The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-26
REFORMING GIRLS.
Excellent Work Being Done
at the State Industrial
School.
MORE HOME THAN PRISON
Youthful Criminals Made Useful
Members of Society-Daily
Routine.
MORE HOME THAN PRISON
Snecfol 10 The Jersey Cttp Nems.

Charit1eS AID society, most eXceIteIli
institution, stirred up a hornets nest
at it's recent meeting when it passed
some resolutions in regard to locking uI
girls over night in the Industrial School
At the same time those good people
drew attention to one of the best insti-
utions of its kind in the country, and one
in which New Jersey has every reason to
be proud Few residents of the State
perhaps, know just exactly what the In
dustrial School is and what it seeks to
accomplish. In a word, it is a reform
school for girls conducted in such a man
ner that it is stripped of all semblance
to correctionary institution, and is
more like large school or home.
In 1871 the Legislature passed an act
for the establishment of an Industrial
School to which any girl between the
ages of seven and sixteen years who is
guilty of any crime Except murder or
manslaughter), or who is habitually dis
orderly, incorrigible or vagrant, could
be committed by the Justices of the
Supreme Court or the presiding Judge OF
any criminal court. Such commitment
is made after a careful hearing by the
Judge of the charges brought against
the girl or upon the consent of the par
ent or guardian given in writing, and the
girl so committed remains under the
control of the institution until she ar
rives at the age of twenty-one years.
THE DAILY ROUTINE.
The girl who is sent to this place from
Jersey City takes the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad from the central depot
- IN, TNYcr
ton Junction There she changes cars,
and a few minutes ride brings her to
the school station. AS she alights from
the train the first thing she sees some
Two or three hundred yards away is the
large brick buildings of the institution.
AS she goes along the board walk she
begins to take in long draughts of pure
refreshing air such as she never breathed
in Jersey City. and the spreading land
scape of woodland and well-kept farms
presents such a picture as she never
gazed upon before. AS she draws nearer
to the building she can hardly believe
her eyes. No tall fence or thick walls
are anywhere to be seen; no bars at
the windows, and when she and her con-
ductor stop before the door, instead of
finds it of ordinary wood with a large
glass panel, through which she can see
pleasantly furnished room like the par
lor of some country residence. When, in
response to their ring, stout, matronly-
looking woman greets them with a
pleasant smile, she thinks there certainly
must be some mistake. and that that
cannot be the prison to which she has
been sent. The contrast between the
dismal whitewashed walls, changing bolts
and noisy turnkeyS, whose every step is
accompanied by the discordant jangle of
his keys, of the jail she has just left,
and this quiet, sunny home-like room,
with that pleasant-faced, motherly Wo-
man smiling so reaSsuringly upon her, is
too much for the waif. and she acts as
though all were a dream. She scarcely
needs the transaction which turns her
over to the institution, and mechanically
goes through the form of being entered.
Still in a daze she follows the person
into whose charge she is given, and be-
fore she realizes it at all she has be-
come an inmate of the place.
ROOMS INSTEAD OF CELLS.
She is taken upstairs and given room
by herself six feet wide by twelve feet
long, furnished with a bed, bureau and
a chair, and having at the end large
window which admits plenty of air and
light. 1t is many a day since she has
slept in such a nice, clean comfortable
bed, and it is not long before she is
sound asleep. 1t seems to her that she
has scarcely closed her eyes when she
hears a loud bell changing through the
building, which is the rising bell, rung
at $50 o'clock every morning. She has
thirty minutes to dress, and then goes
with the other inmates to the dining
hall, where she has breakfast. After
breakfast there are prayers, and then
she goes back to her room to make her
bed and put the apartment in order. At
eight o'clock there is a recess of twenty
minutes, during which she and her fell
low inmates amuse themselves as their
inclination directs. Then comes an hour
and forty minutes in the school room,
where the girls are instructed in the
primary English branches. An inter
mission of twenty minutes for recrea-
by another hour and forty minutes in
the school room.
This brings the noon hour, and with it
an appetite, and so the Jersey City girl
room for dinner. A half hour is spent
over this meal and then the girls pro-
ceed to the sewing room, where they
are taught to make clothing and other
articles used about the Institution. They
remain there thirty minutes, when they
are given a twenty minutes recess: ana
then the large bell rings again, and they
go to their rooms to prepare for the
longest stretch of confinement to one
thing which the girls have, and it con-
sumes three hours, ending at FIVE
o'clock. Then there is an hours recess
until six, when they so into supper. At
ter the evening meal an hour is spent in
The playroom; then come reports of the
days work and prayers, and at eight
O'Clock all retire. Then comes the first
suggestion of confinement.
SIGNS OF PRISON.
As the Jersey City girl enters her room
the door is closed upon her, and the key
turned in the lock on the outside She
goes to the window to look out and finds
stout wire screen between her and the
she is really a criminal under confine-
ment. The varied and interesting pro-
gramme of the day and her surroundings
had driven all such thoughts from her
mind, The teachers and others in au-
thority about the place had been uniform
ly kind and considerate toward her, and
she had been at liberty to go out of
doors and wander about the place dur
ing the recreation hours. But the dis
covery that she was thus a prisoner in
graduating herself that she has been
sent to such a nice place, she hurries to
bed and is soon fast asleep. She rapidly
becomes accustomed to this new life,
and works hard to make the best of her
opportunities. When she has been in the
institution year or so, having shown
herself worthy Of the change, she is
bound out to some farmer in the neigh
borhood and becomes valuable mem
Der of the community marrying some
honest agriculturist and making him a
good wife.
Such is the experience of the great
ma jority Of the girls who are committed
to the Industrial School. But, Of course,
rule, there are exceptions Occasionally
there comes to the institution a girl SO
innately bad that it is simply impossible
to- change her Kindness and punish