 MCI Concord opened in May 1878 as the New State Prison at Concord with Mexican War veteran General Chamberlain as its warden.In 1884 all the State inmates were taken out of Concord and transferred to the State Prison in Charlestown Massachusetts and Concord became the "Massachusetts Reformatory" where prisoners under 30 years of age received a one number maximum term for the crime they were convicted of and the Massachusetts Parole Board could release the offender a month after their judgment, or anytime up to their maximum term.If the offender proved to be reformed of the behavior that caused his incarceration he would be put on supervised parole which was subject to termination if the parolee proved to be rehabilitated.