In 1911, the Connecticut Prison Association proposed creating a commission to study establishing a reformatory for women, an effort that was supported by suffragists and members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

[5] In July 1917, Governor Marcus H. Holcomb appointed a commission to select a site, construct buildings, and start the State Farm.

[3] A hospital was built at the facility during World War I, motivated in part by the increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

To celebrate Connecticut's tercentenary in August 1935, there was a fair, which included a dance floor, wheels of fortune, and displays of livestock and vegetables.

[2] During the 1960s and 1970s, psychology researcher conducted studies at the prison, including Harvard psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, who set up a laboratory in one of the women's colleges.

As a result of the settlement, a 20-bed mental health unit and halfway house was set up in Waterbury for female offenders and their children.

[6] The facility is now named after Janet S. York, who served as the prison's superintendent from 1960 to 1968 and later became deputy commissioner of women's services for the Connecticut Department of Correction.