REFORMATORIES. 



331 



minimum term provided by law for (he crime for which 

 he was convicted, aud who has not previously been con- 

 victed of felony, and served a term in a penal institu- 

 tion, may be allowed to go upon parole outside of the 

 buildings and enclosures, but to remain, while on pa- 

 role, in the legal custody and under the control of the 

 board, and subject at any time to be taken back within 

 the enclosure of said institution ; and full power to en- 

 force such rules and regulations, and to retake and re- 

 i pi prison any convict so upon parole, is hereby con- 

 ferred upon said board, whose written order, certified 

 by its secretary, shall be sufficient warrant for all offi- 

 cers named therein, to authorize such officer to return 

 to actual custody any conditionally released or paroled 

 prisoner, and it is hereby made the duty of all officers 

 to execute said order the same as ordinary criminal 

 process." 



The rules under which this law is operated are as 

 follows : 



1. No prisoner shall be paroled who has not been in the 

 first grade, continuously, fur a period of at least four months. 



2. no prisoner shall be released on parole until satisfac- 

 tory evidence a furnished to the board of managers, in 

 writing, that employment has been secured for such pris- 

 oner from some responsible person, certified to be such by 

 the auditor of the county where such person resides. 



3. No prisoner shall be paroled until the managers are 

 satisfied that he will conform to the rules and regulations of 

 his parole. 



4. Every paroled prisoner shall be liable to be retaken and 

 again confined within the enclosure of said institution for 

 any reason that shall be satisfactory to the board of mana- 

 gers, and at their sole discretion, and shall remain therein 

 until released by law. 



5. It shall require the affirmative vote of at least four (out 

 of five) managers to grunt a parole. 



The principal requirements of the paroled prisoner are: 

 That he shall refrain from crime; lead an honorable life; 

 conduct himself honestly ; avoid evil associations ; obey the 

 law ; abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a bever- 

 age, and report monthly by mail to the secretary of the 

 board, for which blanks are furnished. 



The following are the tabulated results of the law for 

 the whole period of its operation prior to Jan. 1, 1888 : 



Number paroled, 



802 



Number discharged by expiration of sentence, 115 



Number discharged by board of managers, 



Number pardoned by governor, 



Number whose paroles were revoked, 



Number violated parole and not returned, 



Number violated parole and have been returned, 



Number who have died, 



Number who refused to accept parole, 



Number regularly reporting, 



9 



4 



3 



15 



17 



6 



1 



133 



JUVENILE OFFENDERS. 



In the care and reformation of juvenile offenders the 

 T'niteil States lias kept pace with the best experience 

 of the world. The first reformatory in the world for 

 criminal youth, which became a permanent success, 

 M.I- lliat established by John Falk, at Weimar, in 

 (jermany, in Isl3. This was followed in 1816 by an- 

 other near Dusseldorf, and still another at Berlin in 

 1819. None of these establishments, however, re- 

 ceived their inmates from the courts, nor held them 

 U|K>n legal warrants. The relation was voluntary upon 

 both side* 



To America belongs the credit of establishing the 

 first reformatory in the world for juvenile delinquents, 

 by lejrislative enactment and under legislative control. 

 This institution, conceived by Edward Livingston, the 

 greatest of American penologists, and fostered by John 

 Griscom, John Eddy. Cadwallailcr D. Colden, and 

 other distinguished citizens and philanthropists of the 

 city of Now York, was authorize. 1 by an act of the 

 legislature of New Yo:k March 29. 1824. and has 

 since l.ceii known as the New York House of Refuge, 

 and still remains in active and efficient operation 



Its fifth annual report states its powers and pur- 

 poses as follows : " If a child is found destitute ; if 

 abandoned by its parents, or suffered to lead a vicious 

 or vagrant life ; or if convicted of any crime, it may be 

 sent to the House of Refuge. There is in no case any 

 other sentence than that it shall ' there be dealt with 

 according to law. ' That is, it may, if not released by 

 some legal process, be there detained, if the managers 

 should think it unfit to be sooner discharged, until it 

 arrives at age. Parents or guardians, from the time it 

 is legally sentenced to the refuge, lose all control of its 

 person. When it is believed that a child is reformed, 

 the managers have power, with its consent, to bind it 

 as an apprentice till the age of twenty-one. " 



The success of this institution was so conspicuous, 

 and its results so beneficent, that similar institutions 

 were soon established elsewhere, until at the present 

 time there are between forty and fifty institutions for 

 juvenile offenders in the United States under State or 

 city supervision, with an average population of over 

 12.000, 



Under the common law of England a child under ten 

 years of age is presumed incapable of crime, and that 

 is the general rule in the United States. In New 

 York, however, the statute provides that "a child of 

 the age of seven years, and under the age of twelve 

 years, is presumed incapable of crime, but the pre- 

 sumption may be removed by proof that he had suffi- 

 cient capacity to understand the act or neglect charged 

 against him and to know its wrongfulness." 



In England the preservation of a child from a crim- 

 inal record is considered so important that he is rarely 

 sent to a reformatory for a first offence. If he has parents 

 or guardians he is simply reprimanded or birched, for 

 a first offence, or if homeless is cared for in some in- 

 stitution where no taint of crime is imposed, and this 

 treatment in a majority of cases is found entirely suf- 

 ficient. This method not only saves the child and 

 preserves his self-respect, but it also saves the State 

 from a large expenditure of money. 



In Boston, for several years past, a system similar 

 in principle, and applicable not only to minors but to 

 adult misdemeanants also, has been in successful oper- 

 ation for a number of years, and is known as the pro- 

 bation system. It consists in a suspension of sentence, 

 and a release under the supervision of a probation offi- 

 cer, to whom the prisoner reports at stated periods, 

 and by whom he may be recommitted for sentence if 

 he proves delinquent. The results have been so satis- 

 factory that English penologists have recommended ita 

 adoption there, and an act for that purpose is now 

 under consideration by the British Parliament. 



In American reformatories, for juvenile offenders, 

 the treatment is largely educational, although, as a 

 rule, the inmates are employed at productive labor for 

 the support of the institution at least one half of tho 

 time. In recent years, however, in some institutions, 

 large attention has been given to industrial training, 

 and with very satisfactory results. 



The State Industrial School at Rochester, N. Y. 

 (formerly the House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents 

 in Western New York), in 1884 inaugurated a system 

 of industrial training, which has been so enlarged that 

 the institution now is practically a school of technology, 

 and its success has been so great as to attract large 

 attention, and seems likely to mark the beginning of a 

 new era in reformatory management. There are six 

 departments in which trades are fully taught, both the- 

 oretically and practically, viz. : (1) carpentry and join- 

 ery; (2) wood-turning and pattern-making; (3) black - 

 smithing ; (4) lathing, plastering, brick- and stone- 

 laying ; (5) moulding ; (*i) painting. 



Capt. Levi S/ Fulton, the accomplished superin- 

 tendent of this institution, after many years' experience 

 in reformatory work, says in his last report : " I would 

 most earnestly recommend to all interested in the 

 management of reform schools or similar institutions 

 that they at once transform their institutions into 



