REFORMATORIES. Penal institutions for young offenders where the object of punishment is subordinated to that of moral regeneration. It is difficult to fix definitely the time when it was recognized that juvenile offenders should not be merely punished for crime, but that efforts should be made to reform them.
The eighteenth century was fruitful in hu manitarian movements and the condition of pris oners was not overlooked in the general effort to ameliorate suffering, and to awaken the sense of individual responsibility which was characteris tic both of the religious revival under the Wes leyans, and of the political reforms led by the French and English radicals. The philanthropic efforts of .John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, in particular, prepared the way for new views in penology. At the same time interest in the care of neglected children and of juve nile delinquents which had from the days of Elizabeth found expression in the English Poor Law was leading to many new ex periments. The most valuable of these, however, was first tried in Germany. where. in I833• the Rauhes Haus (q.v.) in Hamburg introduced the plan of having the children cared for in `families' on the cottage plan. This principle was adopted at Mettray, France, in 1839, and has since become the favored method for juvenile reformatories, though the congregate plan still exists and has its adherents. Captain Brenton, of England, about 1830 urged that no child under sixteen should be sent to prison, but should be trained in some special institution. In accord with his ideas an industrial school for girls was started at Chiswick. In 1847 the institution at Saint George's restricted its care to boys charged with or convicted of crime. From this time the movement made progress in England. In 1854 the Reformatory Schools Act was passed, which took legal cognizance of the principles of the reformatories. France. in 1850, had already enacted similar legislation. Distinction must be made between the purely industrial schools which receive children who are destitute and the re formatory schools which receive those guilty of criminal acts. Sometimes, particularly in the earlier institutions, the two classes were mixed.
In 1898 there were in England 4S reformatories and 144 industrial schools; Prussia had 7 re formatories and 16 private institutions under Government supervision. In 1896 France had 6 public and 12 private reformatories for boys (one being in Algeria). and 4 public and 7 private for girls. In Holland juvenile delinquents under ten are sent to reformatories, of which there are four. Most of these schools are situated in the country.
The reformatory system has had its widest de velopment in the United States. In 18°4 the House of Refuge on Randall's Island. New York, was established by law-, It was and still is con ducted on the congregate plan. Other cities fol lowed the example. Such houses of refuge were under private control, but the public shared in the expense. These early institutions were fol lowed by State reform schools. The change in names is interesting. All indications that the boys were committed to the institution for breaches of the law were avoided, as for ex ample in the title of the Lyman School for Boys (1848). Besides these institutions for delin quents there have sprung up many industrial schools for orphans and neglected children. Usu ally the two are separated and the sexes also are usually in separate schools. In 1900 there were
6.5 juvenile reformatories in the country, with a population of 19.410, while the total number of children they had sheltered was 209,600. In the earlier institutions the employment of the children was too often decided from a financial standpoint solely. It is now recognized that it should be not 'productive,' but 'instructive! It remained for the United States further to develop the reformatory system and make it ap plicable to young men and women. The prin ciples introduced at Norfolk Island by Macho noehie, and in Ireland by Crofton, had found favor in the country. It was proposed to combine these with the principles of the reformatories and seek not merely to punish, but to bring to self-support and self-respect the younger criminals for whom there might yet be hope. The beginning of this move ment dates from the National Prison Congress of 1870, at which Z. R. Brockway outlined a plan for a new class of institutions. In 1866 New York had enacted legislation establishing a re formatory. The plans were altered in 1869, but it was not opened until 1876, when Mr, Brock way was appointed superintendent of the Elmira Reformatory (q.v.). In 1877 the principle of the indeterminate sentence was legally adopted. The growth of the institution and its constant success won world-wide attention. In 1877 Mas sachusetts founded a reformatory for women at Sherborn, and in 1884 one for men at Concord. Many other States have followed the example of these two.
The fundamental idea of these reformatories is that instead of repressive and punitive meas ures there should be constant training along lines of industry. physical and mental development, to enable the prisoner to stand alone after his release. To make more effective this training, his self-interest is appealed to by the indeterminate sentence. This makes the length of his stay in the institution largely dependent upon his be havior and progress while there. Ile is thus stimulated to take advantage of his opportunity. His release is conditional, and if he violates the terms of his parole he may be returned to the institution. The claim is made that fully eighty per cent. of young felons released from American reformatories nave subsequently led upright lives. Unfortunately, the claim can be neither supported nor disproved, because no systematic trace and record is kept after full term of the original sentence has expired.
The age limits within which first offenders are sentenced to reformatories vary. The lower limit is usually fifteen or sixteen years. The upper limit seldom exceeds thirty. In form of construction reformatories are like prison, with separate cells. The inmates are divided into grades. usually three. The Shelborn 1Zeforma tory for Women in Massachusetts has four. There are different privileges for the different grades, and release on parole is open only to those in the highest. Consult: Barrows, The Reformatory System in the ['tilted 1_4tatcs (N\ ash ington, 1900). The best general sources are Driihms, The Criminal ( New York, 19110), and Wines, Punishment and Reformation (ib., 1895). The Reports of the International and National Prison Congresses, and the Reports of the Na tional Conference of Charities and Correction con tain many papers on the general subject. See JUVENILE ( )FFENDERS ; PENOLO(.Y ; PRISONS.