Her mission was to effect the moral and social rehabilitation of the women in her charge, giving them a chance for "restoration as well as for punishment".

Among the Women's House of Detention's most famous inmates were: In its later years, allegations of racial discrimination, abuse and mistreatment dogged the prison.

[11] Audre Lorde described the House of Detention as, "a defiant pocket of female resistance, ever-present as a reminder of possibility, as well as punishment.

[14] He writes, "It was one of the Village's most famous landmarks: a meeting place for locals and a must-see site for adventurous tourists.

And for tens of thousands of arrested women and transmasculine people from every corner of the city, the House of D was a nexus, drawing the threads of their lives together in its dark and fearsome cells.