Daily national Democrat., 1860-04-13
aaiIg Yational 9emotrat.
oob Of Hon. J. NJ. CrOwell on State
sP' Reform School bill.

y. r,otion of Mr. Wescott, Senate bill No.
w n'G Gct to provide for the erection Of a
,o iVo' form School, and for the regulation
o Tnoo ths in Committee of the Whole. After
Johate the committee arose.
fon,' VETnnowF1L-Mr. Speaker: This Is mat
m| ,.reat importance to the State at large,
Yer u ,,rssent good and future happiness.
lor Nv I;s hin was to obtain an appropria-
Du' 90 '" 'ostollish estate Reform School in
tlon " County. and as all of my colleagues
w" .ode themselves conspicuous IN other
nav. Of legislation this session, feel IN
la'.'iY .. hound to cast my mite in favor OF this
hu'y ort When ! contemplate its great
greas g.touce I feel the insigniicanee of the
laPV' a =. ,hat apy effort of mine would produce
euyv' tIis House. Yet with your indulgence
IPon T';n all the attention of the House to few
W. wa, yhv las bill should pass In the
T'SanDotori.. [S"SV"r Message of 1859, under the
uuC'' S Of "Ssbool of Reform" ex Governor
Weller says: ,, ,.;,..,no hoe fro
I'll, boen called to the necessity OF pro-
4urn 4i;nasome suitable place for juvenile offend
,lu"9 Inv Of them are here without parents
e.' ,nordions to control them, and unless
VI sU1, a,;sion is made to reform them, the
n+hobilitv is that as soon as they are legally
i;'IIo thay will be incarcerated in the State
pa;son In several of our sister States ln-
a,;,n,;ons Of this character have been esta6
Tshed and much good has been effected
SSontaAn houses of Reform. established be
tn,oan 1904 and 1856, has received 2O'6oS oi
t%ese juvenile offenders. Of this number
Sss47 we're BOYS, and S,Sll girls by turn
;NG ~ tbe books of the State Prison 1t Is
f,11pd that 500 persons have been lncarcefa-
ted uoder the the age Of twenty-ones, years
since the establishment Of the prison.
These statements ought to he sufi1clen TO
direct the attention of the legislature TO the
snlject Ofthe 2SO minors discharged from
the State Prison, it is exceedingly doubtful
whether one.tenth of them have reformed
and beeome useful members Of society. The
chances are that they came out confirmed
villains indeed, there are many OF them con
fined for the second land there are cases Of
,hr thjsdl offense Every member of this
Unuse who have visite the State Prison will
rnnch far the truth of this. Owing to the
raculiar construction of the building prison
ora aIe thrown together promlsouOusly, in
cpls containing from eight to fourteen per-
SONS or upwards, where each can have the
eynerience of the rest. Then sir, who can
Int see the necessity of keeping youth from
the society of those whose heads have grown
gray in crime? At the last session of the leg
islaiure bill was introduced by Senator
Ketcbum, which passed both houses and be
came law, which provided tor the appoint
meut of q Board of Commissioners, and for
the preliminary work. prior to the erection
ofthe buildings of Reform School. Hon.
Wm. I. Barbour, NJ f. Butler and N. A. H.
Ball, were appointed and constituted Board
of Commissioners for the State, for the pur-
poses above mentioned. These gentlemen
submitted their report to the Governor on
the Slst day of December last, which was af-
terwards ordered printed, and laid upon our
desks. In that report they say "of the pro-
pOsals to donate one hundred acres of land,
that made by the Common Council of the
city Of Marysville was deemed the most ad
yantageous, and ly he authority in US vested
was accepted, and the school located The
site is four and one half miles from the city,
upon the bank of the Feather river the soil
fertile, the climate healthy, the water close
at hand. A deed of gift has been received,
conveying said tract to the State, condition
ed that it shall be used for the purpose of
building and establishing a State Reform
plans, Specifications, estimates and proposals,
and everything within the power of the com
mttee, necessary to erect the buildings and
lay out the grounds They only wait for
the action of this House, as the bill has al
ready passed the Senate, to proceed to erect
the buildings and put in operation an nstitu
ton of which the State may feel proud, and
which will be kind guardian to many Cal
bn ofb ha
irretrievabIy lost Nearly half a century
ago, in the year 1914, there was established
in the city of New York, an institution called
the "House of Refuge for the Reformation of
Juvenile Delinquents" 1t was called into
an existence and justly viewed as no more
than an experiment 1t was an attempt to
set in motion another moral engine for the
benefit of a portion of our fellow beings
whose unhappy condition had measurably
been neglected by the philanthropists both
of our own and other lands And the benev-
,Oent Howard, by his surveys of the mansions
of sorrow and pain, by his explorations in the
depths of dungeons, by his voyages of discov
sry among the prisons not of Great Britain
merely, but of all Europe and part of Asia,
had nearly half century before awak-
ened the attention of the benevolent world
to the lamentable condition of prisons in gen
eral Goldsmith, in his Vicar Of Wakefield,
had even at an earlier day still, by one of the
most interesting scenes in that charming tic-
ton, Illustrated the fact that there are ave
nues by which goodness can find access to
the hearts OF even the old aud practical ten
ants OF the prison. And the gentle spirit Of
L'lsaoeth Fry, having succeeded in changing
the prison OF Newgate from the most loath-
some receptacle of vice in England, into an
asylum OF repentance and school ofindustry,
was yet engaged in speaking the words Of
peace, OF hope, and OF consolation to the in
mates OF the British prisons. The benevolent
oi our own counlrymen had likewise been
eXertlng themselves for years to improve the
cohditlon OF our common prisons and the dis
cPhhe OF our pehitentiaries, But there was
yet wanting an important link in the chain
oI benevolent actions. All the labors r, ferred
10 had been directed in chief to the improve
hlsn OF the moral and mental meioraton ofthe
temporal condition Of the actual convict, and
hardened offender. The more humane poli-
cy OF attempting the prevention of crime hy
re'culng juvenile deinquents from the paths
ol vice and the poisonous influence Of wicked
associates, before they had become hardened
10 sin and callOus to shame, had not been de
HSed, or if devised, had not been introduced
among the humane operations of the age
Inc view of phi anthropy had not then ex-
tended farther than the adoption of Il system
81 prison discipline. by which while the spir-
inal and physical wants Of all should be at
tended to, the tender in years and the now
lce In crime should be separated from those
VINO mad grown up in sin and become old in
ttIiquty as they were in years. 1t was at
lnlS Time, as / before remarked, forty
years ago, that a small number Of philanthro
PlSts IN the citv of New Ynrk nrrnnsed to es