Mary Belle Harris

Mary Belle Harris (1874–1957) was an American prison administrator and reformer. She was superintendent of the Federal Industrial Institute for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, from 1927 to 1941. She implemented systems of inmate classification, decentralized housing, and other reforms that were later adopted throughout the Federal Bureau of Prisons. During World War I, she served on the U.S. Department of War's Commission on Training Camp Activities. She was previously superintendent of the State Reformatory for Women in Clinton, New Jersey, and prison superintendent at the Blackwell Island workhouse. She also served on the Pennsylvania Board of Parole.

Harris was the daughter of Bucknell University president John Howard Harris. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Sanskrit and Indo-European comparative philology. Prior to starting her career as a prison superintendent at the age of 40, she taught Latin and studied numismatics.

Early life, education and teaching Mary Belle Harris was born on August 19, 1874, in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three children. Her father was John Howard Harris, president of Bucknell University and a Baptist minister. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth (née Mace), died when she was five or six years old.

Harris began college in 1890, studying at Keystone Academy and Bucknell University. In 1893 she received a music degree from Bucknell. She earned her A.B. in 1894 and her A.M. in Latin and classics in 1895, also from Bucknell. She started attending the University of Chicago in 1896, earning her Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indo-European Comparative Philology in 1900. She met Katharine Bement Davis while at the university.

As superintendent of the Federal Industrial Institution for Women, Harris promoted vocational training and provided areas for physical activity and farming. She developed a classification system for individual inmates with programming geared towards individuals and a system for inmate self-governance. She insisted on having a staff that was predominately women. Harris believed in indeterminate sentencing, fostering self-respect, and that women usually committed crimes out of an "economic or psychological dependency, especially on men". She disagreed with BOP Directors Sanford Bates and James V. Bennett on the need for a maximum security prison for women. She used women's networks, the prison's advisory board, and her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt to protect the character of the institution. She retired from the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in March 1941.

Later life and writing Harris served on the Pennsylvania Board of Parole until 1943 and was on the board of trustees for Bucknell University. She also wrote about the poet Kalidasa.

Harris died of a heart attack on February 22, 1957, in Lewisburg.