3,253 inmates, and 417 on licence. The numbers under detention have continued to gradually increase during the last twenty years. The average sentence actually served in industrial schools proper is nearly four years; and the vast majority are between the ages of ten and fourteen on admission. The average age of discharge is thus about fifteen and a half. Where the Money Comes From. Reformatory and industrial schools may be instituted and maintained by private individuals and societies, or by certain local authorities, such as School Boards and County Councils, or they may be carried on by a combination of private persons and public bodies. Practically, the first method is the one in use. In 1900, out of 227 industrial and reformatory schools, only nineteen were in the hands of public bodies; ten of these were under School Boards, eight under County or Borough Councils, and one under the Corporation of Birmingham. These nineteen are all industrial schools, not a single reformatory being owned by a public body. The remaining 208 schools were under private management; so that at the present day at least ninety per cent. of these schools are under the administration of private individuals and societies. Yet though this is the case, over eighty-three per cent. of the money spent on these schools is supplied from public sources. The balance sheet for the reformatory schools in 1899 showed a total expenditure of £113,396 raised from the following sources: Treasury Subscriptions ... £72,073 equal to 635 per cent. The remaining 7'2 per cent. and a small balance was supplied mainly by the sale of articles manufactured in the schools, hire of labor from the schools, and by interest on investments. For industrial schools the total expenditure (excluding day schools) was £428,648 in 1899, provided thus: ... Treasury ... ... £193,798 equal to 45'2 per cent. 108,845 254 The remaining 53 per cent. was supplied mainly as in the reformatories by the profits of the industrial department. Thus of the expenditure of reformatories 835 per cent. is supplied from public funds, and 18 only by private individuals; of industrial schools 83.2 per cent. is supplied by public funds, and 7 per cent. only by private individuals. The money thus provided by local bodies is accounted for in two ways; firstly, by direct expenditure upon industrial schools under their control; secondly, by payment per head to other schools for inmates sent from the districts administered by these bodies. Thus, during the year ended Lady Day, 1900, 690 children were sent to industrial schools proper at the instance of the London School Board. Of these, only 132 were sent to the Board's own institutions; the remaining 558 were dispersed to 63 industrial schools in every part of the country. In return for this considerable grant of public money the only public control ensured (excepting of course in the eleven schools directly owned and governed by public bodies) is the occasional appointment of members of School Boards, etc., on the committee of management of these institutions (the rest of the committee being elected by the subscribers, or, practically, by a few of them), and the inspection of these schools by officials appointed by the Home Office. A report is published yearly by the Chief Inspector as a Government Blue Book. In addition, many of the schools are inspected by officials appointed by those local authorities who send children to them. At present, the Home Office inspection appears to be really good, and to be inspired by a thorough desire for efficiency. Results of Starving the Schools. In their early days, when reformatory institutions were practically penological experiments conducted by a few enthusiasts, it was perhaps right that they should be under private control, so that the "researchers" might have a free hand to test their theories; but now that these schools have passed out of the experimental stage and become a fixed component of our criminal system, it is surely time for the nation to recognize that it should itself be the owner of its places of legal detention. The wave of philanthropic feeling, too, that led to the foundation and support of these schools by private individuals and societies appears to have subsided. In 1860 subscriptions to reformatories accounted for more than a quarter of the total cost, in 1900 they provide rather less than a fiftieth part. Subscriptions have flowed into other channels, and left these schools stranded on the beach of economy. Thus it happens that, in spite of the large national and local subsidies, many of these institutions suffer severely from lack of funds. Urgent reforms cannot be carried out, nor can necessary extensions be added. Overcrowding is another concomitant evil, for the Treasury grant is a fixed sum per head, so that more boys than can well be accommodated are often taken in order to obtain the extra grant. Voluntary inmates, paid for by guardians or relatives, add to the overcrowding. Taking the 1899 Report of H.M. Inspector, we find that of the thirty-nine reformatories inspected, no less than fifteen were adversely criticized as regards accommodation and sanitation. A few extracts from this report will illustrate the point. NORTH-EASTERN REFORMATORY.-"The buildings are full of defects, and it is difficult to say where improvement should begin. The crowded state of the dormitories certainly calls for urgent attention." STRANRAER REFORMATORY.-"The general domestic arrangements of the school are not satisfactory; fleas appear to have got the upper hand, especially in the crowded attics. The school takes more boys than its buildings justify, and in the struggle to make both ends meet the interests of the boys are apt to be lost sight of." BOLEYN CASTLe ReformatorY.—“ Much of the building is extremely old and in a tumble-down condition, while the sanitary arrangements are probably as contrary to modern ideas as they well could be." WARWICK GIRLS' REFORMATORY.-"The house is old, and parts are in a rotten condition. The ventilation of some of the rooms, notably the schoolroom and kitchen, is far from perfect, and the situation is most undesirable. A move to a more modern house in a better neighborhood is not only desirable but imperative." ST. JOHN'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOol, Walthamstow.—“The older parts of the building are in a state of bad repair, and indeed require rebuilding. The dining-room is gloomy and disagreeable, the kitchen is inadequate and in need of a good range, while the dormitory on the top floor is never likely to be quite free from obnoxious insects. Other parts of the premises, notably the recreation room, are in need of cleaning and painting." CHADWICK MEMORIAL INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.-"The dormitories are overcrowded and should be relieved at once. To the overcrowding may in some measure be attributed the ill-health of the past. The basement must be insanitary; through the rotten woodwork, swarming with insects, the effluvia from the baths and troughs of the lavatory, and even to a certain extent from the slop-drains, penetrate into the main building and vitiate the atmosphere." It is only fair to add that since the issue of this report extensive improvements have been made in four of these schools; the question of rebuilding the fifth on a new site is under consideration. In the sixth no improvement has been made or considered. The unsatisfactory financial condition of these schools, too, renders them too susceptible to the fluctuations in the number of admissions. When the number diminishes the loss of income is felt, when the number increases the accommodation is found to be inadequate. The rise in committals to reformatories during 1900 appears to have caused severe pressure on the accommodation of these schools. Want of Technical Training. The second point deserving serious attention is the industrial training provided for the inmates. When these schools were started the promoters' idea appears to have been that useful work of any kind would prove the herald of salvation. Accordingly no serious attempts were made to teach good trades or provide efficient technical education. Wood-chopping and gardening were considered sufficient for the boy, needlework and the wash-tub for the girl. This certainly saved a great deal of expense, and often proved a source of considerable income to the school. But the evil effect on the child was soon obvious. Discharged at a time when he should be beginning to earn his living, he had no equipment for any work involving skilled labor, and was thus compelled either to swell the ranks of the unskilled laborers or to return to that home from whose degrading associations the industrial school was designed to rescue him. An attempt had consequently to be made to teach boys trades which would be useful to them as a means of earning a livelihood on their discharge. This attempt, however honestly it may have been made, can only be characterized as a failure. The main trades taught have been farming and gardening, tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering, baking, printing, etc. The inspectors, however, agree that the boys on their discharge do not follow the trade which has been taught them; and the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Committee of 1895 were compelled to report adversely, thus: "No one connected with these schools came before us to praise the trade instruction given at these schools. On the other hand there were a number of witnesses who, speaking from their large experience, pronounced that it was of little or no value." The plain fact is that that these institutions cannot, as at present carried on, afford to provide proper technical training. Cheap tailoring and bootmaking, such as they generally teach, is useless as a means of livelihood, machine work in these industries having displaced hand labor. Recognizing to some extent the futility of this training, many schools appear to rely upon their wood-chopping, which, although of no value commercially or educationally to the boys, at all events yields a fair profit in an establishment where the labor costs nothing. A few schools provide really good trade instruction. At Feltham School, the property of the London County Council, the technical training is both varied and thorough, but the expense is too great for most schools. The cost of maintenance per head at Feltham is £35 14s. per annum, whereas the average cost throughout England is only £21 5s. 2d. per head. Thus really good industrial training is far beyond the reach of privately administered schools, i.e., of ninety per cent. of the whole number. This is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs; it is imperative that a boy who is kept till, say, eighteen in these institutions should at all events be fitted to take a fair position when he is discharged. In his evidence before the 1895 Committee, Mr. Ricks, Inspector of Reformatories for the London School Board, said, "Industrial training is often rather a question of money-making than proper training. More often than not commercial considerations are allowed to interfere with a proper selection of industrial training." The boy from an industrial school or reformatory has in this matter a legitimate grievance against the State that sent him there; it is our duty to provide really sound and efficient technical training in these schools, no matter what the cost. Poverty and Morale. Poverty and overcrowding in these schools have also a distinctly bad effect on the health, the discipline, and the general tone of the inmates. The death-rate is considerably higher in Roman Catholic than in Protestant schools; and it is exactly these schools that we find poverty-stricken and overcrowded. In these schools, too, the percentage of re-convictions (reaching thirty-nine per cent. in one school, and twenty-eight per cent. in another, as compared with a total average of fourteen per cent.) is much higher than in the Protestant schools. Both the high death-rate and the high number of re-convictions are attributed by H. M. Inspector to the lack of funds for proper administration. The Treasury grant is of course given to all schools impartially; but this alone is insufficient, and the philanthropic aid that should furnish the extra sum seems in these cases to have spent itself in other directions. It is obvious that on the present system many of these schools must in a short time either lose their certificates or close voluntarily. *The high cost of Feltham is not entirely due to the technical training. Other special causes also operate. Municipal schools are often sinners in the matter of industrial training. The worst case of wood-chopping is in one of these schools. The industrial schools are, speaking generally, in a more flourishing condition than the reformatories, owing mainly to the fact that they have the School Boards at their back. The School Board payments are second only to the Treasury and form more than a quarter of the total receipts. Out of a total of 2,929 boys committed in 1899, 2,013 were sent at the instance of the School Boards, 667 being sent at the request of the London Board alone. The latter has under its control three ordinary industrial schools, two truant schools, and two day industrial schools. Two others are in course of construction. These School Board and County Council schools set a standard to which other schools must strive to attain. The Outcast Degenerates. The third point to which I wish to direct attention is the selection of boys and girls by these institutions. Legally, no school is compelled to receive any juvenile offender. The consequence of this is that it is difficult to secure entry into a reformatory or industrial school for many children who need it most. There is no reformatory in Great Britain that will knowingly take a mentally deficient child, or one deformed, or subject to fits, or with a diseased heart. Nor is there one which will take an immoral girl. Such cases, epileptic children charged with stealing, girls of fifteen and even under that age leading an immoral life, are not uncommon in our metropolitan police-courts. Before such cases a magistrate is powerless: no certified reformatory or industrial school will touch them, and committal to other institutions is useless, as residence in these is purely voluntary. Should a deficient child by oversight gain entrance to one of these institutions, he can still be got rid of by discharging him as "unfit for training." In 1899, in England and Scotland, 106 children were so discharged. Mental weakness, lung or chest diseases, fits, cancer, sore eyes, heart-disease, etc., are among the causes assigned for these discharges. The reformatories do not want degenerates : they entail great trouble and expense, and generally bring in nothing beyond the government grant. So these deficient children are neglected by the State and by the institutions which the State supports. They return to their old haunts; and, as abnormality in mind or body is often accompanied by tendency to crime, i.e., moral abnormality, they lead a miserable or criminal existence till they are old enough to go to prison. It is probably right that a "deficient" child should not be placed with others of the normal type: the results of contact are bad for both; but what is urgently needed is a separate school (or rather schools) for these abnormals. Such a school would be much more costly than the ordinary reformatory or industrial school, for it would require a resident staff of * Extract from Daily Chronicle, Monday, April 28th, 1902 :-"DEFECTIVE CHILDREN. MAGISTRATE'S COMPLAINT.-Mr. Fordham had before him, at North London, a boy who was charged with a petty theft, and who, having been previously convicted and being beyond the control of his parent, was a fit subject for an industrial school. The school officer, however, reported that the boy was subject to fits and mentally deficient. No industrial school would take him in consequence, though sometimes such boys were got into private homes. Mr. Fordham: It seems very cruel. Just because this boy is afflicted and wants special care, there is no provision made for him. I can do nothing to assist him, and he must be discharged." |