The Christian Science Committee on Institutional Work in California, known as the State Committee, was formed in 1956 to coordinate and unify the various institutional activities conducted in California by churches and individuals.

In Miscellaneous Writings (112:15) Mary Baker Eddy writes of her own visit to a prisoner, the assassin of President Garfield. Later in Miscellaneous Writings (pp 403-406), she includes testimonies of healing of a man in the Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown, and of a woman who had been in a state mental hospital.

One of Mrs. Eddy's students wrote:

"Mrs. Eddy requested Irving Tomlinson to hold Christian Science services in the Merrimac County jail. After services were begun, she stated, 'I am glad you have begun the C. S. mission with faith that you can open the prison doors and set free the captive. God will bless us in this way of His appointing...'

Her interest in prison work never flagged. To aid the prisoners in putting off the 'old man', she presented the prison with copies of Science and Health which were immediately put to good use."

...Irving C. Tomlinson,                    
Twelve Years With Mary Baker Eddy