I: The New York City Lunatic Asylum: opened on Blackwell's Island 1839, to accommodate New York City's lunatic poor. Reverend William Glenney French: the Blackwell's Island Episcopal missionary from 1872 to 1895 ; Sister Mary Stanislaus: committed to the Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island August 3, 1872, Diagnosis monomania ; Sister Mary Stanislaus is admitted into the Asylum ; the trial of Sister Mary ; Suicide, murder, and accidental deaths on the rise in the Lunatic Asylum ; Lunacy investigation: December 1880, Metropolitan Hotel, New York City ; Nellie Bly: ten days in a mad house, September 1887

II: The workhouse: a penal institution for people convicted of minor crimes, opened on Blackwell's Island in 1852. New York City and the unworthy poor ' Rev. William R. Stocking: superintendent of the Blackwell's Island Workhouse from 1886 to 1889 ; A workhouse exposé and Lawrence Dunphy: superintendent of the Blackwell's Island Workhouse from 1889 to 1896

III: the Almshouse: completed in 1848, to house the poor and disabled of New York City. The Almshouse complex, the end of the line for many

IV: The hospitals for the poor: in operation beginning 1832, to serve the sick people of New York City, and the inmates of the penitentiary, workhouse, and almshouse. Penitentiary Hospital aka Island Hospital aka Charity Hospital aka City Hospital

V: The Penitentiary: completed in 1832, for people convicted of more serious crimes, and with sentences generally from three to six months to two years although sometimes more. Adelaide Irving: sentenced to the Penitentiary December 6, 1832 ; William H. Ramscar: the Old Gentlemen's Unsectarian Home, sentenced to the Penitentiary December 23, 1899 ; Reverend Edward Cowley: the Shepherd's Fold, sentenced to the Penitentiary February 20, 1880

VI: Separating charity from correction: New York City divides the department in two in 1895. The end of a dangerous conglomerate

Epilogue: Blackwell's Island after 1895.