Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US tramp) a workhouse; a relief centre.

1891		Contemp. Review LX n.p.: Begging is called ‘battering for chewing;’ railway brakemen, ‘brakies; poorhouses, ‘pogies;’ prisons, ‘pens;’ liquor drinking, ‘rushing the growler;’ insanity, ‘bug-house,’ &c. &c. This slang is a very popular.
1897		J. London ‘The Road’ in Hendricks & Shepherd Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: Their argot is peculiar study. [...] pogy, poor house.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 154–5: What ’ud become o’ all the people in the Tenderloin if money stopped passin’ around. He’ll tell you the truth: ‘We’d all go to the pogey’.
1912		A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 422: ‘Go to th’ pogy’, they told me.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 282: The hobos burst into song [...] ‘Oh dancing in the poggies (poorhouses), Tra-la la-la-la logies / Chewin’ snipes and stogies’.
1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 652: Pogey—workhouse.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 49: The hobo is no longer a customer any more than he is interested in spending a winter in the ‘pogie,’ or poor house. [Ibid.] 211: Pogey – The workhouse.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 269: You ought to see the lousy Pogey (relief centre) they have here [...] I was in the Pogey a couple of nights. The joint stinks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: pogey – A jail or workhouse.

2. a prison hospital.

1926		Times Despatch (Richmond, VA) 17 Oct. 7/7: Pogie — a hospital .
1928		R.J. Tasker Grimhaven 46: ‘Why, we can get those from the pogey!’ he exclaimed [...] ‘Pogey’ was the underworld term for hospital.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 148: Pogey.– [...] A prison hospital, in which case no doubt a corruption of ‘bougie.’.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 189/2: pogie. A hospital.
1940		L.L. Stanley Men at Their Worst 16: He tries to attract attention and gain pity, and he will go to almost any length to gain the comparative comfort of the ‘pogey,’ which is his nickname for the prison hospital.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 91: He was helped [...] on his way to the pogie, where doctors put 135 stitches in him.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 11: I must get into the pogy which was rarely an alert area or a close custody problem.

3. a house of correction, a prison.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 179: pogey a county jail [...] poggie A jail.
1951		P. Whelton Angels are Painted Fair 74: I might well find myself tossed into the pogey for annoying the citizens.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: pogey – A jail or workhouse.