Women's Prison and House of Reform
While the Cincinnati Workhouse was under construction in the late 1860's, the city put the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in charge of female offenders at a former schoolhouse on Front street, that had been converted to a House of Reform, or Correction. After female prisoners were sent to the Workhouse in late 1869, the Sisters continued to operate a school of reform in the Front street location, where about 40 women "support[ed] themselves by their needle, with the aid of some kind friends, and serve their God untainted and unallured by the temptations of the world." (Catholic Telegraph, Sept. 8, 1870)
The city took back the facility from the Sisters in the early 1870's, at which time "the Mother Provincial bought a piece of ground near Carthage and built on it a sufficiently large house to accommodate the children of preservation and leave plenty of room at Bank street for women who desire to reform. At the same time one of the Sisters who had directed the House of Reform, found means to buy a house on Baum street, in which females of all ages are received." ("House of Reform," Catholic Telegraph, July 17, 1873, p. 4)