Collection is open for research.
Donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives by Robert A. Freeman.
Robert A. Freeman was born in Washington to Ednah and Richard Freeman. He was a 1948 graduate of Whitman College worked on the staff of the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla between 1948 and 1975. He served as a staff psychologist and later was named Associate Superintendent in charge of inmate treatment.
The Robert A. Freeman Papers consists of documents, records, statistical surveys, publications, and other materials compiled during his tenure as a Washington State Department of Corrections psychologist at the penitentiary. This collection, which dates between 1948 through 1980, contain documents from symposiums and other events which, among other topics, discussed the state of correctional institutions policies and potential reforms to the corrections culture and systems. This collection gives an insight into the prison conditions of Washington State Department of Corrections and the work that was being done during the mid-1900s to enact reform.