Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/356

Rh 338 REFORMATORY REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. There exist two classes of schools for the reformation and industrial training of children in Great Britain and Ireland, both under state control when duly certified. Reformatory schools are for the better training of juvenile convicted offenders ; industrial schools, in which industrial training is provided, are chiefly for vagrant and neglected children and children not convicted of theft. These schools are of modern but gradual growth, the result in part of humane endeavours to rescue children from evil courses already embarked on or likely to be their lot, in part of the con- viction that, as a matter of social economy, the expendi- ture incurred in early restraint is less costly than the punishment of matured crime. England and Scotland. The Acts of Parliament relating to reformatory and industrial schools in Great Britain were consolidated and amended in 1866; and these Acts (29 and 30 Viet. cc. 117, 118), with local legislation and some ex- tension and amendment, govern the two classes of schools at the present time. Both reformatory and industrial schools are certified by the home secretary upon the appli- cation of the managers, and upon a satisfactory inspection and report, and subject to a yearly visit by inspectors. In both classes industrial training is an essential feature, so as to engender industrious habits in the inmates and give them the means of earning an honest livelihood. Not only local circumstances but reasonable individual inclina- tions are taken into consideration. In rural districts the cultivation of the soil and in urban districts local trades are obvious sources of employment ; the duties of a sailor are taught in training ships near the coast. Occupations that create a distaste for labour or that do not provide a permanent source of profitable labour for adults are avoided. The managers (often a committee of magistrates) make all necessary rules for the management and discipline of the schools, subject to the provisions of the legislature and the intervention of the secretary of state. They have the appointment of officers. Conformity to the rules and residence in the schools may be enforced by imprisonment, the application and limits of which vary somewhat in reformatory and industrial schools, e.g., such imprisonment for school offences is confined in industrial schools to children above ten, an age almost always exceeded in the inmates of reformatories. Attention is paid in both classes to religious convictions, and as far as possible a selection is made of a school conducted in accordance with the creed professed by the child or its responsible guardians. Children after eighteen months' detention may be placed out on licence with trustworthy persons and with their own consent. The managers of a reformatory or of an in- dustrial school may decline to receive the youthful offender in the one case and in the other the child proposed to be sent ; but the reception of a child operates as an under- taking by the managers to educate, clothe, lodge, and feed him (or her) until he (or she) can be legally discharged or is removed. Reformatory and industrial schools are, however, essentially distinct in character and governed by distinct Acts of Parliament : a school cannot at the same time be both a certified industrial school and a certified reformatory school. The Middlesex Industrial School for juvenile offenders, established under local Acts, and in part a certified industrial school, is, however, somewhat exceptional in blending the treatment of both classes. Any offender under sixteen, convicted of an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment and sentenced to be imprisoned for ten days or a longer term, may be sent to a certified reformatory school for not less than two and not more than five years. A youthful offender under ten cannot be sent to a reformatory school unless he has been previously charged with some crime or offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment, or is sentenced in England by a judge of assize or court of general or quarter sessions or in Scotland by a circuit court of justiciary or a sheriff. Youthful offenders receiving a conditional pardon may now be sent to a certified ref on tory school. Certified industrial schools receive any chile apparently under fourteen who is brought by any persor before justices as answering to any of the following de scriptions : if found begging or receiving alms (whethe actually or under the pretext of selling or offering for anything) or being in any street or public place for thes purposes ; if found wandering and not having any home or settled place of abode, or proper guardianship, or visible means of subsistence ; if found destitute, either being an orphan or having a surviving parent who is undergoing penal servitude or imprisonment ; if it frequents the com- pany of reputed thieves ; if lodging, living, or residing with common or reputed prostitutes, pr in a house resided in or frequented by prostitutes for the purpose of prostitution ; if it frequents the company of prostitutes (43 and 44 Viet. c. 15); where a parent or step-parent represents to the magistrates that he is unable to control a child and that he desires that the child be sent to an industrial school ; where the guardians of the poor represent that a child maintained in a workhouse or pauper school or poor- house is refractory or the child of a parent convicted of a crime or offence punishable with penal servitude or im- prisonment, and that it is desirable that he be sent to an industrial school. To the above cases have to be added a child apparently under twelve who is charged Avith an offence punishable by imprisonment or a less punishment but has not been in England convicted of felony or in Scotland for theft ; and the children of any woman con- victed of a crime after a previous conviction, and under her care and control at the time of conviction for the last of such crimes, who have no visible means of subsistence or who are without proper guardianship (Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871). A prison authority (a term as regards industrial schools calculated to mislead, as the authority is in general the court of quarter sessions or school boards, and in Scotland commissioners of supply, magistrates of buFghs, or county boards) may, with the approval of the secretary of state, establish or contribute towards the establishment, building (including borrowing money), or management (and in England may not only contribute to but undertake these matters) of reformatory or industrial schools, or towards the support of the inmates, and such authority may con- tract with the managers for the reception and maintenance of offenders or children. The treasury contributes towards the custody and maintenance of offenders in reformatory and of children in industrial schools on the recommendation of the secretary of state, the sum being limited as regards children in industrial schools, on the application of their parents or guardians, to 2s. per head per week. The guard- ians of the poor or the board of management of district pauper schools or parochial boards of a parish or com- bination may, with the consent in England of the local government, and in Scotland of the board of management, contribute towards the maintenance of children detained in industrial schools. A prison authority in England may contribute towards the ultimate disposal of an inmate of a certified industrial school. The parent or other person legally liable to maintain a youthful offender or child in a school is required (if able) to contribute not more than 5s. per week, recoverable summarily. The alleged want of diligent enforcement of this liability is a great source of complaint. The introduction of a system of compulsory elementary educa- tion rendered it necessary to extend industrial schools. TJnde