The rap sheets of inmates who were admitted into the state’s first Reformatory in the early 1900s are now available on the Web for (drumroll, please) free.

You can go to http://digitalarchives.wa.gov/, look under the institution record series, and sift through inmate files of those who were admitted into the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, where they were taught skills and training like tailoring and barbering so that someday they could re-enter society.

Pictured here is an example of what you can find: This blue-eyed, 20-year-old  fellow, Albert Hentschel, was the first inmate to be admitted in 1908 to the facility for “receiving stolen property”.

The documents available online are from 1908 to 1923, and include mug shots, inmate numbers, date of entry, crime, where they were arrested, how old they were and other data. 

(The folks at our State Archives say the register collection is a great resource for genealogists and historians. I say it’s inspiration for aspiring screenplay writers and mystery novelists looking to cook up some whodunit charecters …)