The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1899-09-22
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER %, 1899.
TIMELY SUGGESTIONS.

tee on Reformatories of the New Jer.
sey State Charities Aid Association,
that number of changes are advis-
able in the State Industrial School
for girls. The Committee has been in
correspondence with the management
of number of state schools similar
in purpose to the Trenton School, in
Guiding the Pennsylvania Reform
School at Marganza; the Oakland
School for Girls at Harvard, r. l.
State Institution Of Iowa, the New
York House of Refuge, Randall's Is
land, N. Y; the Girls Industrial
Home at Rathbone, o.; the State
Home for Juvenile Female Offenders
at Geneva, Ill. ; The Indiana School
for Feeble Minded Youth at Fort
Wayne, Ind. the Lyman School for
boys at Marlborough, Mass. /; Boys
and Girls Aid Society of Oregon, at
Portland, Ore. Minnesota State Re-
formatory, Tennessee Industrial
School, the New York State Charities
Aid Association, State Industrial
School for Girls, at Lawrence, Mass.
State Industrial School for Girls, at
Chillicothe, Mo-; Whittier State
School, at Whittier, Cal, and New
York Childrens Aid Society. To all
the following questions were asked:
"What are your prescribed punish
ments? What rules have you in
regard to punishments? Do you keep
punishment book? and under whose
supervision is it? Do you allow cor
poral punishment? What discretion
has your superintendent in the mat
ter? If corporal punishment is al
lowed, is it done in the presence of
the other inmates, or in whose pres
ence? Do you allow male employees
to assist in any way in the correction
or control of inmates in the admins
tration of punishment? Have you
found such male assistance necessary
What is your opinion of it? Have you
punishment cells; if so, describe them !?
Do you think them necessary or adj
visable? How do you check obscenity,
and to what extent is it factor in
reformatory problems? What do you
do with incorrigible and unmanage-
able girls? Are there any such? How
do you punish runaway girls? Do you
consider trained service necessary in
the superintendent of such an in
stitution? What is your opinion of
the congregate plan?'
ceived, the committee further states
in the letter to the governor, that:
Judging from the evidence we
herewith present, as to the methods
pursued elsewhere, the active man
ayers of the Trenton Institution
would seem to us to have no adequate
conception of the problems involved
in reformatory work, and, indeed,
not to have given any serious study
to the subject. They would appear to
have taken no steps to discover the
methods and remedies which obtain
in other institutions. The methods of
punishment pursued would seem to
have been dictated by something akin
to feeling of despair at their own
incompetence to maintain discipline
in the school. -
In order to make the school what it
is in name the committee, after care
full deliberation, concludes the state
ment to New Jerseys Chief Executive
officer with the following recommen-
dations:
That corporal punishment be abso-
lutely forbidden.
That cells be abolished.
That no girl be deprived of the
regular board for more than twenty
four consecutive hours.
That no girl be kept in solitary con-
finement for more than twenty-four
hours consecutively.
That the use of the STRAIGHTFORWARD
be abolished
That the visiting physician be re-
quired to examine all normal and
habitually refractory girls and report
their condition to the trustees.
That an effort be made to secure and
record the physical history of all girls
who are now in the school, and here
after of all girls when committed
there.
That the indenturing of all girls to
private families be encouraged and
facilitated as far as possible.
That the office of managing trustee
be abolished.
That the new Board of Trustees
visit in body the similar institu-
tions in Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, and investigate the methods
practised there.
That the trustees send the superin-
tendent, or one of the members, to
the annual meetings of the National
Conference of Charities and Correc-
ton for enlightenment as to methods
and comparison with other workers.
And that the congregate plan be
abolished as soon as practicable.
May we also venture to recommend
to your Excellency that the Auxiliary
Board be abolised and legislation be
procured to admit the appointment of
a mixed Board of Trustees, consist
ing of four men and three women. y
Had the Republicans in Maryland
and Kentucky been as weakened as
the controlling element of the party
in the Old Dominion. there wonld