing a prisoner that they could be easily identified by the citizens of Trenton and the surrounding areas so that they could tell the difference between the prison staff and the prisoners when they were seen scuffling in public when escapees were pursued and apprehended.
My current working theory is that, as with arms and accoutrements, which came from the stocks of the State Militia, certain items of clothing common to the local citizen soldiers probably came into use by the Officers of the State Prison in the early 19th Century. The most likely apparel would be the generic Militia Jacket and Round Hat, plenty of which were locally available during and after the War of 1812 and which persisted in use for decades afterward. The jacket and trousers were simple garments that any local seamstress or housewife could stitch together, and alternately might have been produced as a trade by the women incarcerated at the Penitentiary House. Round hats (very similar in look to Top Hats) were produced by hatters everywhere, and were issued in large numbers during the War of 1812. It is my belief that the Keeper saw to it that his men wore a militia style jacket in gray or black and a round hat with a hat plate identifying them as State Prison Keepers as a way to see that they would be recognized and aided when chasing escaped prisoners.
Below is an approximation of what the post War of 1812 (1816-1836) State Penitentiary Officer might have looked like. The outfit closely resembles the cut and style of a local militiaman of the era, differenced by the hat plate and the color variation of a black rather than a gray jacket to set him apart as a State Penitentiary Keeper. Compare that to the other illustration farther down of the garb of New Jersey volunteer regiments in the War of 1812 and you can see how the look shaped up. Add to this a Springfield Model 1795 or 1816 Musket and bayonet, cartridge box, a flintlock pistol and truncheon or short billy club and there you have it.
As with many things in reenacting and historical impressions, in the gray area beyond where good documentation and surviving examples of clothing and equipment end and the need to represent them goes on, you sometimes have to reason things out and take your best shot. Until some hard evidence surfaces, the below is my best shot- The 1816 State Penitentiary Officer, the many times great grand dad of the New Jersey State Correctional Police Officer of today.
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