Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/669

 REFORMATION OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS 649

of the term of confinement proved to be disastrous, as the courts often committed the worst boys for only one year; and the superintendent and trustees later urged that the law should be so amended that the boys might be kept in the school, if neces- sary, until they were twenty-one years of age ; but their recom- mendation was not adopted. The same act also abolished the "ticket of leave" system, which had hitherto produced such good results, but it contained "a good time" clause by which a boy might earn and be credited with time as follows : each month in the first year, five days ; each month in the second year, six days ; each month in third year, seven days ; each month in fourth year, eight days ; and each month in fifth year, nine days. Whenever an inmate was degraded for misconduct or violation of the rules, he lost five days of his " good time " for each offense.

The boys were employed at various trades shoemaking, brickmaking, and cane-seating of chairs. Some of this work was done under the abominable contract system, which, in 1874, was sanctioned and authorized by law, and was not abolished until 1886, when the constitutional amendment prohibiting it was passed, and the state account system was adopted.

As to results accomplished by the school, the trustees in their report for 1882 say:

During the eleven years of the school's existence we have received over twelve hundred (1,200) boys, and discharged nearly a thousand (1,000). Some of the boys who were discharged eight or nine years ago are now men with families, respected and honorable members of society. We are positive that .many of them, had it not been for the Reform School, would today have been lawbreakers and criminals, preying upon society.

During the twenty years of its existence the State Reform School received 2,305 boys, and it seems reasonable to conclude that 75 per cent, of those discharged did well.

The tables of statistics given in the reports are incomplete, and do not enable us to form positive conclusions, but of 793 boys honorably discharged, 554, or about 70 per cent., are reported as doing well, while 123 lapsed, and 198 were lost sight of. Assuming that some of these did well, we seem justified in