Named after the most famous prostitute in history, the Magdalene Asylums were set up by the Catholic Church to disassociate “fallen women” from their former life by forcing them into a strict regimen of prayer and work. The goal was to restore “honest rank in life those unhappy females, who, in an unguarded hour, have been robbed of their innocence, and sunk into wretchedness and guilt,” according to the documents of the Philadelphia branch. Supported by a Catholic doctrine insistent on purity, the last of them closed only after a national public scandal.

On this day, September 25, in 1996, the last of the asylums, operating out of Waterford. England, closed, prompted by a public scandal that arose after the sale of part of a former asylum to a real estate developer.

The original goal of the asylums was rehabilitation: to get the women back as productive, upright members of the community. Slowly, that mission devolved into punishment and exploitation. The Magdalene women were forced to do laundry for much of their waking time: the proprietors of the institution made a good business washing the clothes for others while paying next to nothing for their labor.