The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-30

Their Report to the State
Legislature-Views and
Recommendations.

Legislature, we take the following extracts;-
In accordance with section 9 of the act, the
board has already made, in a separate paper, an
annual report of recommendations in behalf OF
certain institutions asking State aid The con-
clusions arrived at, and conveyed therein to the
Legislature were made after proper Inquiry"
and deliberation; and we believe that we have
not erred from right judgment In recommend
ing these appropriations. We shall be glad If
the Legislature shall approve our conclusions
and, thus far give their sanction to the pro-
ceedings of the board. We have endeavored to
apply, in every case, an uncompromising rigor
OF inquiry and an impartial estimate of merit
We now present some views of the various in
stitutions of the State, ard more particularly of
those in which she is specially interested, either
as sole proprietor or as dispenser of annual
benefactions towards their support. We will
not make, at this time, philosophic nor even a
minute classification of charities, in the enlarged
signi6eation of the word. We are constrained
by circumstances to refer to them simply as
State or county institutions, and local charities
in the more restricted sense of the term.
STATE PENITENTIARY FOR THE EASTERN DIS
TRICT, PHILADELPHIA.
This penitentiary was built in accordance with
the provisions of an act of Assembly of March
90 1S21 and is conducted on the principle of sthe
solitary confinement of the prisoners" The
number originally provided for was $50, but
successive engagements have increased the ac-
commodations to $780, There have been, at one
time, as many as 6S5 prisoners In this ''correc-
tional institution" The inspectors having
our board, we are prevented from furnishing the
usual statistics and information.
PHILADELPHIA HOUSE OF REFUGE
Tne establishment of this institution was de-
termined upon at a meeting of citizens of Phi
ladelphia held In February, 1926. The public had
become thoroughly impressed with conyic-
tion of its necessity as a school of reform for
vagrant criminal, and neglected children whose
destiny would otherwise be the prison. where
further contamination would be endgendered or
fnn fr,h do 0IoAz
respectability, the morality, and the substance
of the community.
The earliest consideration of this whole sub
ject-at least such consideration as led to prac-
tieal results-had occurred only eight or nine
years previously and seems to have grown out
of an observation of the sad and desperate con-
dition of the children of the tried and untried
female prisoners In the Newgate prison, who
were congregated there, together with other
children, in what seemed to be hopeless de-
pravity filth, and wretchedness. The moral
condition of the neglected youth of the large
cities of England, as elsewhere, was growing
worse continuously in contamination, until
the anxieties of good and thoughtful citizens
were thoroughly aroused to devise some
method of amelioration or cure. The sugges-
tion of better way than prison incarceration
and prison discipline for the reformation of
j~-..-siis delin9nents, and for the protection of
society from their .depredations, was quickly
followed by a practical realization of the noble
thought of instituting schools of reformation
for this hapless and almost irresponsible class
of the community; and in 1909 a noble band of
philanthropists was found occupied in this work
in England. In our own country the city of New
York had established in 1924 ''society for the
reformation of juvenile delinquents," in whose
inception and early history a philanthro-
pist-honored in the memory of our own citi-
zens, as elsewhere, viz, Isaac Collins
took an active and conspicuous position That
institution has been conducted, to this day, with
a spirit of unfailing vigor and enterprise, stimu-
lated in its exercise by the best impulses and
convictions of both the mind and heart The
(Philadelphia) House of Refuge was incorpo-
rated by an act of the Legislature, approved
March 23, 1926. Its government resides in a
board of thirty-one managers, three of whom
are appointed by the Court of Common Pleas
of Philadelphia county, and two by the Mayor
The remainder are chosen by the contributors
and all hold their appointments for one year.
We believe that no other institution of the
kind makes separate provision for colored chill
dren, and in oil of them the proportion of these
Is, as a consequence, very small. So that what
ever view may be entertained as to discrimina-
tion in the case of delinquents or quasi cIimi-
nails, the fact of its existence in this Refuge has
been of paramount advantage to the colored
youth OF Philadelphia. The mature expe-
rienee Whleh the managers had
acquired after a devotion Of twenty
five years service to the cause of juye-
nile reformation, led to the determination of
occupying the present location, with more ex-
tended, more suitable, and more complete ac-
commodatious. The present structure for the
white department was thus undertaken in 1851,
and finished and inaugurated in 1864. The
number of inmates of both sexes and colors
who can be properly maintained in these build
ings, is 62S The records show that there have
been recently, of white boys alone, 440 at a
time in the Institution; which made it obliga-
tory upon the managers to look forward to a
speedy enlargement of their resources for the
better care and classification of at least this ele
ment of the Refuge. The total cost of the site,
buildings and furniture OF the institution, as
established on January l, 1870, was 1886, 500, of
which the State furnished So 500; county of
Philadelphia $50 900; contributions of citizens,
$175, GOO; and gain on cost of real estate,
$73 0O0 Since this date a new department for
white females has been founded and is in course
of construction on the same premises, the city
of Philadelphia having added to the site lot,
by request of the managers, and the State hav-
ing made an appropriation of 800 900 towards
the building The addition of this improve
ment will cost, when complete, about $150, 900.
We consider the action of the Board of
Managers, which effected this last great work.
| to have been supremely wise, and even mer-
eiful. We cannot reserve the expression of our
opinion that no institution in the country Is con-
| Quoted with more absorbing care, thoughtiul-
ness, and practical fidelity than the Philadelphia
| House of Refuge.
The defects Of all such establishments result
| from the imperfect means which they possess
| for proper classification, l. is iatai want IN
almost all institutions, whether charitable, re-
! formatory or correctional; and however earnest
| and canable may be the direction, whether of
manooers or their subordlnates, these institutions
too often become mere places Of detention,
owing 10 the disccuTagement which necessarily
fastens itself upon ones conviction, that the
| cherished object of the institution, whether IL
be the reformation of the transgressing child
! the relief of the distracted maniac, or the
amendment of the degraded pauper, cannot De
! possibly realized. Whatever can be reasonably
effected TO prevent the influence Oh remedial es
| heinO hindered in its effects by cOuuteracting