State Control of Charities and Corrections 1 1 



and yarns. The commissioners have made a careful study of the 

 type of education and the system of physical training and dis- 

 cipline best adapted to prisoners, and have power to enforce 

 recommendations. This commission is, in reality, a state board 

 of control in all matters relating to prison administration. 



II 



STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES OF NEW YORK 



The history of charities and correction in New York pre- 

 sents many stages of centralization in control and management. 

 During the colonial period, beginning with the laws passed by 

 the Assembly in 169 1, the entire problem of poor relief and 

 care of the insane was left to the towns. For more than one 

 hundred years this fomi of administration continued. It was 

 not until 1809 that county poor relief was recognized by 

 statute. In 1820 Rensselaer county erected a House of Industry, 

 which was the first poorhouse constructed on the American 

 continent. This new system rapidly commended itself, so that 

 in 1824 poorhouses were erected in eighteen other counties. 



Provision w'as made by the state in 1819^ for care and educa- 

 tion of the deaf and dumb, which was the first relief work of 

 any importance undertaken by the state. It was not long 

 after this until additional work was undertaken by the state, 

 and in 1843- the first state lunatic asylum was opened at Utica. 



The third important step by the state was in 1846^ when the 

 State Industrial School or House of Refuge for Juvenile Delin- 

 quents w^as established at Rochester. 



Soon after this other state institutions were founded for idiots, 

 for blind, etc. 



The decade from i860 to 1870 marks a new period in the 

 movement toward centralization of control in charity adminis- 

 tration. In 1867 the New York State Board of Charities was 



^ Laws of 1821, chap. 250; 1822, chap. 324; 1823, chap. 180. 



" Laws of 1836, chap. 82; 1839, cliap. 310; 1840, chap. 190; 1842, chap. 135. 



»Laws of 1846, chap. 143. 



367 



