work farm

noun

1. a farm to which juvenile offenders are sent for a period to work, for disciplinary purposes or rehabilitation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of work farm¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

Upon the death of his father from cancer, 18-year-old Emmett Watson is released early from a juvenile work farm in Kansas and driven home by a kind warden to a small town in Nebraska, where he is reunited with his precocious 8-year-old brother, Billy.

From New York Times

But two escaped work farm associates of Emmet’s, also 18, show up and attach themselves like barnacles for the journey.

From Seattle Times

Emmet has been released from a prison work farm after serving his sentence for accidentally causing a fatality, their father has died and the family farm is in foreclosure.

From Seattle Times

Her father, who had served in Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army, was arrested when Ms. Liu was an infant and did not see his daughter again for more than 40 years, when Ms. Liu found him on a rural work farm.

From Washington Post

McMurphy is a gambler and rabble rouser who faked insanity to serve a prison sentence in the hospital instead of at a prison work farm.

From Salon