A poorhouse or workhouse was a government-run facility in the past for the support and housing of dependent or needy persons, typically run by a local government entity such as a county or municipality.

In early Victorian times (for Britain see Poor Law and workhouse), poverty was seen as a dishonourable state caused by a lack of the moral virtue of industriousness (or industry as it was called).Therefore, the people running those facilities had no compunctions about treating the people badly, abusing them physically when they thought they were slaggards. That attitude carried over into the poorhouses of America. After all, people came to the United States to work...not to let the county or the city support them.

Those who were disabled or too old to work the fields were expected to clean and cook for the others. And that included prisoners as well, as many of these poorhouses were adjacent to prison farms.

Abuse of all kinds--physical, sexual, emotional--was rampant, inflicted without discrimination upon the young, the old, and the disabled.

Anne Sullivan, the mentor and later life-long companion of Helen Keller, was raised in a poorhouse. The novel, "The Miracle Worker," later a Broadway play and movie, contained harsh depictions of such facilities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poorhouse