i believe the Magdalene Laundries nuns were abusive to those girls.
Just the fact that they had to work for free to atone for some imaginary sin is ridiculous. Last time i looked kissing a boy is not a mortal sin. and I am pretty bright, I’ve been told.
Founded in the 1760's in Britain (before the beginning of the United States --- keep that in mind for culturally-relevant comparisons) they were essentially workhouses for women who were otherwise on the streets: orphans, wards of the court, beggars, street-walkers, delinquents, unwed pregnant girls who were turned out by their families. The intent was to provide a place for homeless destitute women to live and work and not be forced into living the short rough life of a Dickensian back-alley prostitute to die giving birth in the gutter.
They were run, not just by Catholic sisters, but by the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church, the Salvation Army, and other religious and reform-minded groups, and were praised by the social-reformers of the time.
The first one in Ireland was a Church of Ireland run institution, and accepted only Protestant women, founded in 1765 by Lady Arabella Denny.
Any "workhouse" or "poorhouse" or "industrial school" setting in the 18th - early 20th century would seem severe to us. (Frankly, even a "normal" boarding school would shock us.) You would not choose to live in such a place, and neither would I. How bad were they? The key un-asked question is, "Compared to what?"
The alternatives at the time were prisons which featured little food and lots of physical restraint and brutality, or deportation (genteelly called "transportation") to British colonial holdings in the Caribbean or Australia, where debtors and "criminals" (including beggars and petty thieves) worked as contract slaves.
The Magdalene institutions sponsored by the various churches were considered humane, as the women were fed, clothed and housed decently, often taught literacy and industrial skills as well, and they were protected from constant predation by criminals in the streets.
You might want to reference the McAleese report I referenced, which investigated mid-20th century conditions via first-hand testimony.