The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-05
SIX THOUSAND SHORT NOW.
INSTITUTION IS FAR BELOW THE
PROPER STANDARD.
Even Court Judges Do Not Seem to
Understand Its PurpOses-A Doc
ument Which Will Bear Careful
Study-Change Necessary to Per-
feet Conditions-statem by
the Various Oficers-A Well
Worded Document.

/
to the senate and house the fourth BIZ
ennial report off the trustees of the Re
| form school at Ogden.
The trustees state that notwithstand-
ing the heavy expenses during the past
two years, the amount of expense IN
1894 is only s92354 in excess of 1898,
while the expenditure for 1895 was So
741. OS less than in 1894, and 81 05.22 less
than i'm 1893.
The cause of larger expenditures Is
ascribed to the action of the board IN
borrowing money in order to avoid dis
counting teachers pay warrants ana
bills for merchandise, the interest &C
cruing amounting to S2,347.25.
The health of the inmates during the
time mentioned has been very good
The expenditures for medicine and at
tendance being only $961.SO.
Attention is called to a defect in eX-
listing law. The act at present pro-
vides that boys and girls may be made
inmates for incorrigible or vicious con-
duct and the costs of keeping such
boys and girls, including the costs of
transportation shall be wholly paid by
parent or guardian at the pleasure of
| the board, but which provision is use
less because the legislature has failed
to provide in what name the trustees
may institute an action. The board has
attempted to enforce this provision but
was defeated in court on the suit
brought.
The trustees call attention to the
fact that the general public and most
OF the judges have mistaken ldea as
to the objects and purposes for which
the Reform school was instituted. The
statute provides: when a 10y or girl
within the age of eighteen years. shall,
in any of the district courts of the ter
ritory, be found guilty of any crime
except murder, the court may, if in its
opinion the accused is a proper sub
ject therefor instead of entering judg-
ment, cause an order to be entered,
that such boy or girl be sent to the Re
form school"
The object of the school is not to pun
! ish any child for any past act, but on
| the contrary when the law has found
such child guilty of any crime and
demands it's punishment the reform
school is permitted to step between the
accused and the demands of justice
and insist that by reason of it's youth
! it ought not be punished but the state
! ought to surround it with different at
fractions; convey to it another idea of
I life and in return for such control the
reform school, in effect, promises that
unless the child is confirmed in crime
or so morally depraved as to be beyond
reform, it should be discharged, as is
a patient from a hospital or an unfor-
tunate from an asylum. The child is
not sent to the reform school as a pun
ishnent for crime. But children sent
/ there are told by the judge committing
! them that while he has power to send
them to Jail he will only send them to
the reform school, where by good con-
! duct they can earn the Copper act
the same as in the penitentiary and
are taught from beginning to end that
their confinement is solely as a punish
ment.
The act which provides that inmates
convicted of felony, if unruly or in
corrigible, may be returned to the Gus
tody of the sheriff of the county they
were committed from is of but little
use. So many girls are sent up for
repeated offenses against virtue as to
cause great trouble. The maturer ones
lnculcate the idea that vicious conduct
Will effect a speedy release. There are
not often inflicted, the board believing
the institution ought not be tainted
with dark cells and f1oggings.
Inc small appropriations made have
prevented the employment of teachers
and help sufficient to keep the two
sexes entirely separate and the girls.
pelnS advanced in years, will use every
means OF communicating with the BOYS
The only possible means to success |
Iully improve the condition of the in
mates is by keeping the sexes absolute
ly apart.
NO appropriations have ever been
made for carrying out the provisions of
the statute providing for instruction in
labor, mechanical, manufacturing or
agricultural as best suited If this
could be changed better results would
accrue. "0UiU
By reason of limited appropriations
tne salary OF the superintendent has
been reduced 25 and that of the roatror
30 per cent. Salaries of otber en- M
Ployees nave been cut and the number
reduced Despite this rigid. economy
there is deficiency Of $6,157. 40.
Inc OBJECTS of the school can onIv ha
attalned by liberal appropriations
made by the state in the same snirit
parent makes an investment in the
best possible education of his child
concluding, the trustees say:
:, Inc trustees can hardly hope. with
me natural increase in population of
the state, the expenses of running the
institution the next year, including the
payment of the present Indebtedness
and making necessary repairs. can
even with as close economic manage
ment as has been effected during the |
past two years, be kept within a less
amount than $4,000, and the trustees
therefore recommend that the state |
legislature appropriate that amount"
The report is signed by James H.
Moyle, John Watson, M. A. Breeder, |