Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/37

 dealt with by the police, brought before the magistrates, and were punished by flogging and imprisonment. They thus became thoroughly hardened, and eventually ripened into dacoits and receivers of stolen property. Evidently there was need for special treatment of this class ; and as early as 1863 Mr. Hume pressed for the establishment of a Juvenile Reformatory, where these boys would be separated from adult criminals, and given a chance of amendment by discipline, by instruction, and by training in useful industries. ^ At first the Supreme Government did not favour the proposal for reformatories, and preferred that separate accommodation should be provided in the central jails for juvenile criminals. But m 1867 Mr. Hume returned to the charge, and being supported by the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces, he submitted (2nd September 1867) a detailed scheme for a Juvenile Reformatory on a desirable site close to Etawah. He was fortunate in having the sympathy of Dr. Clark the Inspector-General of Prisons, and of Dr. Sherlock the Superintendent of the Jail, a very valuable coadjutor, who volunteered to take charge of the Reformatory in addition to his other duties. The system proposed was that known as the Irish system ; the building was to be circular and radiating ; and as the scheme was experimental, he proposed that a beginning should be made with one "sector," equal to one-fourth of the circular building. This could be ready by the 1st of January 1868 for the reception of one hundred boys, the expense for building this portion being Rs. 11,000, and the cost of maintenance Rs. 464 per mensem. The idea was that the Divisions of Agra and Allahabad would produce yearly about one hundred boy convicts, and that in each of the three following years another sector should be built to receive them. As the term of retention would