HOUSE OF CORRECTION or BRIDEWELL, in Eng land and the United States a prison for the confinement of petty offenders. Originating as a workhouse, a place of compulsory employment for vagrants and others out of work, the house of correction in England for a hundred years performed a useful service in the relief of destitution, but by the end of the 17th century it had degenerated into a dumping ground for the riff raff of the local criminal population. When in 1774-76 John Howard made his famous survey of prison conditions in England and Wales there was little but the name to distinguish the Bride well from the common gaol. With the centralization of the penal system effected by the Prisons Act of 1877, the houses of correc tion passed under the control of the Home Office. In the United States they are still administered by local government—city, town or county. (See GAOL; PRISON.) (G. W. KI.)