the farm school at Redhill. In 1838 an act of parliament created an establishment at Parkhurst for the detention and correction of juvenile offenders, to whom pardon was given conditional on their entrance into some charitable institution. Parkhurst was technically a prison, and the system combined industrial training with religious and educational instruction. These earlier efforts had, however, been quite insufficient to meet the evils, for in the years immediately preceding 1854 crime was being so constantly reinforced in its beginnings, under the existing penal system, that it threatened to swamp the country. Unofficial, but more or less accurate, figures showed that between 11,000 and 12,000 juveniles passed annually through the prisons of England and Wales, a third of the whole number being contributed by London alone. In 1854 the total reached 14,000. The ages of offenders ranged from less than twelve to seventeen; 60% of the whole were between fourteen and seventeen; 46% had been committed more than once; 18% four times and more.
The Reformatory School Act 1854, which was thrashed out at conferences held in Birmingham in 1851 and 1853, substituted the school for the gaol, and all judicial benches were empowered to send delinquents to schools when they had been guilty of acts punishable by short imprisonment, the limit of which was at first fourteen and became afterwards ten days. A serious flaw in this act long survived; this was the provision that a short period of imprisonment in gaol must precede reception into the reformatory; it was upheld by well-meaning but mistaken people as essential for deterrence. But more enlightened opinion condemned the rule as inflicting an indelible prison taint and breeding contamination, even with ample and effective safeguards. Wiser legislation has followed, and an act of 1899 abolished preliminary imprisonment.
Existing reformatories, or “senior home office schools” as they are officially styled, in England numbered 44 in 1907. They receive all juvenile offenders, up to the age of sixteen, who have been convicted of an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. The number of these during the years between 1894 and 1906 constantly varied, but the figure of the earliest date, 6604, was never exceeded, and in some years it was considerably less, while in 1906 it was no more than 5586, though the general population had increased by several millions in the period. These figures, in comparison with those of 1854, must be deemed highly satisfactory, even when we take into account that the latter went up to the age of seventeen. Older offenders, between sixteen and twenty-one, come within the category of juvenile adults and are dealt with differently (see Borstal Scheme below).
Other schools must be classed with the reformatory, although they have no connexion with prisons and deal with youths who are only potential criminals. The first in importance are the industrial schools. When the newly devised reformatories were doing excellent service it was realized that many of the rising generation might some day lapse into evil ways but were still on the right side and might with proper precautions be kept there. They wanted preventive, not punitive treatment, and for them industrial schools were instituted. The germ of these establishments existed in the Ragged Schools, “intended to educate destitute children and save them from vagrancy and crime.” They had been invented by John Pounds (1766–1839), a Portsmouth shoemaker, who, early in the 19th century, was moved with sympathy for these little outcasts and devoted himself to this good work. The ragged school movement found powerful support in active philanthropists when public attention was aroused to the prevalence of juvenile delinquency. The first Industrial School Act was passed in 1856 and applied only to Scotland. Next year its provisions were extended to England, and their growth was rapid. There were 45 schools in the beginning; in 1878 the number had more than been doubled; in 1907 there were 102 in England and Wales and 31 in Scotland.
The provisions of the Education Acts 1871 and 1876 led to a large increase in the number of children committed for breaches of the law and to the establishment of two kinds of subsidiary industrial schools, short detention of truant schools and day industrial schools in which children do not reside but receive their meals, their elementary education and a certain amount of industrial training. The total admissions to truant schools in 1907 were 1368 boys, and the numbers actually in the schools on the last day of that year were 1125 with 2568 on licence. The average length of detention was fourteen weeks and three days on first admission, seventeen weeks and five days on first re-admission, and twenty-three weeks six days on second re-admission. The total number of admissions into truant schools from 1878 to the end of 1907 was 44,315, of whom just half had been licensed and not returned, 11,239 had been licensed and once re-admitted, 8900 had been re-admitted twice or oftener.
The day industrial schools owed their origin to another reason than the enforcement of the Education Acts. It was found that some special treatment was required for large masses of youths in large cities, who were in such a neglected or degraded condition that there was little hope of their growing into healthy men and women or becoming good citizens. They were left unclean, were ill-fed and insufficiently clothed, and were not usefully taught. The total number who attended these day schools in 1907 was 1951 boys and 1232 girls.
The disciplinary system of the English schools is planned upon the establishment or institution system, as opposed to that of the “family” or “boarding out” systems adopted in some countries, and some controversy has been aroused as to the comparative value of the methods. The British practice has always favoured the well-governed school, with the proviso that it is kept small so that the head may know all of his charges. But a compromise has been effected in large establishments by dividing the boys into “houses,” each containing a small manageable total as a family under an official father or head. Under this system the idea of the home is maintained, while uniformity of treatment and discipline is secured by grouping several houses together under one general authority. The plan of “boarding out” is not generally approved of in England; the value of the domestic training is questionable and of uncertain quality, depending entirely upon the character and fitness of the foster-parents secured. Education must be less systematic in the private home, industrial training is less easily carried out, and there can be none of that esprit de corps that stimulates effort in physical training as applied to athletics and the playing of games. No very definite decision has been arrived at as to the comparative merits of institution life and boarding out. Among the Latin races—France, Italy, Portugal and Spain—the former is as a rule preferred; also in Belgium; in Germany, Holland and the United States placing out in private families is very much the rule; in Austria-Hungary and Russia both methods are in use.
The total admissions to English reformatory schools from their creation to the 31st of December 1907 amounted to 76,455, or 64,031 boys and 12,424 girls. The total discharges for the same period were 70,890, or 59,081 boys and 11,809 girls. The results may be tested by the figures for those discharged in 1904, 1905 and 1906:—
Boys.—3573 were placed out, of whom 66 had died, leaving 3507; of these it was found that 2735 (or about 78%) were in regular employment; 158 (or about 4%) were in casual employment; 439 (or about 13%) had been convicted; and 175 (or about 5%) were unknown.
Girls.—480, of whom 11 had died, leaving 469; of these it was found that 384 (or about 82%) were in regular employment; 28 (or about 6%) were in casual employment; 17 (or about 4%) had been convicted, and 40 (or about 8%) were unknown.
For industrial schools, including truant and day schools, the total admissions, up to the 31st of December 1907, were 153,893, or 120,955 boys and 32,938 girls. The total discharges to the same date (excluding transfers) were 136,961, or 108,398 boys and 28,563 girls. The results as tested by those discharged in 1904, 1905 and 1906 were as follow:—
Boys.—8909 were placed out, of whom 118 had since died, leaving 8791 to be reported on; of these it was found that 7547 (or about 86%) were in regular employment; 415 (or about 4.7%) were in casual employment; 419 (or about 4.7%) convicted or re-committed; and 410 (or about 4.6%) unknown.
Girls.—2505 placed out, of whom 50 had died, leaving 2455; of
