You asked for background information on (1) the establishment of the Meriden School for Boys and (2) the relationship between the Connecticut Juvenile Training School and national trends in juvenile corrections.

We will respond to your question concerning juvenile corrections trends in a separate report.

SUMMARY

The Meriden School for Boys was opened in March 1854, three years after the legislature authorized creation of a reform school for boys in 1851. This authorization followed a select legislative committee’s report in 1850 that called for establishing a school for the “instruction, employment, and reformation of juvenile offenders. ” It estimated that at least 200 boys a year could be classified as juvenile offenders who might be sent to the school. The legislature’s actions were part of a national movement to find an alternative to imprisoning juveniles with adults.

The legislature appropriated $ 10,000 to establish the school, but these funds could not be spent until individuals contributed a matching amount. This was accomplished within a few years, and the school was

opened in 1854 with 139 boys. Boys under age 16 who committed crimes could be committed to the school for a definite sentence, until they were reformed, or until they turned age 21. Over half of the boys in the school in 1856 had lost one or both parents, over half had either one or both parents deemed intemperate, and 20% had one or both parents in jail.

An eight-member board of trustees appointed by the legislature governed the school. The board hired the school’s employees, which included a superintendent to administer daily operations, academic and vocational instructors, a chaplain, a steward, watchmen, and a farmer. The trustees could apprentice boys to farmers and mechanics; most of the boys who were discharged from the school left in this way. They could also remand incorrigible boys to a county sheriff or town constable for placement in a prison, jail, or workhouse.

The trustees intended the school to be a family as well as a school of detention and reformation. The boys worked six hours a day; spent four in school; prayed, played, or performed incidental duties for five hours; and had nine hours for sleep. They were housed in dormitories that were secured at night. The school’s punishment philosophy called for graduated sanctions that began with denying recreation and rose, “when absolutely necessary,” to beating.

EARLY HISTORY OF REFORM SCHOOLS

Until 1816, Connecticut children who committed offenses were generally treated as adult criminals. They were incarcerated in Newgate Prison or county jails, placed in workhouses, publicly whipped or placed in stocks, branded, or executed. In 1816, the legislature eliminated all forms of punishment other than imprisonment and fines (Legislative Program Review and Investigation Committee, Juvenile Justice in Connecticut, 1978). The legislature’s action mirrored that in other states.

But placing juveniles in prison with adults created a new set of problems, notably reports of mistreatment and abuse, which in turn stimulated new reforms. In New York City, philanthropists, concerned

about increased crime, delinquency, and social disorder, created the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents. The society lobbied the state legislature for money to open a “house of refuge. ” When it opened in 1825, the new institution had two aims: remove children from adult prisons and introduce a new way to help and treat them.

Other houses were subsequently established in Boston (1826) and Philadelphia (1828). The New York and Philadelphia houses were private corporations, founded by local philanthropists, and supported in part by public funds although with little public control. The Boston refuge was a creature of the Boston City Council who appointed its directors and provided most of its operating costs. The houses of refuge emphasized vocational training to prepare boys for indenture to farmers and tradesmen.

A second wave of institution building occurred around mid-century. Many of the facilities established at this time were called reform schools, a title indicating their emphasis on academic education, and they were more likely to be supported by government funds. Facilities were established in New Orleans (1847); Westborough, Massachusetts (1847); Rochester, New York (1849); Philadelphia (1850, for African-Americans); Cincinnati (1850); Pittsburgh (1854); Lancaster, Massachusetts (1856, for girls); and Lancaster, Ohio (1857). Government funding and control also became more prevalent in this period. By 1876, a federal report on reform schools indicated that 23 of 51 institutions included were state facilities, 12 were municipal, 12 were private, and three were combined state and local facilities (Robert M. Mennel, Thorns and Thistles, pp 3-50, (1973)). Meriden School for Boys was part of this second wave.

MERIDEN SCHOOL FOR BOYS

Legislative Action Establishing Reform School

Study Committee. Public pressure in the late 1840’s for separating adult and juvenile offenders prompted the General Assembly to appoint a select committee to make recommendations on establishing a reform school. The committee reported in the May 1850 session. It found:

The committee proposed establishing a school for the “instruction, employment, and reformation of juvenile offenders. ” Among the arguments it offered in support of this proposal, the committee (1) asserted that three-quarters of those placed in similar institutions were “entirely reclaimed and become valuable members of society and State” and (2) suggested that reforming young offenders could “materially lessen the future number of aggravated offenses and the future amount of judicial expenses of the state” (“Report of Joint Select Committee on a State Reform School”, Connecticut Legislative Documents, 1851).

An Act Establishing a State Reform School. In 1851, the legislature adopted the select committee’s proposal. The school, to be built on land conveyed to the state for that purpose, was to house boys age 16 or less who were convicted of a crime. Commitment for crimes punishable by imprisonment was a minimum of 90 days and could last until the boy reached age 21 (the age of majority). For lesser offenses, justices of the peace could commit boys for up to 90 days, but a majority of selectmen in the town where the offense occurred could recommend a longer period.

The school was governed by an eight-member board of trustees, one from each county, appointed by the Senate for two-year terms. The trustees hired a superintendent and other school officials. The act required boys to be instructed in piety and morality; useful knowledge as appropriate to their age and capacity; and some vocation, either mechanical, manufacturing, agricultural, or horticultural. The trustees could discharge boys they believed had reformed, apprentice boys to farmers and mechanics, and remand incorrigible boys to the county sheriff or town constable for placement in prison, jail, or a workhouse.

The school was built as a public-private partnership. The act called for the state to contribute $ 10,000 for its establishment, but only after $ 10,000 was actually paid to the state treasurer by private individuals. It required the state to pay $ 1 per week for each boy’s board.

A copy of the act is enclosed.

Initial Operation

The school was built in Meriden and opened in March 1854. In 1856, the trustees’ annual report to the General Assembly stated that 139 boys were initially placed in the school; 34 were admitted and 47 discharged between April 1, 1855 and April 1, 1856 (25 as apprentices, 11 at the end of their sentence, five remanded to alternate sentences, three reformed, two escaped, and five other). On April 1, 1856, the school’s census was 126. Over half of these boys had lost one or both parents, over half had either one or both parents deemed intemperate, and 20% had one or both parents in jail.

The trustees reported that during summer 1855 they had to notify the courts, as the enabling act required, that the school was filled and could not accept any more boys. They trustees estimated that 100 additional boys would have been sent if there was room. By 1856, the school’s capacity was 160.

The trustees reported that the “institution is to be a family as well as a school of detention and reformation…” The boys’ day included six hours of work; four hours of school; five hours of devotion, recreation, and incidental duties; and nine hours of sleep. They were housed in dormitories that were secured at night. (In 1878, the dormitory system was replaced by a pioneering cottage system in which five, three-story units each accommodated 50 boys under the supervision of a husband and wife team and their assistants. )

The school’s by-laws outlined its punishment philosophy. “In all cases,” they said, “care should be taken to impress the delinquents with the conviction that the object in administering punishment is to subdue their vicious passions and to promote their welfare…and at the same time to convince them beyond doubt that discipline and good order will be maintained at all hazards. ” Minor offenses and indiscretions received “gentle admonition and reproof…. ” Punishment for a first offense was to be as minimal as possible; it increased in severity for repeat transgressions. Punishment took the form of depriving a boy of amusement or recreation; withholding favorite foods or privileges; losing rank or status; imposing some “irksome duty”; placing him under close or solitary confinement; and when absolutely necessary, beating (“Report of State Reform School Trustees,” Connecticut Legislative Documents, 1856).

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