Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-10-18
THE STATE REFORM SCHOOL.

THE STATE REFORM SCHOOL
The legislative committee on the Governors
special message relative to the State Reform
School have made report, and this report has
been printed Their duty was to examine
carefully the condition of the buildings and of
the school, since the fire, and communicate TO
the Legislature the result of their inquiries.
Their report begins with specification of
such defects in the system of managing the
school as may be traced to Imperfect legisla-
ton" They think that the power to commit
boys to the school is given too extensively to
courts and trial justices /; they would have it
confined to justices of the Supreme and~Su-
perior Courts, and judges of probatte/: Many
of the commitments, they say, are too short
and, sometimes, wheI sentence to the Reform
School is long and the alternative sentence to
prison sReSrt, the boys refractory in order to
1er sent to prison where release will be speed
Ter.
sAmong the other specifications are some not
specially noteworthy, with one which we deem
more important than any other to which the
committed to the school who are "up to the
age of sixteen" "Since the foundation of the
school more than forty per cent, and dur
ing the past year precisely fifty per
cent. of the whole number committed,
have been fourteen years of age and
upwards" say the committee In our view,
this, with the too extensively distributed pow
er of the commitment, and the lack of prop
er classification, and family like separation,
will fully account for any defects that have
been noticed in the operation and general re-
suits of the system of management. The
committee recommend that no boy over four
teen years old be sent to the institution,-
that all sent there be committed during their
minority, and that alternative sentences to
jals &C., be abolished in favor of corrections
al department" to the Reform School itself
They recommended also a restoration of the
old building, but with the internal arrange
ment entirely remodelled so as to accommo-
date only about two hundred boys, as follows:
''1st. A correctional department, to contain
25 to 30; 3D. A receiving department, to con-
tain 40 or so, in which boys should be placed
on their arrival at the school, and until it is
ascertained into what other class they ought to
be admitted and 3D.. Three other depart
ments, each to contain from 40 to so of those
who can least safely be trusted outside the
walls. Each department should be under its
sub-master, who would be responsible for the
discipline within it; and the boys in each
should be entirely separated from those in the
other departments, whether in the dormtores,
nj nt OF Of,
To this they would add several farmhouse
like buildings to accommodate about one hun
dred and fifty boys, thirty or forty in each
building: and for all over three hundred and
nfty they would make provision at some other
place. Such are the main particulars of their
report, submitted for consideration They
should have due attention from the people of
the state as well as from members of the pres
ent legislature. 1t is to be hoped that the
whole subject will be discussed very carefully,
and that the wisest and best arrangement may
be adopted.
Appended to this report, which is signed by
Mr.. Brimmer of Boston, we have bills for the
establishment and regulation of Nautical
Branch" OF the Reform School, This scheme
for nautical school to be supported by the
state, is an elderly Boston notion, which has
haunted various legislatures, always persist
ent, but never successful. The Wcstboro'
fire seems to have warmed it into unwonted
life and vigor. 1t has come again, deeming
this occasion very favorable for its purpose
Itwould take advantage of the present condi-
ton Of the Reform School to gain something
for itself; and it comes now, as heretofore,
with dream of success. We have already
expressed our opinion against the scheme for
state nautical school, and given the reasons
for it. But is there not sufficient condcmna-
ton of the scheme in the following language
of this report itself?-
"The committee propose that an old shin
should be obtained and fitted up for the ac-
commodation of one hundred and fifty bows
and that the discipline established among them
should be that of a well ordered man ofwar."
And will the people of Massachusetts accept
this as part of their Reform School for BOYS?
We can not believe it. 1t can not be possible
that, III the very moment when we are inquir-
ing earnestly how we can most successfully
give the institution more of those family and
homelike agencies which are so necessary to
its success-it can not be, that, in the midst of
this inquiry, we will consent to have the bows
shut up in prison ship in Boston harbor, and
subjected to the discipline of a man ofwar.
And yet it may be, we are sorry to think. that
this prison ship scheme will find some favor in
the legislature. Its friends, in the lobby and
elsewhere, have done everything in their power
to hurry it through the House, where it was
passed to third reading yesterday. Is there
nobody to rebuke this unseemly haste.
matter Of so much importance should not be
disposed of in this way without proper dis.
cussion, and before the people can know what
is going on We trust that it will not be per-
mitted to slip so smoothly and quickly through
the Senate.
BREACH CT TRUsT.-rhe recent deGalcotion
of Isaac +. Shepard has many features of
melancholy interest, calculated to excite nub.
lie sympathy. To his friends he appeared Ms