128 REPORT — 1856. 



"Where money is in question, to avoid shillings and pence, stating only the 



number of pounds. 



" Where large sums are concerned, to give round numbers, avoiding units." 



Of course there is a medium in observing these directions ; and if the choice lies 



between the two, better be obscure than inaccurate. All I mean to convey, is that 



over-minuteness in these matters is apt to defejit its own ends. 



Statistics and Suggestions connected with the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders. 

 By T. Barwick Lloyd Baker. 



The author commenced by saying that it was not necessary at the present time to go 

 into the general question — whether Reformatories were good or bad. The voice of the 

 country had decided that point, and probably by Michaelmas there would be only two 

 counties which would not be provided for. But there were three points which he 

 thought had hardly received the attention they deserved : and he would confine him- 

 self to these. 



The first and principal point was the necessity of paying attention, not merely to 

 the individual boys who chanced to be committed to the school, and endeavouring to 

 reform them, but the paying attention also to the statistics of juvenile crime in the 

 district, with the view of finding out all those who are extending the evil by cor- 

 rupting and teaching others. The apprehension of one or two leaders of a gang will 

 frequently restore the others to at least comparative habits of honesty : but what is 

 far more important, the apprehension of one or two instructors in crime will prevent 

 the temptation and fall of perhaps eight or ten others whom they would have corrupted. 

 He produced some local statistics of juvenile crime, showing that the number of boys 

 under 16 years, convicted in the Cheltenham district of any offence since the 1st of 

 January, 1852, was 149. Of this number, 54 may be termed regular thieves; 39 have 

 been, or are at Hardwicke, of whom two had not been convicted ; 9, convicted once ; 

 16, twice; 6, three times; 4, four times; and 2, five times. Of these youthful pri- 

 soners nearly all had had a fair education*, and could read and write well; and the 

 statistical result, in that point of view, did not show that mere instruction prevented 

 the necessity of reformatory schools. Mr. Baker explained that the object of the 

 reformatory school was to clear out of the district all who might be termed regular 

 thieves, and gradually to reduce to the lowest the amount of criminality which might 

 be considered to confer the title of regular thief. This, he said, must vary in different 

 towns. In Liverpool, from which place he had lately had several boys, there were 

 many who lived entirely by plunder for years together ; and a boy who usually works, 

 and only occasionally steals, even though he might be three or four times convicted, was 

 comparatively a trifling case. In Cheltenham he did not believe that for the last 

 three years there had been a single boy belonging to the place who had gained one- 

 half of his keep dishonestly for a month together. The term, therefore, "regular 

 thief" is applied to all who had been convicted a second time, even though many of 

 the cases were extremely slight. 



Extracting from the total number of convicted boys returned by the Cheltenham 

 police during the 4| years all those who either were convicted a second time, or whose 

 first offence was considered sufiiciently serious to send them to a reformatory school, 

 it gave a total of 54 regular thieves, i. e. either twice convicted, or such as were 

 thought worthy of being sent to the Hardwicke Reformatory on a first conviction. 

 Of these, 39 had been, or still were, at Hardwicke, 8 were long past age, and 7 are still 

 in the town. Of these seven, tvi^o have not been convicted since May 1854; and the 

 other fivef, though repeatedly convicted, were merely very slight cases of vagrancy. 

 Considering that in January 1852 there were 20 boys who had been twice, thrice, 

 or four times convicted, this result he (Mr. Baker) considered not unsatisfactory. 

 With regard to the 39 boys who had been or were at Hardwicke, he by no means 

 pretended that all were " reformed," past the possibility of again falling into crime. 



* Of 39 who have been sent to Hardwicke, 15 could read and write well, and were well 

 up in the four first rules of arithmetic ; 17 could read and write sufficiently to understand and 

 we understood, though with incorrect spelling, and were fairly up in addition and subtraction ; 

 and 7 only were below this point. 



t Of these 5, 3 have been since committed to Hardwicke. 



