B. THE GROWTH OF STATE INSTITUTIONS

The first state institution for juvenile delinquents, Massachusetts, 1847 [1a]

1. Children in Massachusetts jails, 1845

Massachusetts, Senate, "Report of the Joint Special Committee to investigate the establishment of a State Institution for the reformatories of Juvenile Offenders," Doc. 86, Documents, 1846 (Boston, 1846), pp. 2-3.

From the information collected by this Committee, it appears that ninety-seven children, between the ages of six and sixteen years, were convicted and sentenced to the Houses of Correction in this Commonwealth, in the year 1845 . . . Ninety-seven children in one year, placed in a school which will infallibly make them accomplished knaves and villains, who might have been rescued by the strong arm of the Commonwealth, and educated in such manner as to have made honest and useful citizens. Ninety-seven children in one year, placed on the highroad – and a rail-road, too – which ends at the State Prison, almost without a hope that one of them may ever be turned back!

Is there no remedy for this alarming and ever increasing evil? Will the Legislature of Massachusetts, year after year, turn a deaf ear to the cries of these poor children? refuse to stretch forth a hand for their succor; compel them to travel the downward path of sin and infamy; to become vagabonds, thieves, drunkards, – a band of Ishmaelites, preying upon ourselves? This Committee are of opinion that a remedy may be found – that the Commonwealth may increase her high renown for good deeds, by adding one more to the number of her charitable institutions, which shall be as fruitful in good results as any now existing.

1a. The Western House of Refuge, Rochester, New York, was a state institution incorporated in 1846 but not opened until 1849.

2. A magistrate explains his reluctance to convict juvenile delinquents

Letter from William Sawyer to E. Rockwood Hoar, Feb. 26, 1846, in Massachusetts, Senate, "Report of the Joint Special Committee," pp. 7-8.

Sir, – I have received your circular of the 20th, and am happy to learn that public attention is called to the laws touching juvenile offenders. I have long been under the impression that a revision of those laws would be a public benefit, and that future enactments are required to meet the wants of society. . . It seems to me that public policy requires that the State should take charge of these unfortunate ones; and, when they are found thus neglected, instead of meting out punishment for them, should provide means for their relief.

During the past nine years, I have been frequently called upon to issue warrants against juvenile offenders. The complaints are for petty thefts, pilfering from gardens and orchards, malicious or thoughtless mischief – Sabbath-breaking, gambling for money, for being runaways, stubborn children, idlers and vagabonds; sometimes against boys under ten years of age, but mostly between the age of ten and sixteen. But there is seldom a case of a juvenile offender, in which I am not well satisfied that the parents, or person having the child in charge, is most blamable – they take no pains to make him attend school – they suffer him to be out nights without knowing or caring where; and, in many instances, they are incapable of taking care of themselves, much less their children; they have no home fit for a child; their residence is a grog-shop; their companions drunkards and gamblers or worse; they bestow no thought upon their child, until he falls into the hands of an officer and is brought before a court. If there was an institution where such boys might be sent at the outset, not for six months, but during the discretion of a competent board of overseers, I doubt not many would be saved who are now lost, and society would be the gainer.

With these views, I need not inform you that I issue warrants with great reluctance against juveniles, and enforce laws which lock them up among old offenders, and seem to me to make and increase the very evil they propose to remedy. I know officers serve such warrants with reluctance. I know public sympathy, awakened by the youth, or neglected and friendless condition of such offenders, often breaks out in harsh language against the law, and sometimes its indignation falls most unfairly upon the magistrate who is compelled to administer it.

P.S. I wish it to be distinctly understood, that the number of boys arrested on warrants in 1845, is, by no means all who have been complained of to me; for want of some suitable place or means to reform such, I have declined issuing legal process in a far greater number of cases.

3. The remedial legislation

"An Act to establish the State Reform Schools," 1847 – ch. 185, Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves, 1847 (Boston, 1847), pp. 405-407.

Section 1. There shall be established, in the town of Westborough, in the county of Worcester, on the land conveyed to the Commonwealth for the purpose, a school, for the instruction, employment, and reformation, of juvenile offenders, to be called the State Reform School; and the government of said school shall be vested in a board of seven trustees, to be appointed and commissioned by the Governor, by and with the advice of the council.

Section 3. As soon as the governor shall have been notified, by the commissioners to be appointed under a resolve "for erecting the State Reform School Buildings," that said buildings are prepared for occupancy, he shall, forthwith, issue his proclamation, giving public notice of the fact.

Section 4. After proclamation shall have been made, as provided in the third section of this act, when any boy, under the age of sixteen years, shall be convicted of any offence, known to the laws of this Commonwealth, and punishable by imprisonment, other than such as may be punished by imprisonment for life, the court, or justice, as the case may be, before whom such conviction shall be had, may, at their discretion, sentence such boy to the State Reform School, or to such punishment as is now provided by law for the same offence. And if the sentence shall be to the Reform School, then it shall be in the alternative, to the State Reform School, or to such punishment as would have been awarded if this act had not been passed.

Section 5. Any boy, so convicted and sent to said school, shall there be kept, disciplined, instructed, employed, and governed, under the direction of said board of trustees, until he shall be either reformed and discharged, or shall be bound out by said trustees, according to their by-laws, or shall be remanded to prison, under the sentence of the court, as incorrigible, upon information of the trustees, as hereinafter provided.

Section 6. If any boy shall, upon any conviction, be sentenced to said school, and the trustees, or any two of them in the absence of the others, shall deem it inexpedient to receive him, or if he shall be found incorrigible, or his continuance in the school shall be deemed prejudicial to the management and discipline thereof, they shall certify the same upon the mittimus by virtue of which he is held, which mittimus, together with the boy, shall be delivered to the sheriff of any county or his deputy, or to the constable of any town, who shall, forthwith, commit said boy to the jail, house of correction, or state prison, as the case may be, in pursuance of the alternative sentence provided for in the preceding section of this act.

Section 7. All commitments, to this institution, of boys, of whatever age when committed, shall be for a term not longer than during their minority, nor less than one year, unless sooner discharged by order of the trustees, as hereinbefore provided; and whenever any boy shall be discharged therefrom, by the expiration of his term of commitment, or as reformed, or as having arrived at the age of twenty-one years, such discharge shall be a full and complete release from all penalties and disabilities which may have been created by such sentence.

Section 8. The trustees of this school shall have power to bind out all boys committed to their charge, for any term of time during the period for which they shall have been committed, as apprentices or servants, to any inhabitants of this Commonwealth; and the said trustees, and master or mistress, apprentice or servant, shall, respectively, have all the rights and privileges, and be subject to all the duties, set forth in the eightieth chapter of the Revised Statutes, in the same manner as if said binding or apprenticing were made by overseers of the poor.

Section 9. The trustees shall cause the boys under their charge to be instructed in piety and morality, and in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be adapted to their age and capacity; they shall also be instructed in some regular course of labor, either mechanical, manufacturing, agricultural, or horticultural, or a combination of these, as shall be best suited to their age and strength, disposition and capacity; also such other arts and trades, as may seem to them best adapted to secure the reformation, amendment, and future benefit, of the boys; and, in binding out the inmates, the trustees shall have scrupulous regard to the religious and moral character of those to whom they are to be bound, to the end that they may secure to the boys the benefit of a good example, and wholesome instruction, and the sure means of improvement in virtue and knowledge, and, thus, the opportunity of becoming intelligent, moral, useful, and happy citizens of this Commonwealth.

4. A comment on the new institution

Theodore Lyman to Alfred Dwight Foster, Nov. 26, 1847, in Massachusetts, Senate, "Report on Public Charitable Institutions, 1858," Doc. 2, Documents, 1859 (Boston, 1859),pp.112-116.

Lyman (1792-1849), mayor of Boston, 1831-1835, eventually contributed $22,500 to help establish the State Reform School and bequeathed the institution an additional $50,000. Foster was a commissioner of the School.

My Dear Sir. . . I am very glad to learn that the interior will be adapted to the management of the boys on the social plan. [2a] That this is the best system for persons of the age and character of those that will go to the school, I am well persuaded. The object of this institution, as I understand it, is not so much that of punishment as of reform, for I suppose it never would have been established except on the ground and expectation that many of the inmates would be reformed. When out of the school they must live and associate with other boys and with men. I think that they will be more likely to do that without risk and peril to themselves, if while in the school, they are trained to the habits of social life. Young persons stand extremely in need of sympathy, and I think that they can only really find it by being mingled under some restrictions with others of the same age and condition. It strikes me that if it were possible to see a human being dazzled, bewildered, lost, it would be a lad that should be kept in separate confinement two or three years in the school at Westborough, and then all at once turned out into the hurry and noise and bustle of the world, particularly such a very driving, go-ahead world as we have in these parts. And here let me say a word on a subject, in regard to which I have some practical knowledge.

It is sometimes said by those who vindicate the principle of separate confinement and labor, that a sufficient number of persons can be found to visit, gratuitously and voluntarily, prisoners in their cells, talk with them, read to them, and in other ways break up the dreadful solitude to which, in a separate confinement, they are condemned. But, truly, I greatly doubt if a sufficient number of suitable persons can be procured for any length of time. In Boston, it is now difficult to obtain the services of a sufficient number of suitable persons to attend to our charities and other institutions, and yet there are very many benevolent, enlightened individuals there, well qualified for such a work. It is not difficult to get plenty of money for these institutions, or to induce persons in high positions in life to be present on stated anniversaries for the purpose of making or hearing addresses, or to get speeches delivered on public occasions, or to have reports written and printed for a wide distribution. Such a sacrifice of a man's time or interruption of his usual habits is, at the worst, periodically made and at long intervals, in the presence of an audience, or in some shape, that of the public. But this is a very different sort of a business from going quietly and all by one's self two or three times a week, for a year or more to the same man in a solitary cell. There is no audience there, and after the first visits, no excitement.

Some individuals, I know are ready for and equal to a labor so entirely obscure, so long continued and both voluntary and gratuitous. But as I have seen men, the greater part require that what they do frequently, periodically, through a series of months and without notice and compensation, shall be made of more stimulating stuff. Besides in the different communities of this country most persons are too much occupied with their private affairs, to be able to undertake a work that not only requires a strong effort of philanthropy, but also a large share of leisure. . .

Being tolerably well acquainted with the general subject of juvenile delinquency, with the condition of the truant or idle or profligate boys in large towns; being also persuaded that the quickest, surest, mildest, cheapest, and therefore, on all accounts, the wisest mode of diminishing suffering, vice and crime, was by beginning with the young, I confess I felt the strongest desire that a reform school should be established under the authority and auspices of the State. And after carefully considering in my own mind, the nature and cost of the enterprise, particularly the novelty of it and the uncertainty of any good results, as some might think, proceeding from it, I determined to offer, in the first place, ten thousand dollars towards it and afterwards as it is known to you, I added a similar amount for the general purpose, in both cases, of giving the work a strong and early start or push, and of securing for it, as far as such a step on the part of an individual could do it, the public attention and favor. I was then very solicitous as I still am, that the institution should be made a model one, not only for the great good it would do Massachusetts, but in order, also, that other States might be induced to establish schools similar both in plan and principle; for in my opinion they will gain in proportion just as much as we shall by beginning with the young. . .

2a. By the "social plan" Lyman meant the Auburn or congregate system of prison discipline as opposed to the Pennsylvania or solitary system.

Considerations leading to the establishment of the first state institution for delinquent girls, Massachusetts, 1851-1856: placing out versus institutional care

1. "The great object being to prevent crimes rather than to punish them"

Massachusetts, House, "Report of the Commissioners appointed to consider the subject of the Reform School for Girls," Doc. 85, Documents, 1851 (Boston, 1851), pp. 7-10.

There are two distinct grounds, on which children may be confined in such an institution. First: – simply as a punishment, on conviction of some offence known to the law, in which case, it would seem that the term of confinement should bear some relation to the gravity of the offence, and the prisoner at the end of that term be discharged: or secondly: – by virtue of the right of the State to assume the guardianship of minors, whose natural or actual guardians encourage or permit them to pursue a course of life detrimental or dangerous to society, in which case, the managers of the institution should have the complete power of guardians over the inmates, including that of binding them as apprentices, during minority.

So great is the reluctance among us to prosecute young girls for a first offence, or for any but very grave offences, that commitments on the first ground would probably be very few, and those of the most incorrigible character. But it is estimated that in Boston alone, there are three hundred girls, under seventeen years of age, who on the latter ground would be fit subjects for such an establishment, and twelve hundred boys.

The commissioners have above submitted all the information, they have. procured, which seems to them to have a bearing on the subject referred to them.

It is their opinion, that if any such institution for female children be established, it should not be confined to those convicted or accused of crimes, but should be based on the right of the State to appoint guardians for all children, so destitute of efficient guardianship and control as to endanger their own morals and the safety of society; the great object being to prevent crimes rather than to punish them. The managers of such an institution, therefore, should in effect, be guardians of all such children as should be committed to their charge during their minority or until eighteen years of age, proper securities being provided. . . against any abuse of their power, or the subjection of anyone to unlawful or improper restraint.

It follows from this view, that the inmates should not be regarded, either as criminals to be punished, or as pupils to be educated, but solely as children to be provided for; and for whom the best provision would be to place them at once in some respectable family. The sooner this is done, the better for the individuals, and the more extensive the benefits of the institution.

Many fit objects of such guardianship might undoubtedly, without a week's delay, be placed in some private family, where they would be as free from temptation, and under as beneficent influences as in any public institution. It is needless to say how much such an arrangement would tend to anticipate and prevent criminality, and to extend the benefits of this public charity in the most economical manner.

It is therefore the impression of your commissioners, that, if any such action over female children be assumed, it should be understood to be a mere guardianship, or agency, to place them in reputable families and under private domestic protectors, as soon as possible. They are aware that these views differ from any which have been hitherto acted on, either in Europe or America; but they are not therefore the less adapted to our state of society, the less worthy of Massachusetts, nor the less likely to promote the usefulness and the happiness of her native or adopted children.

2. A practical plan for reforming girls

Samuel Gridley Howe, A Letter to the Commissioners for the State Reformatory for Girls (Boston, 1854), pp. 26-29.

I think a plan can be pointed out, by which, taking advantage of the natural reform schools existing in the Commonwealth, a fair trial of the capacity of the girls for reformation may be made, without the outlay of such a vast capital as will be necessary for the proposed great central establishment; a plan too, which, while it holds out great promise of success, cannot occasion great loss or harm by its failure.

Facts and experience, though ever so homely, are what the good people of Massachusetts value more than theories and speculations, though ever so fair; let me hold out a fact then, as a sort of lure to make them attend a little to what may be said afterwards in way of theory. When I was a Director in the House of Reformation in Boston, it used to be the practice to keep the boys a long time, many years even, in the House, and then apprentice them out to mechanics, farmers and others. At first, these persons were required to obligate themselves to fit out the lad with a suit of clothes on his becoming of age, and to give him a sum of money.

I think there was a great fundamental error in the principle upon which the establishment was managed – that of trusting too much to the machinery of reformation in the House, and of keeping the boys a long time under its operation, until it was supposed they had become fit for apprentices. But the important fact to be noted is, that some of the most satisfactory cases of reformation that I knew, were those effected out of the House, and in families, after the machinery of the Institution had failed to do them any good. They were incorrigible while in it.

But besides these cases occurring in public establishments, every person who has had much practical knowledge of society, can recall cases of wayward and apparently vicious youth who have been reformed by kind and wise treatment, and by being thrown into a circle of virtuous acquaintances, especially by being brought under the saving influence of the society of virtuous women.

Proceeding, then, upon the principle above alluded to, and encouraged by the facts mentioned, I would propose that an institution for the reform of girls be upon the following plan.

Suppose we are to begin with one hundred girls, who are not to be admitted all at once, but at first about twelve each month. Let us find an intelligent, benevolent, active and practical man, who has a wife of the like character, and let them be appointed Superintendent, and Matron, with liberal salaries. Give them ample power and discretion. Let them select and nominate their assistants, who of course would be women, and such noble specimen of womankind as Massachusetts yields, – her richest produce. Make the Superintendent responsible to a Board for the general result, but not for his daily doings; let him be the head and not the servant of the establishment; tell him what he is to do, and let him do it in his own way; if he cannot do well, exchange him for one who can.

Let there be a common house hired and furnished for him; or a contract made with some good family, to board him and his officers, and as many girls (not over twelve years of age) as may be sent to him. They should, however, be sent a few at a time, at first, and only as fast as he gives notice of his readiness, so that he might not have many at a time upon his hands. These arrangements made, the Institution would be ready to go into operation. It might commence indeed in one month after the passage of the act creating it.

The first business of the Superintendent would be to procure places in suitable families for the girls as fast as they should be sent to him. He would not, however, follow the old plan; he would not count upon people paying for keeping the girls as domestics; or taking them in the expectation of grinding as much work out of them as possible; – on the contrary, he would offer to pay the families for taking them! He would issue a stirring circular, setting forth the necessity of the case, and calling on the women of the Commonwealth, to come to his aid in the attempt to save these perishing girls. To any respectable and suitable family, that would take one of them, bring her up properly for two, three, or more years, give her instruction in needle-work and house-work, and teach her at home, or send her to town school in winter, he would offer not only the advantage of her services as a domestic or an apprentice, but furnish her clothing, and guaranty to them the sum, say of fifty dollars a year, to be paid at the expiration of her time, provided they faithfully performed their duty to her.

As soon as a number of places was provided, the Superintendent would give notice of his readiness, and the magistrate would send the girls to Worcester, where they would be taken in charge by the Superintendent's wife, and watched over, studied and cared for. The Superintendent would get all possible information about each girl's case, her peculiarities and her wants. He would select the proper family from among his applicants and send her to them at once, under charge of one of his assistants. The assistant would perhaps tarry a little with the girl in her new home, to give and receive all necessary information, and then return to Worcester, to go out again upon the same errand. The hundred would be soon placed. The Institution would be in full operation, and yet there would be no pupils to be seen. The business of the assistants would then be, to go from place to place, each one in her circuit, and visit the girls as often, and tarry with them as long as might be necessary. They would learn from the families how the girl was behaving, and from the girl, how she was treated. Each case would be rigidly inspected, noted down, and the details sent to Worcester. There might be as many girls thus placed out, as there are boys in the State Reform School. They might be vigilantly watched and under constant control; the Institution might be in all respects, as powerful and as efficient as that is, and yet there would be no great building, no great congregation of girls, and no display. The machinery would be out of sight, but working silently and smoothly, and its influence be felt from Cape Cod to Berkshire. Besides its immediate officers, it would find every where earnest and able assistants in its work of love. It would not have to depend alone upon the family in which the girls were placed, but in every town would enlist one or more benevolent women, and thus secure sympathy and friendship for them.

Can one doubt that, with the authority of law, the aid of the State, the countenance of the public, the labors of zealous and efficient assistants, the co-operation of families in which these girls were placed, and the support of several earnest and religious women in each town, a Superintendent could not reform more out of three hundred girls, than if he had them shut up altogether in one building with ever so efficient corps of officers about him?

Can anyone whose creed is, and whose practice should be, – Do unto others as you would they should do to you, – can he hesitate which situation he would prefer, for his own perverse child, a residence in the bosom of a private family, or in a community of vicious girls, though ever so well regulated, where she would be exposed to public gaze, and necessarily get for life the name and character of a "House of Reformation Girl?" Surely not!

3. The state must care for neglected children

Edward Everett Hale, "The State's Care of Its Children," in Hale et al., Prize Essays on Juvenile Delinquency (Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 22-26.

Hale (1822-1909) wrote this article when he was a Unitarian minister in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1856 he became the minister of the South Congregational Church in Boston and commenced his career as a famous spokesman for humanitarian causes.

The American theory has generally stopped short, when it has provided for the intellectual education of all its children. It leaves their moral training, their religious training, and also their training to work or 'business, entirely to private care. The system is founded on a judicious regard for the rights of families, and for the natural affection of parents for their children.

It is all the while very evident, that in many instances, the State is a great sufferer, by leaving children for these three most important fields of discipline, to persons wholly incompetent. It is more agreeable to a father and mother, to have their children left to their own care; but when they bring them up fit for nothing; – intemperate, irreligious, or vagabonds; – the State sustains a great loss from that consideration, which has treated so delicately the parents' rights. The child sustains a like loss.

E.F. is a girl twelve years old, the only daughter of intemperate and unhealthy parents, who are beggars by profession. She is an interesting, wholly uneducated child. They move from place to place through New England, too indolent, intemperate, and sick, indeed, to work; and trust themselves to the care and charity of their neighbors. When this charity presumes to go beyond a provision for their own physical wants and hers, they move away from the town. When, two years since, they thus encamped for six months in this town, those interested in them, attempted in different ways, to separate their child from them, that she might be trained in better habits of life. But the parents were not willing she should go. And it proved impossible then, as it almost always does, to find any public officer willing to undertake the responsible and unpopular duty of separating by legal process, a child from her parents. I suppose the child is with them still, though in this broad free-will, left them: by society, they have taken her to other fields for gleaning. It is almost impossible that she should grow up fit for any useful life. It would have been a great gain to her, and to the community, if any system had been in force, by which those debauched parents could have been deprived of the care, which, morally, they had forfeited.

However seriously then we may regret the crime of children, we have this compensation, when the State is able to educate its young criminals. In those cases it gains a power, which for its own sake, if that were all, it should be glad to exercise in every case. If, of a thousand vagabond boys in a large town, five hundred fall under the hand of the State in any way, there ought to be no doubt whatever, that from that very fact, they shall prove to be the citizens who will cost the State much less, in money and in reputation, than the five hundred who kept out of its care.

This consideration readily extends itself farther. And it shows, that, wherever there are parents, incompetent to make their homes fit training places for their children, the State should be glad, should be eager to undertake their care. Nay more, its own means for training those children, must not be merely such as will suffice for the waifs and strays whom no one else shall care for. They must be so thorough, and so successful, that parents shall not themselves regret the care which is given to their children; and that, as often as possible, selfish and incompetent parents, too poor to educate their children well, may be willing to give them up to care which is so much better. The arrangements should be so wide, that the State should never refuse the care of children who may be offered to it by those who have them in charge.

This proposal is not so Utopian, as to those unused to the subject, it may appear. As soon as, in any community, really good arrangements are made for young vagrants, or young criminals, it is evident that they are better off than many boys who were never vagrant nor criminals. And so there directly comes up this question:

"Do you want to restrict the number of boys you care for, to the number who have been previously dealt with by law?"

The Massachusetts "Reform School" has made itself popular among the very class of people whose children are most apt to fill it. For one instance – where I could easily collect twenty – G.H. is a boy thirteen years old, who has been there for a year past. His father is not now living. He outgrew his mother's control, was disobedient at home, a truant from school, and finding him so, she turned to her friends, that she might get him "a place in the State School" I have known many mothers do the same thing, with the same sort of feeling with which other mothers, in another walk of life, apply for positions in West Point for their sons. It is a government school; and therefore they rely on it as the best. When G.H.'s mother made this request, the school was full. Some months afterward we heard there were a few vacancies, and I found that she still desired to send him there. He had not pilfered any thing; he was not a criminal, in the ordinary sense of the word; but he was idle, disobedient and growing up to vice. A police officer brought him quietly to the justice, sent as quietly for his poor mother, made the formal complaint, that the boy was disobedient; she testified that he was, and the justice committed him to the care which she desired for him; stricter and more effective than she pretended to be able to maintain. She did this with pain, undoubtedly. But she had no other sense of disgrace, than has a mother in the highest walks of life, who sends her boy away from home to a boarding school, when she finds that he is too wayward or headstrong for her control.

The State ought to rejoice at such a disposition on the part of incompetent parents to entrust their wayward children to its disposal. If it have taken effective means to train well the children whom it receives, every such surrender of parental authority is a gain to it rather than an evil.

4. "One affectionate, motherly ear"

Massachusetts, Trustees of the State Industrial School for Girls, First Annual Report, 1857 (Boston, 1857), p. 6.

The school utilized the cottage or "family plan," a compromise between the congregate system and the placement of girls in private homes. On the cottage plan see also the following document.

. . . It [the Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls] is . . . designed for those who are wayward, obstinate, or who from the poverty, ignorance, neglect or abuse of parents, are exposed to, or have become, vagrants, or have taken the initiatory steps in crime, and to save them from inevitable ruin, and from becoming a nuisance to society. It is to stand between the criminal courts and the prison, and also to snatch from the thoughtless, incompetent, vicious or brutal parent, his offspring, and save it, by performing those duties which he has ignorantly or criminally neglected. It is to be a home. Each house is to be a family, under the sale direction and control of the matron, who is the mother of the family. The government and discipline are strictly parental. It is the design to give a home interest, a home feeling and attachment, to the whole family; to make these homeless, parentless, or worse than parentless, wanderers and outcasts, feel that there is, at least, one place all earth in which they have an interest, and which has an interest in them; that there is one affectionate, motherly ear, into which they can whisper their wants and afflictions, with confidence of sympathy; one heart which beats in unison with their own, and to which they can appeal for kindness, for guidance and support, and around which their affections may cluster, with the assurance of a kind and affectionate response. It is to educate, to teach them industry, economy, self-reliance, morality and religion, and prepare them to go forth qualified to become useful and respectable members of society. . .

The Ohio Reform School, 1856-1858

1. Recommendation for a state farm school based upon the cottage or family plan, 1856

Ohio, Commissioners of the Ohio Reform School, Annual Report, 1856, pp. 618-619, 622-623.

In 1856, Charles Reemelin, one of the commissioners, visited a number of European institutions for delinquent children including the reform school at Mettray, France, the most fully developed and often copied cottage institution. Like Mettray, the Ohio institution contained separate and semiautonomous cottages within a rural estate – an arrangement which had the supposed advantages of segregating the more accomplished offenders from their younger colleagues and of providing more personalized, better trained supervision than was possible in the larger congregate institutions. Although the cottage plan was first adopted in the United States by the Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls in 1856, the Ohio School with its farm was the fullest expression of the idea of rural reform.

[The Commissioners recommend that. . . the State] . . . provide an institution, such as all experience and the joint testimony of all, who have examined into this interesting subject, demonstrate to be the right one, we mean a State Reform Farm, where the mass of these unfortunate youths may be employed in agricultural, horticultural, and concomitant mechanical labors, – an institution without any semblance of a prison, and upon a system of labor, education and discipline, for which, life as it is, and not as life should not be, forms the model.

Such a farm should consist of, at least, 2,000 acres. The land should be selected more with regard to health than its richness. The first cost of it should not exceed $20,000. Upon this farm the State should establish its principal reformatory school, under the system now in successful operation in Mettray, in France, modified according to the habits of life and domestic economy of this country. That system is called "the family system," as contradistinguished from the big house cell or prison system. Its main differences are – 1st, That instead of one large building there are several detached ones, and each constituting one family, or household of 40 inmates, with a chief or "father," and two sub-chiefs, or "elder brothers," for each. 2nd, That all the various kinds of agricultural and a few of the more simple and more generally diffused mechanical trades form the source of employment. 3d, The establishment grows gradually and chiefly through the labor of the inmates, 4th, Its discipline is that of a family whose subsistence springs from labor, and officers as well as inmates are employed and work with each other; and, 5th, In its simplicity and studied adhesion to the kind of life led by the mass of the community, avoiding all experimenting in food, dress, lodgings, etc.

Such an institution, based upon the quantity of land suggested, might be started with one family of 40 boys; the building (and any common good farm house, or Swiss cottage, suits for it) being either already on the land, or to be erected at a cost not to exceed $2,000, – and this one family taken from the Cincinnati institution, of the most able bodied and better disposed boys could build the houses for the second and so on, until the whole farm would gradually grow to be the model farm of the State. The labor to be under the charge of the State Board of Agriculture. Such an institution appears to be just the thing wanted, for the following reasons.

The first and most prominent is, that divine law indicates the family, and its discipline dictated as it is by parental duty and enforced by parental love, as the institution where youth is best taken care of. Few, not more than one half per cent. of the population, happily ever require any other. The other should be as near the' heaven-appointed institution as the nature of the case will admit of. Prisons are never of much use for educational and reformatory purposes, even for adults. To obviate the dire necessity of other existence, or, at least, to mitigate and diminish their extent, in other words to "stop the supplies" for crimes and prisons is the avowed and chief object of reform schools, houses of refuge and such like establishments, and, in view of this, it certainly seems to us a proposition too clear for argument, that the true way to accomplish this object is not a prison, but rather, an institution as much unlike it as possible. There are some boys and girls who are unfit for any other' than prison life, but they are exceptions, and for 'them, and them only, prisons should be erected with most rigid discipline. And in this connection may we be allowed to state the well known fact, that nine-tenths of all the inmates of such establishments came there, because they either never enjoyed the sweet of a good family home, or the family influences surrounding them were bad. Does not that fact teach the unmistakable lesson, that the State, to reform such youths, must, in the means employed, come as near the idea of a well regulated, honest family, as is possible under the circumstances? Employment on a farm and instruction in its agricultural and simple mechanical labors, is universally admitted to be the best adapted for the purpose. Every institution we visited admitted this, and all of them used the land they could use, however little, with avidity. It affords variety of labors, and thereby the means to employ nearly every inmate usefully. "Boys are nearer to the ground than men," says a French proverb, whence may be argued with propriety, the general adaption of boys to the greater part of agricultural and horticultural labor.

The experience of all houses of refuge and similar institutions, teaches that the mass of the inmates of such establishments come from cities, and very frequently their mere removal is a reform in itself. Must not this fact at once suggest the idea, that the instruction and employment should be such as not to lead the youth after discharge right back to his haunts of vice? Confine him to mere mechanical or manufacturing employment, and he must after his discharge seek the cities to earn his livelihood. Habituate him to the life and labor of a farm, and he will, in nearly every case, continue so to live and labor when restored to society, and so the good influences commenced in the State institution will not be effaced.

. . . Let us remark upon an invariable characteristic difference between the family and the big house system. In the first, the inmates are always more mannerly, more cleanly and more cheerful. Manners, neatness, and all those so called outer qualities of men, are almost invariably neglected in the big houses. The inmates sleep, eat, walk, dress and play slovenly, and sore hands and eyes, and torn clothes are frequently seen. The reason for this is obvious – it is always a part of the cell system, which is generally a part of the prison system. We regard these matters of the greatest moment. The reformation of the outer man should be as much the care of such an institution, as the inner. Religion and morality should form the great basis of all systems for the formation of human character; they should be, to use a familiar expression, its citadel; but its out-posts are those qualities through which industry, routine, order, good manners, cleanliness and proper rules in eating, drinking and sleeping, become fixed habits, and without them, human character, however deep may be its religious foundations, cannot be safely trusted to bear up amidst the vicissitudes of life. This is especially true of juveniles, such as we have to deal with, and next to the development of a fine sense of right and wrong, they need as a chief protection against a relapse, good manners and fixed and regular habits. The morals and religion of a habitually clean and well mannered boy are much safer than those of him whose early training in these matters is neglected. Everything depends upon such a training of these poor inmates, as to make them proof against the approach of vice, and to make them loathe their former haunts of infamy. These poor unfortunate juveniles are without those passports into life which parental and other family influences afford to the more fortunate children of society. How necessary, then, that the institution should supply them with those other passports to the favors of the world – polite manners, clean habits, and a capability to adapt themselves easily to each new family – such a demeanor, in short, as will turn away the finger of scorn, which the rude world is apt to point at such persons. The institution itself is much benefited by these' matters, as it gives a tone of propriety, such as facilitates vastly the general discipline.

We feel bound to insist that, in all institutions of this character, a strict account should be kept between the State and the inmates. The "costs" for each inmate, before entrance and afterward, for food, clothing, etc., should be carefully entered, and the inmate be duly credited for all his labor. This account should, if at all possible, be duplicated by each inmate himself, and pains be taken to instruct him in it. And if the inmate should be unable to liquidate all that may be set down against him, before discharge, let it go with him into life, as a debt of honor. An opportunity should also be given to each inmate to earn small extra wages, with which to purchase, without restraint, books, ornaments for his person, and even a few specific luxuries, at certain fixed rates, within the institution, so as to teach him the use of money. Such a system of accounting might be troublesome for officers to get up, but once got up, it works with ease, and is at the same time, a self-operating check upon the expenditures of the institution. Nor can it fail to impress the youth with many good feelings, among which that of impressing him with a sense of the punctilious justice of the State will not be the least beneficent; and that it will be a most excellent preparation for life after discharge, is a self-evident proposition. Any and every appliance should thus be used, to prepare the boy for life outside; and a most essential point in his education, is to teach him "self-control and self-regulation."

Gymnastics and Music should be cultivated, as a part of a well-regulated system of recreation. To teach a person how to employ his idle time, is a most important item in all education, and particularly with the "children of idleness," such as the inmates of such establishments generally were. Instead of bells and gongs use horns, with a few hearty blasts to some simple piece of music. And in this connection we would say that bathing and swimming, and, if possible, in open air, and in a running stream, should not be omitted.

2. Staffing Ohio's "Log Cabin" reform school

Ohio, Board of Commissioners for Reform Schools, Second Annual Report, 1857 (Columbus, 1858), pp. 608-609.

The "First Family" log cabin is, at the transmission of this report, not quite finished, but sufficient has been done to enable us, to announce to you, that it will be ready before the expiration of this year, unless the early setting in of the winter disappoints us, for the reception of such youth as may be sent there under the laws of the State. When this report shall go before the General Assembly, we hope to have the ranks of our first family on the Farm, fully filled up; and thus having fairly got started, during the year 1857, we shall be ready to make further progress during the year 1858.

It is our purpose to name each "Family" building after the several rivers of this State

(the Indian names of most of which have been preserved), and the first one we have named "The Hocking Family," this being the nearest river to the Farm.

The selection and appointment of the Steward, Farmer, and especially of the Elder Brothers, was a matter of much solicitude with us. We were anxious to steer clear of that peculiar class of people styled "applicants for office," and we succeeded better than we expected. We let it be known, on all proper occasions, that the places, or situations to be filled by our appointment, subject to the advice and consent of the Governor, were not "offices," in the ordinary acceptation of that term, but that hard work at common wages was expected. . .

Wm. H. Jaeger, of Columbus, was appointed Steward, on the 20th of September, and by you confirmed on the 1st of October. He and his wife receive, jointly, $750 per annum. The rules and regulations explain their duties; they have no children. Mrs. Jaeger attends to the general household duties. Mr. Jaeger has been well and thoroughly educated in good schools, both in this country and in Europe. He was raised on a farm, under a father who, from his military habits, is a most rigid disciplinarian. He is proficient in the exact sciences; has served as an officer in the Mexican war; and was, at the time of his appointment, an Engineer on the Marietta Railroad. He speaks, reads and writes both English and German. We made no inquiry as to his sectarian views, and still less as to his political opinions; our examination was mainly directed as to whether he possessed the qualifications requisite for the place, and whether he regarded it as his religious duty to devote his entire energies to the objects contemplated by the State in establishing the "State Reform Farm." He and his wife have been very useful on the farm ever since they have been on it. The fruit has been gathered and housed, and in the erection of the building the Steward has rendered faithful service. Both are well able and willing to undertake any and all labor that may properly be required of them. The Steward gave bond and security in the sum of $1,000.

New Jersey looks out for her children

New Jersey, Report of Commissioners on Reform of Juvenile Offenders (Jersey City, 1865), p.3.

New Jersey, as a long living parent, has a deep interest in every child she rears. And if from penury, or orphanage, or neglect, or the direct evil training of parents, any of her youth are in danger of becoming criminals, it is her right – it is her duty – to take care of her own and of their future, to remove them from evil influences and to provide them with virtuous instructions. Thus by a wise and economic foresight, will she bless herself and them.

1. The fire at Westborough, 1859

Massachusetts, State Reform School at Westborough, Thirteenth Annual Report, 1859 (Boston, 1859), pp. 3-4.

On the thirteenth of August, a large part of the building was destroyed by fire. Daniel Credan, a boy who had already assaulted one of the officers, set fire to a wooden ventilating flue in the north-eastern part of the building. The flames were at once carried, by the strong draught, to the main flue, and thus to the dry woodwork of the roof. The fire spread with great rapidity and destroyed about three-fourths of the building, before it could be stopped. By dint of hard work on the part of the officers, the boys, and the fire departments from neighboring towns, the towers, west wing, and a portion of the workshops were saved. Most of the furniture, also, was got out with little hurt. The whole loss has been estimated at not over $50,000.

Of the boys thus left without shelter, 240 were sent to the new jail at Fitchburg; 26 of the less trusty ones to Concord jail, and the rest, about 300, were housed in the dormitory which had not been burnt.

. . . Credan and five other boys, his accomplices, have been committed for trial. [3a]

3a. Worcester Daily Spy, Dec. 19, 1860, reported: "Daniel Credan, the boy who set fire to the State Reform School buildings at Westboro died at the jail in this city yesterday of consumption. While at the jail he had been a very well disposed and obedient boy, and had won the affection of those to whose care he was consigned. His mother, by his desire, was with him during the last few days of his illness."

2. Proposed reforms

Massachusetts, House, "Report of Committee, with Bills and Resolves concerning State Reform School," Doc. 285, Documents (extra session), 1859 (Boston, 1859), pp. 1-6.

The Committee soon after their appointment visited the school at Westborough, for the purpose of observing the actual condition of the buildings and the accommodation provided for the boys since the occurrence of the fire; and they have every reason to think that the disposition of the inmates made by the trustees, with the sanction of the governor, was the best that could have been made under the circumstances. They subsequently invited the trustees and the superintendent to communicate fully their views on the reorganization of the school; and they desire to express their obligations to those gentlemen for the readiness with which they furnished all the information that was requested, and for many valuable suggestions.

The Committee do not think it necessary to recapitulate the history and details of the system heretofore established at the school, nor to inquire precisely how far that system was a success or a failure. But they have endeavored to ascertain what defects in it are traceable to imperfect legislation, and how far legislation can remedy them. Those defects they believe to be substantially these: -

1. That the power given to all courts and trial justices to commit boys to the school is often exercised without due consideration, and offers too great facilities for sending to the institution those who are not fit subjects for it.

2. That the laws requiring towns and parents or kindred to contribute to the support of the boys furnish no check upon those facilities being practically inoperative.

3. That boys may be committed up to the age of sixteen. Since the foundation of the school more than forty per cent., and during the past year precisely fifty per cent. of the whole number committed were fourteen years of age or upwards. And experience confirms the opinion of the founder of the school, that boys committed at that age are generally hardened offenders, whose influence on their companions is injurious, and who can themselves rarely be reclaimed.

4. That boys may be committed for periods so short that they look upon the school only as a place of brief imprisonment; the trustees being thereby deprived of their legitimate influence as guardians of the boys, and of the power of binding them out.

5. That every boy is committed with an alternative sentence to a jail, a house of correction or the prison; and when as is frequently the case, the term of commitment to the school is a long one, and that to prison a short one, the boy has an inducement to be so refractory as to be sent to prison by the trustees, that he may obtain a more speedy release.

6. That the number of six hundred, which the school could and did contain, was too large to admit of suitable employment being readily obtained for all of them, and would have been unwieldy and unmanageable under any system.

7. That that number was especially unwieldy and unmanageable under a system which congregated them all in one mass, and by which the most cunning and depraved were able to exercise their evil influence over the largest body of juvenile offenders that could be collected together within the Commonwealth.

The Committee propose that these defects should be removed as far as possible, by providing: -

That boys shall be committed to the Reform School only by justices of the supreme and superior courts, and by judges of probate.

That the town in which a boy resides at the time of his commitment shall contribute fifty cents a week towards his support, and may recover that amount from parents or. kindred legally bound to maintain him.

That no boy over fourteen years of age shall be committed to the school.

That all boys shall be committed during their minority.

That alternative sentences to jails, &c., shall be abolished, and that a correctional department shall be established in the institution itself, for the most refractory and incorrigible.

And to overcome the difficulties which have arisen from the size of the school and the aggregation of the boys, the Committee propose its reorganization upon a diminished scale and a different plan. The larger part of the building, as it existed before the enlargement, is uninjured by the fire. The Committee recommend that the injured portions of that original building be reconstructed, and the internal arrangement of it remodelled, so that it shall accommodate not more than two hundred boys; and that the building be so arranged as to divide this number into, 1st. A correctional department, to contain 25 or 30; 2d. A receiving department, to contain 40 or 50, in which boys should be placed upon their arrival at the school, and until it is ascertained into what other class they ought to be admitted; and 3d. Three other departments, each to contain from 40 to 50 of those boys who can least safely be trusted outside the walls. Each department should be under its own sub-master, who would be responsible for the discipline within it; and the boys in each should be entirely separated from those in the other departments, whether in the dormitories, at meals, at school, at work, or at play. In remodelling the building, means should be taken to prevent the spreading of a fire, by erecting brick partition walls, and by other precautions. The Committee are aware that a re-arrangement of the old building upon a new plan, will be attended with considerable expense, but they would prefer to see it wholly demolished rather than retained upon the old plan.

They further propose the erection upon the farm of three or four buildings, to be as distant as possible from each other, and to accommodate thirty boys each. These houses should contain one or two dormitories, a dining-room, kitchen, rooms for the farmer's family, &c.; in a word, they should be plain farmhouses, which could be erected at small expense, by using the bricks now on the ground or in the injured walls of the enlargement that are still standing. There are three or four farm buildings now on the place, some of which could be fitted for the same purpose at little expense, though in only one of them could as many as thirty boys be lodged. Each of these houses should be under the charge of a sub-master, who should be a practical farmer, and share as well as direct the labor of the inmates of his family; and if he needed assistance in his duty, the Committee are of opinion that he should receive it from monitors selected for good character and conduct among the older boys, rather than from a salaried assistant. They also consider that the boys in each house should be entirely separated from those in the other houses and in the main building, and that the number in all the detached houses should not exceed one hundred and fifty. They would thus limit the whole number in the institution to three hundred and fifty at the utmost; and they desire to express their unanimous opinion, that if, now or hereafter, more need to be provided for, it should be done elsewhere than at Westborough.

Even with the proposed restrictions upon commitments, it is believed that the number of juvenile offenders to be provided for must considerably exceed three hundred arid fifty. And the Committee earnestly recommend that further provision be made for them by the establishment of a Nautical School. Such an institution would offer to many active and adventurous boys an occupation with which they would be far better contented than with farming or a trade, and in which, for that reason, they would be more likely to conduct themselves well. From the advantages of knowledge and training which could there be given, they could, when the trustees considered them fit, easily be placed with captains competent to take charge and care of them; and they would enter the merchant service with a fair prospect' of advancement in it, if they had any aptitude for the sea.' In the case of boys who had not, power should be given to the trustees to apprentice them in other employments.

The Committee propose that an old ship should be obtained and fitted up for the accommodation of one hundred and fifty boys: that the discipline established among them should be that of a well ordered man-of-war: that they should be instructed in all the duties of seamen, and in such knowledge as would be useful to them in any pursuit, as making and mending their own clothes and shoes, and preparing their food: and that they should be taught the ordinary branches of education, and, as far as possible, navigation. It is supposed that they could, in these ways, be sufficiently employed; but if not, other means of occupying them could easily be devised.

It is supposed that some boys between fourteen and sixteen years old may well be admitted to the Nautical School, and it might therefore be left in the discretion of the courts to commit to it boys of that age considered to be fitted for seamen. In other respects, the laws regulating commitments would be the same for the school-ship as for Westborough; and boys should be transferable from one to the other by consent of both boards of trustees, or by order of the governor. It is obviously necessary for the success of the Nautical Branch that it should have the favor and support of the merchants and shipmasters; and in order to invite their aid in placing the boys and in the management of the school, it is proposed that one of the five trustees should be appointed by the' Boar4 of Trade, and another by the Boston Marine Society, both appointments to be subject to the approval of the governor and council.

Resolutions presented for debate at First Convention of reformatory officials, 1857

Proceedings of the First Convention of Managers and Superintendents of Houses of Refuge and Schools of Reform, 1857, pp. 16, 46.

The following resolutions Were read. . . and laid on the table'. . .

1. That separate institutions ought to be organized for the reformation of juvenile offenders of each sex, and be placed under the care of different officers and distinct Boards of Managers.

2. That while it may not be expedient nor practicable to classify the delinquents in these institutions' according to character, except in a restricted sense, the buildings for their accommodation should be so constructed and arranged as to enable the officers to prevent all intimate communion between the younger and less corrupt portion of them with the older and more vicious.

3. That this Convention are favorably impressed with the utility of the "Family System" of government in these Institutions, as distinguished from the "Congregated System," and deem it matter for grateful thanksgiving to God, that experiments are being made which will soon test the applicability of it to the state of society in this country, and its practicability.

4. That the government of these Institutions should be strictly parental – as nearly conformed as possible to that of a well-regulated family.

5. That as the statistics of these Institutions show that a large portion of the delinquents, at their entrance, are unable to read or write, it is of highest importance that a sufficient number of competent, kind-hearted teachers should be employed to instruct them, and that at least four hours of each day should be devoted to that object, and that all the branches should be taught which are pursued in our best common schools.

6. That, recognizing the truth, "that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," as fundamental, the Convention deem it indispensable that efficient religious instruction should be provided for the delinquents, not only upon the Sabbath, but that their responsibility to God for their conduct should be constantly kept before their minds; that the practical duties of religion, as taught in the Bible, should be foremost in all instruction of this character, and that instruction, properly denominated as sectarian, should be avoided.

7. That the Convention are of the opinion that rewards may be resorted to as incentives to virtuous action, but that they should be used with great caution, lest a mercenary spirit should thereby be promoted.

8. That an appeal to the sense of honor may be employed, with advantage, as an incentive to right action, if judiciously used.

9. That in reformatories, the first requisite from all inmates should be a strict obedience to the rules of the institution; and, where moral suasion fails to produce the desired result, the more severe punishments of deprivation of meals, in part, and of recreation and the infliction of corporal punishment should be resorted to: the latter only, however, in extreme cases.

10. That committals to Houses of Reformation should always be until the children are of age, to be released only at the option of the managers of such Reformatories. That the object of such committals is not punishment, but reformation, and that no delinquent should be discharged until satisfactory evidence of reformation be given.

11. That the employments of the delinquents should, if practicable, be analogous to the employments common in the community, in order that, when discharged, they need not be idle; that the Convention is of the opinion that the inculcation of industrious habits is one of the chief means of permanent reform, and that from seven to eight hours ought to be devoted to labor.

12. That the delinquents should be allowed a time for recreation on each day, and that it may, to some extent, be proportioned to the diligence applied by them to their tasks, and that provision should be made for this purpose at all seasons, and in all conditions of the weather.

13. That delinquents ought in all cases, to be discharged to the care of their parents, where they are of good character and capable of taking care of them; in other cases it may be advisable to obtain the consent of parents to their being indentured or put to service, but, where the parents are morally disqualified for sustaining the parental relation, it is proper entirely to disregard their wishes.

14. That we regard parental neglect and indulgence as the general and prolific causes of youthful crime – the neglect to impart suitable religious and moral instruction, to secure submission to authority, to inculcate habits of industry, to improve the mind by education, and, more than all, to set before them a good example and to secure for them suitable companionship.

1. Massachusetts Nautical Reform School accepts wayward boys

M. L. Elbridge, "History of the Massachusetts Nautical Reform School," in Enoch C. Wines, ed., Transactions of the National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline, Cincinnati, 1870 (Albany, 1871), pp. 352-353.

The school was hardly in good working order when the war commenced. The absence of fathers and older brothers in the army and navy removed the restraints which had held in check many wayward boys; and it was soon seen that the tide of disobedience and incipient crime was sweeping an unusually large number of youth into our reformatories. During the four years ending October 1, 1865, the nautical school received, by commitment from the courts, 713 boys, and 84 by transfer from the Westborough school, making 797 boys in all, while the school of Westborough received by commitments above 496 boys; making a total of more than 1,200 received into our two reformatories in four years. It was found necessary, during this period, to repeatedly notify the courts that our institutions were full, and that no more could be received. Still the pressure continued; and in 1865 an additional ship was purchased for the use of the nautical school, of sufficient capacity to accommodate 180 boys. . . But if the war contributed to increase the number committed to our school, it also made a demand for the services of such as were qualified to serve the country in the army and navy; and, during the four years to which I have referred, not less than 162 enlisted from our school in these two arms of the public service. The demands of our navy for more men left the merchant service but scantily supplied; and the nautical school furnished about 300 boys for our commercial marine.

2. Soldiers' children fill Massachusetts jails

Massachusetts, Senate, "Special Report on Prisons and Prison Discipline," Doc. 74, Documents (Boston, 1865), pp. 66-67.

This report was made by Frederick B. Sanborn, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities.

Since the first of March last, 239 boys and girls, under fifteen, have been committed to our Jails, and 95 to our Houses of Correction. Of these 334, probably thirty appeared both in Jail and in the House of Correction, so that 300 would be about the number imprisoned in seven months, or at the rate of 500 a year. Of all these, if we can trust the opinion of the prison officers, scarcely one is morally benefited by his imprisonment, while the great majority are made worse by it. Among them are mere infants, almost, such as one whom I found in the Plymouth House of Correction, sentenced to thirty days imprisonment, – and he only six years old.

To show how our prison discipline corrects these boys, let me cite the case of one at Dedham. I visited the House of Correction there on Friday, the 30th of September last. The Tuesday noon before, this lad had been discharged from a first imprisonment of thirty days, and on Wednesday night he was brought back under a sentence of six months for stealing. This is, perhaps, a strong instance, but there are many pointing the same way; the House of Correction, as a rule, ruins more children than it reforms. Among the older criminals, there are some, no doubt, who are reformed, at least temporarily, but not enough, I am convinced, to balance the mischief done to young offenders.

The proportion of minors to adults among the prisoners has. . . increased considerably, but, perhaps, no more than might be expected from the fact that the war has drawn off so many of the adult proportion.

There is one fact, however, not appearing in the statistics, which deserves to be considered by the Legislature and people of Massachusetts. I have learned by my visits to the prisons in the past year, that a great number of these minors are the children, or the brothers and sisters, of soldiers in our army. The boy of six years old, already mentioned as imprisoned for thirty days at Plymouth, was the son of a Massachusetts cavalry soldier, who shortly before his son's imprisonment was killed in General Grant's May campaign against Richmond; and I have talked with many boys in Jails and Houses of Correction, who were either the sons or the brothers of soldiers or sailors in the service. It may not be extravagant to say that one in four of the many children committed to our prisons have near relatives in the army.

3. Massachusetts soldiers' sons in trouble

History of Boys, Bound Manuscript Records, Lyman School for Boys, Westboro, Massachusetts.

Case 2969. John J. B.

Committed 8th of February 1863 for being stubborn and disobedient. He was born in 1852. His father is in the army.

He was committed for breaking into a schoolhouse and stealing some money. It appears that the boy in the absence of his father has been unmanageable by his mother and ate length, getting into bad company, has been guilty of some petty offences which make him accountable to the criminal jurisdiction of the courts. He is smart and good hearted. Has turned out well and been sent to the farm house.

1 December 1864. Indented to his father, B.B., to be instructed in the art of morocco dressing and to attend school – father has been in army. John is easily influenced by other boys.

Case 2999. William F.

Committed May 6, 1863 for being a stubborn boy. Born September 1852 in Salem. Father in army.

General character: He is committed for truancy and not minding mother. He seems to have been led away by bad boys into things to which he is not naturally inclined. He is good dispositioned and has ability and will do well if only controlled which has not been the case since his father has been in the army. . .

October 22, 1864. Placed with his father Samuel F. of Salem. His father has recently returned from the army and it is thought he can take proper care of him. Has improved with us and has generally been a good boy.

12 January 1865. Father writes that he has been a good boy – attends school every day.

1. Philadelphia, 1865

Board of Managers of the Philadelphia House of Refuge, Thirty-Seventh Annual Report, 1865 (Philadelphia, 1865), p. 10.

Many of the gallant élèves of the Institution have perilled their lives in defence of their country, and not a few have sealed their devotion to her with their lives.

2. New York, 1862

New York Juvenile Asylum, Eleventh Annual Report, 1862 (New York, 1863), pp. 46-47.

Sixty-four boys have joined the army and are now in the field. Eleven are members of a company recruited by their pastor, Rev. Mr. Todd, of Washington County [Illinois], mostly from his own church and nearly all have been regular attendants for years. This company, known in the Regiment as the "psalm singing company," went into one of the recent battles in Missouri, chanting the beautiful words of the 23d Psalm. Not a man in the company was injured though many fell around them.

Though our boys have participated in nearly all of the principal battles in the south-west, we have so far heard of but two deaths, – one at Fort Donelson and the other at Shiloh. Several others have been wounded.

The letters received from these boys all breathe the sentiments of patriotism. Some of them are sending their money as they receive it, to the Treasurer of the Asylum, to be held il8trust for themselves or their friends. One boy, Henry Alberts, has thus sent $53.00. As he has no relatives living, he wishes the money to go to the Asylum in case of his death. Thomas Green drew $51.00 on account of bounty money. Of this he sent $50.00 to his destitute mother in New York, reserving but $1.00 for himself. As winter was coming on, I tried to induce him to reserve in addition a small sum for his own use, but he insisted upon sending it all, adding, "she took care of me when I was small, and I want to help her now." John Turell, one of our boys, who went West six years ago, being intelligent, took a leading position among the young men of the neighborhood, and was elected Secretary of a Temperance Society. He enlisted one year ago, and has since risen to the rank of Lieutenant. Theodore Reeves, another of our boys, also enlisted early in the war, and is now a bearer of dispatches for General Rosecrans. Eight of these boys, members of different regiments now in Tennessee, arranged among themselves to spend Thanksgiving Day together in Nashville. Their meeting was a joyful one, and though it is six years since they left us, they still cherish towards each other the sentiments of brotherly regard and affection, learned by them in the Asylum.

Treatment of juvenile delinquents, ca. 1865

1. The best and worst institutions

Enoch C. Wines and Theodore W. Dwight, Report on the Prisons and Reformatories of the United States and Canada (Albany, 1867), pp. 354-355.

This report, prepared by commissioners of the Prison Association of New York, provides a comprehensive and authoritative review of conditions in penal institutions in the northern and border states at the end of the Civil War.

. . . If we might venture, among so many excellent institutions, to single out any that seem to us to possess an excellence superior to the others, we could not hesitate to name the reform schools of Massachusetts; and of these we should feel as little hesitation in pronouncing first among its peers the Industrial School for Girls at Lancaster. At the same time, truth compels us to state that there is one reformatory in the old Bay State, more open to criticism than any we met with elsewhere in the whole course of our visitation – we refer to the House of Reformation on Deer Island. We append a brief extract from our note book, being a memorandum made at the time of our visit: "September 28. – Visited the city institution on Deer Island. Here we found, under the same roof, a city almshouse; a house of industry, which is a city prison for persons convicted of minor offenses, not unlike, in its general features, the county houses of correction; and the boys' department of the house of reformation, which was for a long time a general reformatory for juvenile delinquents, but has become, of late years, a mere receptacle for truant children from the Boston schools. The girls' department is in a separate building near at hand. All these different institutions are under one superintendent, who happened, unfortunately, to be away from the island at the time of our visit. The whole establishment is clean and orderly, but in other respects is much inferior to the reform schools at Westborough and Lancaster. It has, to our minds, a number of objectionable features. 1. The mixing up, in one concern, of criminals, paupers and truant children, is more than an incongruity; it is a monstrosity. 2. Meals are served to the prisoners in the kitchen, where all the food is prepared; and males and females eat at the same time, simply occupying different sides of the apartment, and sitting with their backs to each other. 3. The male criminals and the boys of the reformatory, work on the same farm (180 acres); not indeed, we were told, in company, but they must, necessarily, often meet each other and hold more or less intercourse, which can hardly fail to be corrupting to the boys."

2. The situation in Ohio

Cyrus Mendenhall to Enoch C. Wines, Dec. 6, 1866, in Wines and Dwight, Report on the Prisons, pp. 388-390.

The prison system of Ohio embraces the reform school, the penitentiary at Columbus and the county jails. The latter are almost solely left to the charge of the county sheriffs, without any control as to internal regulation by the state. The judges of the court, at long periods, give their "instructions" to the sheriffs, and but little further attention is paid to the matter, and those instructions are seldom obeyed. . . Since the receipt of your letter, I had occasion to visit St. Clairsville, our county seat, and was kindly shown through our jail by the sheriff. I found it to contain three cells and two upper rooms. (The population of the county is about 40,000.) The cells were on a level with the ground – were poorly ventilated, or rather not ventilated at all were damp, and not occupied. The rooms over them were about fifteen by eighteen feet, with two small windows on one side, and a small hole in the door opening into a hall, on the other – one of these rooms was unoccupied, and in the other were four men and a boy twelve years of age – the men had just been sentenced to the penitentiary for terms of from one to five years, and the boy was to go to the reform school. They had all, boy included, been confined in this manner for several months! or during a long vacation of the court. No other care had been extended to them than to prevent their escape, and to feed and keep them tolerably clean.

It is the practice for prisoners of the same sex to associate promiscuously in our county jails, except such as are confined, for greater security, in cells. As to the influence of such associations, my own observation at home, and a somewhat extensive enquiry of prisoners in the Ohio penitentiary, as to their experience, would pronounce it decidedly bad, and our jails, in many cases, as crime producers instead of crime repressers. So fully [am I] convinced of this, that I have often to rejoice when I see a young man, and especially a boy, escape a confinement there when he was clearly liable to it by law.

3. A general survey

Wines and Dwight, Report on the Prisons, pp.399-431.

Wines and Dwight sent this questionnaire to superintendents of reform schools outside of New York state.

When was your institution established?

Connecticut – In 1854.

Illinois – In 1855.

Maine – In 1850.

Maryland – Incorporated in 1849; opened in 1855.

Massachusetts – State reform school opened Nov. 1, 1848; nautical branch established in 1859; state industrial school for girls, founded Aug. 27, 1856.

Michigan – Opened September 2, 1856. Missouri – Founded in 1854; incorporated in 1856.

Ohio – Opened in 1850.

Pennsylvania – Eastern house of refuge (white), in 1826; colored, 1850.

Rhode Island – In 1850.

Wisconsin – Incorporated in 1857 and completed in 1860.

Was the institution founded by the authorities of the state or city, or by private benevolence?

Connecticut – Partly by private benevolence ($10,000), but mostly by state funds.

Illinois – By the city authorities of Chicago.

Maine – By the state authorities.

Maryland – By private benevolence and city of Baltimore.

Massachusetts – State reform school, by the authorities of the state, aided by gifts from Hon. Theo. Lyman, to the amount of $72,500; nautical branch by the state; state industrial school for girls, $20,000 furnished by private benevolence, and $20,000 by the state, for the original buildings; two additional buildings have since been erected by state appropriation.

Michigan – By the authorities of the state.

Missouri – The act of incorporation provides that the board of managers shall be appointed in the following manner: The mayor of the city is a member ex officio,' the city council elect four from their own body; the mayor appoints two from the citizens at large; the county court of St. Louis appoints two – total 9.

Ohio – It was founded under the authority of the state, by the city of Cincinnati, and by private subscription.

Pennsylvania – White department, private benevolence and appropriations from the state legislature and city councils, were the means relied upon for its establishment. Colored department was founded by private benevolence, legacy, and small appropriations by the city and state.

Rhode Island – By the city authorities of Providence.

Wisconsin – By the state authorities.

How are the funds for its support obtained?

Connecticut. – From the state, from the earnings of inmates, from use of the farm, and from boarding pupils.

Illinois. – By city tax.

Maine. – The funds are obtained by annual appropriations by the state; from taxes levied upon cities and towns for subsistence and clothing; from the products of the farm, and from the earnings of the boys.

Maryland. – They are obtained chiefly from the city and state, and from the labor of inmates.

Massachusetts. – For State Reform School, they are obtained from the state, interest on the Lyman and Mary Lamb funds, and from earnings. For the Nautical Branch and the Girls' Industrial School, from appropriations by the Legislature.

Michigan. – It is sustained by an appropriation from the state treasury, and by the labor of the boys.

Missouri. – The expenses of the institution are paid by the city, with the exception of a comparatively small amount paid by the county for board of subjects committed by courts of St. Louis county.

Ohio. – This institution is sustained by taxation upon the property of the city, and incidental receipts for the labor of inmates, and for the board of inmates not otherwise entitled to admission to the Refuge.

Pennsylvania. – Both departments, from appropriations of money by the city and state, together with the earnings of the inmates.

Rhode Island. – The funds are derived from the city authorities.

Wisconsin. – By legislative appropriation, and a tax of one dollar per week for "incorrigibles" and "vagrants," imposed on the several counties from whence sent.

How many inmates will the institution accommodate?

Connecticut. – Two hundred inmates can be accommodated.

Illinois. – This institution can receive two hundred and fifty inmates.

Maine. – Can accommodate two hundred and forty pupils.

Maryland. – The boys' building is calculated for three hundred and fifty – girls, seventy five.

Massachusetts. – State Reform School – from three hundred to three hundred and twenty-five; Nautical Branch, three hundred and fifty boys (two ships); Girls' Industrial School- the five buildings, each containing thirty, accommodate one hundred and fifty.

Michigan. – The institution was originally designed to accommodate one hundred and fifty-two boys, but there are in the house two hundred and sixty-two.

Missouri. – The buildings of the female department will accommodate well about one hundred inmates; those of the male department about one hundred and seventy.

Ohio. – The buildings will accommodate 350 inmates.

Pennsylvania. – There are separate rooms in the white department for 432 children304 boys and 128 girls; in the colored department, for 198 children – 122 boys and 76 girls; 630 children, in all, can be comfortably accommodated.

Rhode Island. – 200 inmates can be accommodated.

Wisconsin. – The large building has 78 rooms for boys, and about 20 for girls. The family building will accommodate forty boys.

Are children of both sexes received? If so, are they kept entirely separate?

Connecticut. – Only males are received.

Illinois. – Only males at present. Are about ready to take girls, who will have separate apartments.

Maine. – Only males are received.

Maryland. – Both sexes are received and kept separate?

Massachusetts. – Only boys are received into the State Reform School and Nautical Branch of same; only girls in the State Industrial School for Girls.

Missouri. – Several small boys are kept in the female department. With that exception, the sexes are kept about forty rods apart.

Michigan. – Only boys.

Ohio. – Both sexes. Kept entirely separate.

Pennsylvania. – Both sexes are received and are kept entirely separate, both in white and colored departments.

Rhode Island. – Both sexes are received and kept separate.

Wisconsin. – Both sexes received and kept separate, except in school houses.

Between what ages are they admissible?

Connecticut. – Between the ages of 10 and 16 years.

Illinois. – From 12 to 16 years of age.

Maine. – Between 3 and 16 years of age.

Maryland. – Boys from 9 to 16; girls from 8 to 12.

Massachusetts. – State Reform School – between 7 and 14 years of age. Nautical Branch – between 12 and 18. Girls' Industrial, from 7 to 16.

Michigan. – Between 7 and 16.

Missouri. – From 2 or 3 to 16.

Ohio. – Boys under 16 years, and girls under 14.

Pennsylvania. – White department. The law specified no limit as to age. At present inmates range from 8 to 19 years of age. Colored department – between 9 and 16 years. A special resolution of the board is necessary. to admit any over 16, and under 21, sent from Philadelphia county. If sent from other counties by the courts, they are received.

Rhode Island. – Children received from 7 years old to 18.

Wisconsin. – Boys received between 8 and 15; girls heretofore between 7 and 10. The ages of girls was changed from 10 to 14 last winter, owing to want of sufficient accommodations.

For what causes may children be received?

Connecticut. – Children may be committed for any crime known to the law, and for which punishment may be jail or state prison.

Illinois. – In this institution, the only commitment is for want of parental care. Every child deemed a fit subject for the school, is sent before a commissioner appointed by the city for the purpose, who thoroughly examines the case, has power to call witnesses, &c., &c. Whatever may be the offence of the boy, he is only committed for want of proper parental care. .

Maine. – Children may be received for any offence, punishable by imprisonment not for life.

Maryland. – Children may be received for criminal offences, incorrigible and vicious conduct and vagrancy, and as boarders.

Massachusetts. – State Reform School and Nautical Branch – for "any offence which may be punished by imprisonment, other than imprisonment for life." Girls' Industrial School – for committing any offence known to the laws of this commonwealth, punishable by fine or imprisonment, other than such as may be punished by imprisonment for life; also for leading an idle, vagrant, or vicious life, or being found in any street, highway or public place, within this commonwealth, in circumstances of want and suffering, or of neglect, exposure, abandonment, or beggary.

Michigan. – For all prison offences, except those of which the punishment according to law, is imprisonment for life.

Wisconsin. – For violations of state laws; for crimes such as larceny, arson, burglary, &c., and for being found abandoned, or dangerously exposed, or in lewd houses, or for incorrigibility.

Ohio. – Vagrancy, incorrigibility, and such crimes as are punishable by imprisonment in the county jailor the state prison.

Pennsylvania. – Received for incorrigible or vicious conduct, for vagrancy, and on complaint of parent, guardian, or nearest friend.

Rhode Island. – For vagrancy and being disorderly or criminal.

Wisconsin. – For vagrancy, incorrigibility, and any crime or misdemeanor.

Are they committed for a specific time, or indefinitely?

Connecticut. – They are committed for a definite period of time.

Illinois. – They are committed till 21 years of age, or till they become good boys.

Maine. – They are committed during minority.

Maryland. – For an indefinite period; but in case of boarders, never less than six months.

Massachusetts. – During minority in all.

Michigan. – During minority.

Missouri. – During minority.

Ohio. – They are committed, subject to the laws and rules governing the institution, till of legal age.

Pennsylvania. – Both departments, the law with respect to boys, contemplates their commitment during minority, with power to bind. Girls under 16, are committed until 18, and those 16 and upward, till 21, with power to indenture.

Rhode Island. – For not less than two years, nor beyond minority.

Wisconsin. – In all cases during minority.

If indefinitely, when does the right of guardianship expire?

The uniform reply to this question is in substance: "It expires with minority, unless the governing board sooner grant an absolute discharge."

Who judges whether the child is fit to leave the place before the time has expired, to which the right of guardianship extends?

The general response is: The governing board, on the recommendation of the superintendent.

What are the different modes of release?

Connecticut. – The modes of release are: 1st, expiration of sentence; 2d, discharge to friends; and 3d, discharge on parole of honor.

Illinois. – On good conduct; being 21 years old; and sometimes discharged to the care of parents. '

Maine. – Unconditional discharge; and discharge upon trial; and on indenture.

Maryland. – By discharge to parents or friends, and by indenture.

Massachusetts. – State Reformed School and Nautical Branch. – Pardoned by governor; by order of the court, and by trustees. Girls' Industrial School. – Indentured till 18; or unconditionally discharged at 18; or discharged for good reason prior to that age.

Michigan. – By discharge; by leave of absence, and by indenture.

Missouri. – The power of discharging inmates who have been legally admitted, resides only in the board of managers. The following courts of St. Louis county have exclusive jurisdiction of all writs of habeas corpus for the discharge of any minor confined in the house of refuge, to wit: Circuit court, court of common pleas, land court, county court, and the criminal court of St. Louis county, or the judges of any of the said courts in vacation.

Ohio. – Discharged by indenture; to the care of friends, and to their own care, mostly upon the evidence of reform indicated by a system of merits and demerits.

Pennsylvania. – By indenture; return to friends, and by order of court and examining judges.

Rhode Island. – By placing out at trades, with or without indentures; by discharge as reformed; or upon expiration of sentence.

Wisconsin. – 1, On trial, with "ticket-of-leave," subject to be recalled for misbehavior; 2, full discharge to the care of parents or guardians. None have ever been indentured.

Have the children committed to this institution any right of protection against the decision of the functionaries who sent them here, and if so, what is it, and is it ever exercised?

Connecticut. – By writ of habeas corpus. Recourse is not unfrequently had to it; about thirty boys have been discharged in this way within a year.

Maine. – We think they have the same right of protection against the functionaries who sentence them here, as criminals have against the magistrates who sentence them; but it has never been exercised.

Maryland. – Their cases can be brought before the courts by writ of habeas corpus, and this is sometimes done.

Massachusetts. – State Ref. School and Nautical Branch – Yes, such a right exists, and is sometimes exercised, but there never has been any trouble in this State. Industrial School for Girls – The following is an extract from the statute: "Any girl who shall be ordered to be committed to said school, under the provisions of this act, may appeal from such order, in the same manner and upon the same terms as is now provided in respect to appeals in criminal cases; and the appeal shall be entered, tried and finally determined in the court to which the same shall be made, in like manner as if it had been commenced there originally." There has never been any such appeal.

Michigan. – No doubt the legality of the commitment might be tested by habeas corpus, but I have never known an instance where it has been done.

Missouri. – Yes, either the children or their parents may test the legality of their commitment by habeas corpus. No inmate has ever made such a request, but the right is often exercised by parents and guardians.

Maryland. – They have such right, and it is sometimes used.

Pennsylvania. – Every commitment of a child sent here is carefully examined by a committee of the managers, specially appointed for this purpose; their action is then reviewed by the entire board; and even then, the commitment is not absolute in its character until examined by one of the judges of our courts. All this is done to see that the child is properly and legally committed. If after all this the parent is not satisfied, he can have the case reviewed by writ of habeas corpus. The right is occasionally exercised.

Rhode Island. – They have, by habeas corpus, but the right has been used in only one case.

Wisconsin. – The writ of habeas corpus could be granted upon proper application, but has never been asked for. The power to pardon rests with the Governor, but cannot be exercised without a certificate of good behavior from the superintendent. This power has been exercised two or three times, but always to the injury of the inmate.

Are they all taught a trade?

The replies are all substantially the same. It is not an object to teach the children a trade; but they all have regular work, and are trained to habits of industry. The girls are instructed in household labor and in plain sewing. Some boys acquire a trade.

What are the different handicrafts carried on in the institution?

Connecticut. – Mostly on cane seat chairs; about 20 on the farm and 30 in the sewing shop.

Illinois. – Shoemaking, tailoring, basket making, cane seating chairs and farming.

Maine. – Shoemaking, chair seating, sewing and knitting, farming, and brick and tile making.

Maryland. – Shoemaking, combing and assorting bristles, tailoring, box making, farming and gardening.

Massachusetts. – State Reform School: Chair-seating, sewing and knitting, washing, domestic work, shoemaking, farming and gardening. They are taught to be industrious, and prepared to learn a trade. Nautical Branch – Practical seamanship. Girls' school- They are taught housework, knitting, braiding and plain sewing.

Michigan. – Tailoring, shoemaking, matting and weaving chair seats, farming, gardening, and braiding palm leaf hats.

Missouri. – At present shoemaking, to a limited extent tailoring, and knitting stockings for the use of the institution. The cooking, washing, ironing &c., are done by inmates. A limited number are also employed in gardening.

Ohio. – All the boys, not employed in performing the necessary work of the institution, are engaged in manufacturing shoes. The females are employed in the laundry, sewing room, kitchen, knitting room, hall and chamber work.

Pennsylvania. – Brushmaking, shoe making, boxmaking, chairmaking, blacksmithing, the manufacture of umbrella wires, match boxes, and shoes for the inmates of both the white and colored departments.

Rhode Island. – Shoemaking.

Wisconsin. – Shoemaking and tailoring.

Is the labor of the children let out on the contract principle, or do they work for the institution?

Connecticut. – They work for the institution; none on contract.

Illinois. – They work for the institution.

Maine. – They work for the institution.

Maryland. – About one-half are let out on contract.

Massachusetts. – The officers of the institution have entire charge of the work and discipline of the boys. Girls' Industrial School: They work for the institution, a small portion of the profit being allowed the girls, to be spent at the discretion of the matron.

Michigan. – The children work for the institution or for others, by the piece, under the direction of the officers of the institution. We think contract labor pernicious to the best interests of the school.

Missouri. – They work for the institution. In the tailor shop work is done for the clothing stores by the piece.

Ohio. – All the boys, with the exception of those doing work for the institution, are contracted for by a Cincinnati firm, engaged in the manufacture of shoes. .

Pennsylvania. – They are hired at so much a day to contractors. As 7½ hours of the day are devoted to active labor in the shops, and this portion of the time constitutes about one-half of the days' exercise, it is important that the supervision of the boys should be entrusted only to those whose moral habits and kindly dispositions qualify them for so important a charge.

The system of labor, as at present administered, is radically defective. The children are hired to contractors at so much per diem, and it is reasonable to suppose that a pecuniary advantage to them is the only motive for the contract. Those immediately entrusted with the government of the boys are generally but illy qualified for so responsible a position. The amount of labor they exact is the sine qua non of their exertions. If the work be well done and a reasonable amount of it, they are satisfied. These seven and a half hours of labor are spent without one moral lesson taught the boys, at least so far as the workmen of the shops are concerned.

With respect to the enforcement of the discipline, as the overseers act merely in a monitorial capacity, and are not properly officers of the institution, frequent complaints on the part of the boys are heard, and in many cases it is difficult to determine which is the aggrieved party; but as it would be destructive to discipline, unless in a well attested case, to condemn the action of the overseers, it necessarily follows that their complaints must generally be received as truthful.

If the labor of the boys is profitable to those who employ them, it certainly ought to be as profitable to the institution, and so far as the mere profit is concerned ought to inure to its benefit, producing an important addition to its receipts, besides the accession of a number of officers, who would not only be serviceable in the work shops, but in many other respects. Those entrusted with the management of the boys in the shops would be selected, not merely with reference to their mechanical skill, but a capacity for imparting instruction, a kindly disposition, and correct moral habits, would be indispensable qualifications.

If a reformatory institution availed itself of the entire profit of the labor of the boys, its receipts would be materially increased; there would be the enforcement of better discipline in the shops, and the opportunity afforded to those constantly with the boys to inculcate whole some, moral truths connected with their avocation.

Rhode Island. – The labor of the children is let out on the contract principle.

Wisconsin. – All work for the institution under the supervision of our own officers.