Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-10-10
State Reform School.


Below we cops, ftom tine advanc, sheets.
the portion Of most general interest of the
port of the Commissioners of the State
Reform School, at Waterbury. made to the
Governor. and which will be presented to the
Legislature the coming session
Thou Oh the school i. new the subject is no
altogether o new one to the Legislature and
the people OF the State. Previous Governors
have felt the Importance Of the snhject and
brought it to the notice of the Legislature,
but until the last session, when it was again
and forcbly recommended by your Excellen-
cy, the time for action seems not to have
rived. The convictions of the public mind
had not yet become sufficiently strong and
ripe. and action if it had been taken. would
not have been judicious, nor so likely to be
sustained and carried out to full effect, ss the
action which has now been taken. On such
subjects as this the public mind ripens slowly.
they are not matters of abstract science nor
of materia! or civil necessity. Tney are the
gro~th oe causes that are deep and pervasive,
and that work slowly but surely, like the
leaven the women put into the three measures
of meal, which worked until the whole WAS
leavened. The great philanthropic and reior
matcry movements by which the age is char
the Christian ages hitherto, are the fruit of
an advancing civilization, Of an enthusiastic
love of humanity derived from the Divine
Author of our faith, developing lself more
and more in Christian hearts, overlea ping the
barriers of custom and caste, subduing the
power of rooted and inve.erate superstition
and prejudice, and bringing all mankind
within the range and embrace Of that chart
ty which, more than anything else, is the
central principle and grand distinction OF
Christian religion.
We are fortunate, not only in the age upon
which we are fallen, but IN beginning our
enterprise at such an advanced position with
in the age. These enterprises of reformation
for juvenile offenders, among which ours is
numt cred, date in this country not more than
twenty years back. 1t is well that ours stands
at a point so late in the series. Time enough
mas now elapsed for the pretty full develop
ment of the results of the first experiments.
| We commence our work, We lay our founda-
tions, we form our plans at a point where We
can profit by these results, and where We car
work In the light of The experience of Others
We have found that experience most timely
and instructive. 1t has saved us from grave
errors which our predecessors IN their ln
experience have committed. 1t has saved
thousa nds of treasure to the State, which, 1
or even six years ago, would have been e1pend
/ ed, and which we should now have seer
were little better than thrown away.
Ten years ago no state would have dreamed
| of establishing a Reform School at ex-
pense Of less then 5000 for buildings alone
about ten times as much as 1t cost this Stat,
for the building, which we now report a
completed. But not only has much beer
saved in the way of expense,by the lateness o
the day on which our work has fallen, bu
even more has been gained the point o
idea and plan in reference to THE whole worl
of education and reformation Of Juvenile de
linquents.
The earlier ideas were not only expensive
but they were immature and crude to tn
methods of discipline required, and the mean
by which the desired end could be most atft ct
ualy secured The first Reform Schools
prompted by the purest berevoleuce, an
built and planned under the best light tha
the age afforded, were alter all but moderfe
prisons-penitentiaries of mlder and
more humane type. They were IN advance O
the prison proper, only in the respect tha
the idea of humanity towards the prisone
aud the supply of tn means OF his retorma
ZION, was combined with the idea and mea n
of punishment. The inmates wers crowde
together by the hundred, in the same apar
fficers for their management and instruction
The number of the inmates, and the atbitar
and mechanical disipline necessl lated by To
system placed the inmate at such remov
from the officer, that with the best intention
IA d the sincerest and most Christian desir
for the good of the subject, but little coul
be done for him.
Though it was a school, and in re ality a
well as design reformatory, yet, in spite {
all designs and efforts to the contrary, the q
mosphere. aspect and influence of the p'ac
were that the prison more then of the schoo
or the family, or the home. 1t was schoo
in the sense that the children were provide
with competent and faithful teachers, and II
sructed in the rudiments of learning. Bt
there was little of true mental exercise an
development, under the genial impulses
hope and love AMI freedom and manly self r
spect In such situation there could
much of the form of the school, Of instruction
and of learning, but of the true spirit
either, there could be but little. In respe
to provision for bodily wants, security, watc
fulness, kindness and wholesome restraint,
might have something of the likeness OF Il
family and the home But in the sanctury
the dearest affections and nurse and guards
of the child's best hopes and truess grow
and welfare, ard of all the interests OF
Intellectual and moral being, the home-t
family home could not be there. Nor, /
deed, can it, under any light or improvement
or by any human arrangement, be IN its II
sepse any where but at home, in the We
temple which God has built of parents,' ch
dren e, brothers, sisters hearts, hopes, Joy
brides, cares solicitudes, ambitions and ate
tions.
But what shall the State do By t
sundering of natural family ties, by the vi
Ia,ion, decoration and deprivation of the sar
tuary of home, thro' degradation, misfortur
Ignorance and crime the State has the
homeless, hapess orphans, thrown upon
hands, and lie by the inexorable award
Justice and the law, placed in loco psrentis
regard to them. What shall the just, the {
lightened, the humane, the Christian state
with these children, whom Providence
thus committed to its absolute control a
sole responsibility and care?
By the sacred award and decree of justi'
they are made the children of the State, I
forever but for time. And the State
no option. She must assume the charge a
responsible ity imposed upon her by her o.
laws. She cannot refuse it, she cannot de
gate it, these more than orpans have becol
her sacred solemn trust. What shall she
with them? How be most faithful TO
trust? If che cannot, within her sphere a
with her means, create new homes for the
she mus, study to provide them with Il
which shall approximate most closely to
homes they have lost, or have lacked. VIII
ever of parental care and affection, of dom
tic privacy, confidence and endeArment,
kindred and fraternal relationship and FREE
ships; whatever of intellectual and mo
culture snd training she can furnish ,heu
under whatever Of best and most genial
pulse and motive to the young heart and m