Inmate sketch of Loris Thomsen in her "Officer Smiley" days at California Correctional Center in Susanville.

brought the display case out from New York. But we don't know for sure. Just speculation.

I think one reason the case caught my fancy was something my uncle in Chicago told me in the 1960s. He was a history buff and told me about cells at Rikers Penitentiary that were made of metal. According to the story he told: Inmates were punished by being placed in the cold metal cells without any clothing to wear.

That was the first time I heard anything about Rikers, and it captured my attention. Then in the 1970s, I found the display case headed for disposal as trash in Livermore, California. I had to have it!

Later, as funny things happen in this world, I ended up working in a prison myself.

When I lived in Livermore, I owned a nursery school. Although it did a thriving business, I sold the school and moved to northern California to be closer to my parents who had moved to Chico, Ca.

California Correctional Center at Susanville.

I decided not to open another school and looked around for a good job. The California Correctional Center in Susanville, a male inmates facility, had an opening. I had a college degree in Early Childhood Education that I felt might qualify me. I guess the hiring board thought so too. I was hired and served as a correctional officer there for five years.

I enjoyed the job very much, but have to admit that some of my success was due to my being quite naive. I literally didn't know the meaning of some of the stuff the men said to me. Most of the inmates treated me very well. I am a lady and acted like one, never trying to to be macho. I just did my job.

I smile a lot when I am nervous; I smile to cover that fear sort of feeling. The inmates called me "Officer Smiley!"

Anyway, I again hung the display case on my living room wall and had constant flow of visitors wanting to see it close up.

I finally left that great prison job and went back to school myself, acquired more credits and I now teach writing at Butte College in Chico, California.

Butte Community College Campus Center.

I guess this whole adventure with the display case comes from me wanting to rescue and restore old things. I have a house full of old stuff. I love museums and sometimes I think my home is becoming a small one. Indeed, my home/museum seems to be getting smaller and smaller as I keep adding more items.

So when I came across the New York Correction History Society on the Internet, I thought I'd ask if the society would be interested in giving this display case something like the tender loving care it has become accustomed to during its last three decades with me.

I am delighted NYCHS will provide it a good home in the archives that the society maintains at the Correction Academy.

In a sense, the display case is like a window through which one can look into another era.

I am glad that others with interest in correction history will have opportunities in the years to come to view it and be "transported" back to the mid-1930s when the photos in the display case appear to have been taken.

THANK YOU, LORIS ANN THOMSEN The New York Correction History Society expresses appreciation to Loris Ann Thomsen, former California correctional officer currently teaching at Butte College, for her generously entrusting us with the Rikers & Welfare Island penitentiaries photo display case. NYCHS is honored to receive her gracious gift.

Perhaps someone looking at it will solve the mystery of how the display case itself came to be "transported" -- 3,000 miles from Rikers and Welfare Island.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Loris Ann Thomsen