Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a psychiatric institution; thus hatch up v.

1908		B. Fisher ‘A. Mutt’ in Blackbeard Compliation (1977) 58: Life sketch of the pathetic scene when the defendant was torn from his young wife and infant child and sent to the hatch.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 416: Not counting screwballs, of course, who ought to be in the hatch.
1955		E. Hoagland Cat Man 69: ‘He was a boob! He was booby! He oughta huv’ been in the hatch! They oughta huv’ got ‘um with the striped suits!’.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 397: Take Advantage of My Lunacy and Buy Quick Before I Am Hauled Off to the Hatch.
1974		R. Stone Dog Soldiers (1976) 251: My status was weird because I’m just out of the hatch.

2. (also hatch house) a prison.

1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 104: Put all troublesome judges in the hatch?
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 July 45/2: Humorous description in the N. York Police Gazette [...]: ‘This sentence does not mean that he has to be shut up in the hatch house during the period of probation referred to, but cannot take a drink of liquor.’.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 43: hatch [...] A calaboose; a prison; a police station; a jail.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 96: Hatch.–A country gaol or police station.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 92/1: Hatch. 1. (P) Punishment cells. 2. (P) (Rare) Any cell. 3. Any place of detention, as a station-house, county jail, prison, institution for the criminally insane, etc.