The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-08-23
For the REGISTER.
A House of Correction for Juvenile Of
tenders.

l
DO WE NOT NEED ONE IN VERMONT?
Not infrequcntly an offender is brought
to trial whose crime is too clearly proved
to justify acquittal, and yet not sufficient
ly malignant to warrant the court in
sending him to the States Prison for a
long term or the offender may be too old
to be admitted into the State Reform
School Oimited to sixteen), or too young
for the States Prison; in this dilemma
the court, rather than punish too severely
acquits the offender who after mingling
with more hardened ones in our county
jails, is turned loose on the community
the worse, sometimes, rather than better
for few months Imprisonment and pos
sibly with the impression that he had al
ready suffered more than his offence de-
served.
To avoid these extremes, an intermedi-
ate establishment appears to be needed
say House of Correction conducted on
simalar principle to that followed in
the Reform School, to which offenders
might be committed who were judged
unfit for perfect liberty, and undeserving
the rigors of the State Prison.
No one who properly estimates the i'm
portance of those five years, between six
teen and twenty-one, in young mans
life, can be Indifferent as to the education
he may be subject to, especially if his
training or propensities are, or have been
leaning toward lawlessness no one who
desires our "public virtue" may be culti-
waited and perpetuated, can regard with
Indifference that class of our young men
now under our notice,in that critical per-
iod in which the character is being form
ed. How often it happens that when a
| first offence is committed little correction
administrated in proper manner, and
with favorable surroundings, leads the Of
fender to see the consequences that would
follow the repetition Of the offence, and
induce reform while neglect of such
opportunities would lead the repetition
of the offence, the hardening in crime, the
loss Of one who might be an efficient con-
tributor to the moral and material wealth
of the State
And we need House of Correction in
which this wholesome discipline might be
administered in manner that would ia
vor, not the crushing out of manhood
not the cultivation of an independence
that borders on disregard of the law and
the right of others but reform Of char
acter that should go down as deep into
the moral nature of our client as his trans
gression has gone, and give him an oppor-
tanity to recover his lost ground and be-
come laU abiding citizen.
The Trustees of the Vermont Reform
School in their tenth annual report say /.
"The work Of taking the juvenile delin-
quents from the evil examples of our
streets or vicious homes, and placing a.
round them all the good influences Of in
tellectual and moral training and pleasant
employment, is based upon the truly
Christian idea of reform, and not punish
ment. Social and political economy, and
the demands of our religion, go hand III
hand in this enterprise"
[P. 9.
Let that beautiful sentiment become
the public sentiment Of the State; let it
permeate the mind Of our Legislative As
sembly, and we shall have House OF
Correction comforting endurable favors on
the Commonwealth.
HENRY MILES.