Reformatory

A reformatory or reformatory school is a youth detention center, or an adult correctional facility most prolific in the early 20th century. Throughout the United States, most reformatories were renamed correctional centers.^[1] The term reformatory (or reformatory school) was also commonly used during the 19th century throughout the United Kingdom in reference to penal facilities for children.^[2] Reformatories like the similar industrial schools, were certified by the government from about 1850. As societies values changed, the use of reformatories declined and they were coalesced by an Act of Parliament into a single structure known as approved schools.

Reformatories and industrial schools

Reformatory schools were provided for criminal children whilst industrial schools were intended to prevent vulnerable children becoming criminal.^[3] There was a perceived rise in juvenile delinquency in the early 19th century; whereas in a rural economy very young children could gain paid employment doing tasks such as bird scaring and stone gathering these opportunities were not available in the cities. Youngsters were very visible on the streets. In 1816, Parliament set up a ‘Committee for Investigating the Alarming Increase in Juvenile Crime in the Metropolis’, in 1837 the writer Charles Dickens published Oliver Twist a story about a child involved in a street gang. and in 1847 it was recognised in the Juvenile Offences Act of 1847, that children under 14 should be tried in a special court not an adult court.^[4] Begging and vagrancy was rife, and it was these low level misdemeanours that caused the magistrates to send vulnerable youngsters to industrial schools to learn to be industrious, and learn skills that would make then more employable.

More serious crimes, required an element of punishment in an environment away from older prisoners, who would have a further negative affect on the youngster, before the task of reforming their ways. The power to set up such an establishment was given in the 1854 Youthful Offenders Act (the Reformatory Schools Act). This provided financial assistance and support for reformatory schools for convicted young offenders as an alternative to prison.^[3] Industrial schools were regularised three years later by the 1857 Industrial schools act.^[3]

Early reformatories

The first juvenile prison was the 1838 Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. Separation of youngsters has been proposed earlier by Peel’s Gaol Act of 1823, but implementation had generally failed.^[5] From 1824- 1826 some boys were housed on the prison hulk, Captivity (the former Bellerophon). Even earlier in 1817, Samuel Hoare the Quaker banker and philanthropist and the architect James Bevan, had proposed a new suitable prison: there was no consensus as to whether a prison should be for deterrence, retribution, punishment, removing a cause of nuisance or reforming the prisoner. Parkhurst aimed to reform the prisoner, provide some education and prepare the youngster to be transported as a free man to the colonies in Australia.^[6]

By 1866 there were 51 certified reform schools in England and 14 in Scotland, but this had declined to 43 in 1913, while certified industrial schools had become more popular moving from 50 in 1866 to 132 (residential) and 21 (dayschools) in 1913.^[6]

Conditions

The regime was strict but fair and humane within the context of the times. Good behaviour was rewarded and poor behaviour punished. Punishment followed rule-breaking and rewards followed compliance. The rules were clear and transparent. The morality was simple and this would provide some security as children.^[7]

Similarly, normal living conditions for the urban poor involved overcrowded multiple occupancy in buildings with no mains drainage where diseases were rife. With no health care available- or affordable there was a high death rate amongst the malnourished children. In the reformatory there was simple regular food, the conditions were clean and medical care was available. In addition they were given free education and some training in a skill that would be marketable when they had finished their time. The success rate was high.^[7]

Discipline

The differences between a certified reformatory and a certified industrial school lay in the intake and the philosophy. Industrial schools took students that needed protection, while the reformatory took students that had be already convicted of a serious offence. When students were sent to a reformatory, they first served a two-week spell in a full prison. Liberals thought this was pointless and conservatives still thought this would act as a deterrent and was meaningful retribution. Some reformatories trained for the a future in agriculture and hoped the graduates would choose to emigrate, other trained the miscreants for a life at sea either in the military or the merchant navy. To this end ten training hulks were purchased.

The Akbar, (purchased in 1862) was a reform training ship moored off Birkenhead on the River Mersey.^[6] It accommodated 200 boys aged 14- 16 from all over the country who had been sentenced to detention of at least 5 years. It was run by the Liverpool Juvenile Reform Society Boys were occupied in continually scrubbing the decks and until 1862 in picking oakum (teasing apart old rope so the fibres coud be reused). They learned tailoring and shoemaking. Recreation was limitied to reading suitable magazines, bagatelle and playing draughts.^[8]

On the 27 September 1887, ('Akbar Mutiny') while the captain was ashore the boys mutinied, they armed themselves with sticks, broke into the stores and entered the captains cabin, and stole valuables. Seventeen boys escaped on a stolen boat. There were naturally recaptured after a few days and sent for trial.^[8] Two were sentenced to hard labour, but the rest were sent back to the ship and punished with the birch, solitary confinement and a diet of biscuit and water.^[6] The inspectors blamed the incident on the staff not being firm enough with the boys.

In July 1899, another Merseyside training ship, the Clarence, In July 1899, another of the Merseyside training ships, the Clarence, was completely destroyed by a fire on a day when the ship was to have received a visit from the Bishop of Shrewsbury. An official inquiry reached no firm conclusions as to the cause, noting however that ‘There remains the theory that the ship was deliberately fired’.^[9]

On shore the Mount St Bernard’s RC Reformatory, opened in 1856. In the same year there was a mutiny, then in 1864 a riot. In 1870 a boy died. Again in 1875 there was a mutiny where 60 out of 200 boys escaped. Three years later in 1878 there was another mutiny, with a break and out officer was stabbed.^[10]

The Akbar was retired in 1910 and the boys moved on shore to the 'Akbar Nautical Training School' at Heswall. The magazine John Bull published a report on the 'Akbar Scandal' detailing cruel treatment that had apparently led to a number of deaths.^[11] It detailed that boys were tortured and there were several deaths. Boys were gagged with blankets before being secured to a birching horse, their trousers removed and then birched with hawthorn branches. The ill boys were considered malingerers and caned. Minor offences were punished with drenching and being forced to stand upright throughout the night; several boys died as a result.^[10][12] The Home Office internal report exonerated the Akbar staff, but this led to a Departmental Committee in 1913 inquiring into punishment practices used, and the welfare of the children with reformatory and industrial schools.^[6]

Consolidation

The Akbar Scandal triggered a change in the management of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. They lost their autonomy and became subject of increased inspection. Charles Russell was appointed that year as Chief Inspector of the Reformatory and Industrial Schools shaped new ideas about the boys' welfare. The ethos returned to the one of care found in the 1830s away from the on of punishment that it had become. Numbers on roll declined as magistrates started to prefer the probation system. The schools accepted the common name of Approved schools in 1927 and this was formalised by the 1933 Children and Young Person’s Act, which would effectively ended the Victorian Industrial and Reformatory School System. The remaining schools were re-constituted as Approved Schools with objectives more appropriate for youngsters in the 20th century.^[6]

United States

The same distinctions between reformatory schools and industrial schools were made in the United States, where the social considerations were similar. Reformatory schools were provided for criminal children whilst industrial schools were intended to prevent vulnerable children becoming criminal.^[13]

Canada

The term "reformatory" also has considerable constitutional significance in Canada, as s.92 (6) of the British North America Act exclusively reserves powers over reformatories and prisons to provincial jurisdiction, as well as pre-trial incarceration for those judged unsuitable for bail. In contrast, s. 91 (28) exclusively reserves powers over penitentiaries and criminal legislation to federal jurisdiction creating an intricately overlapping burden of responsibility In some provinces, particularly British Columbia, pre-trial detainees greatly suffer relatively to convicted provincial inmates (or even many federal inmates) . Under current law, most juveniles and anyone sentenced to a term of imprisonment up to and including two years less a day will serve time in a provincial prison or reformatory (although they may be released far earlier due to overcrowding or a determination that further incarceration is unjustified). Controversially, the use of "two years less a day" sentences has been used by some judges to avoid mandatory sentences such as deportation, weapons prohibitions, prohibitions to entry to the USA, or harsh pardon ineligibility barriers.

The use of the terms "prison", "correctional centre", and "reformatory" vary by province and category of offender. In contrast, federal penitentiaries are mostly referred to simply as "institutions". In addition, a person who would face a provincial sentence of incarceration for an offence would face criminal proceedings more directly administered by the province. For example, judges in such proceedings are appointed by the province, rather than superior court justices who are appointed by the federal government (despite most prosecutors, superior court justices, and court costs being paid by the provinces in such cases). Provincial governments also have more leeway to create diversion programs in such cases. Such offences are often prosecuted (if at all) by summary charge and result in relatively minor sentences.

Reformatories in Ontario, Canada

The Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women in Toronto in 1895

Until 1972, the term reformatory referred to an Ontario provincial prison for either juveniles (16 and 17 years of age) or adults (18 years of age or older). Very often, one reformatory facility would house both. Offenders under the age of 16 were held in Training Schools. After 1972, when Ontario's Department of Correctional Services (having been renamed in 1968 from the Department of Reform Institutions) became the Ministry of Correctional Services, these facilities were officially redesignated as correctional centres.

Examples:

• Ontario Reformatory-Guelph became Guelph Correctional Centre
• Ontario Reformatory-Mimico became Mimico Correctional Centre
• Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women was, for a time, renamed The Mercer Complex

See also

• Ohio State Reformatory
• Ohio Reformatory for Women
• Oklahoma State Reformatory
• Kentucky State Reformatory
• Lorton Reformatory
• Reform school
• Borstal

References

External links

• The Reformatory system in the United Kingdom