Year: 1868


! In pursuance of the requirements of sec
ton 10 of an act of the General Assembly
of the State of Indiana, approved Marcel
8, 1867, entitled San Act 10 establish {
House of Refuge for the correction and
reformation of Juvenile offenders" /, Con
rad Baker, Lieutenant Governor of thu
State of Indiana, acting as Governor there
of, do hereby announce and proclaim thai
the institution contemplated by said &C
having been heretofore located near Plain
field, in Hendricks county, is now so near
ly completed as to properly admit OF the
reception of youths who may be commit
ted to its guardianship under the provis
ions Of said act.


According to the plan adopted by the
Board of Commissioners. 10 whose man
asement the institution is entrusted, II will
much more largely partake of the nature
of an Industrial Reform School than of q
Juvenile prison, and this being the case
the success of the enterprise will depend
greatly upon Its starting under favorable
auspices and conditions.


After the Institution Is fairly in opera
ton, and families of infants are formed and
under good discipline, IL will be much
easier to work in boys of an older and
worse class, than ii would be TO form and
reduce to proper discipline families and
classes composed entirely or principally ol
such material in the outset.


The experience of similar institutions in
other States has proved that boys over the
age of sixteen years can not be received
with profit to themselves or the Institution.
Yet the act under which our House of Re-
fuge is organized prescribes eighteen years
as the maximum age at which infants may
be received.


The evil to be feared from the sending
of boys Of such advanced age will proba-
bly, be aggravated by the fact that the
friends Of those accused Of crime will be
tempted to represent the accused as being
younger than they really are. to save them
from the county Jail or peniteLtiary, by
having them sent to this Institution.


Ii is hoped that ali good citizens
who desire to see this Institution success
fully perform its mission, will use all prop
er means to discourage and prevent the
committal of boys Of an improper age 10
Its guardianship; and to this end the CO.
operation of those entrusted with the ad
ministration Of the law is especially soli-
cited.


1t will be observed that 10y the lth Sec
iion of the act, infants under the age of Is
years may be sentenced. upon regular
trial to the House OF Refuge, instead OF
being sentenced TO the penitentiary or
county Jail. 1t is hoped that no infant will
be sentenced TO the house of refuge under
this section for the following reasons, viz:


/. 1t will leave a record of conviction OF
crime 10 confront him in his efforts 10 de-
III. ,Elnnna of bic fol
low men; and there is certainly no neces-
sity for such conviction, as he may be as
effcctually committed 10 the guardianship
of the institution under the provisions OF
the 10Th, l2ib, 18th and l4th sections OF
the act without any such record being
made against him.


2. BY the provisions of the 18th section
Of the act no infant can be conveyed to
the institution until il is ascertaiIed from
the Superintendent whether he can be re-
ceived or not; and if he can not be received
into the institution the case of such infant
is to be disposed of as if the act had never
been passed and as if no proceedings had
been taken under ii.


Now if an infant should be regularly
tried and sentenced to the House of Re
fuge, and it should be afterwards ascer-
tained that he could not be received in the
Institution he could not be tried again for
The same offense, and his discharge would
be necessity.


Under the provisions of the twentieth
section of the act the expense of keeping
and taking care of each infant, Gncluding
subsistence aud clothing,) has been estima-
led at one hundred and thirty dollars per
annum.


The act provides that one half of the
expense of keeping each infant shalt Be
paid by the State, and the other half by the
county from which he is sent; except
where the infant is sent at the instance OF
his parent or guardian, IN which case the
parent or the infant, il able, must pay the
expenses, and in the last named case .he
charge will be one hundred and fifty dol
lars.


Where the infant Is sent at the public
expense, the charge to the county from
which he may come will not exceed half the
amount OF the aforesaid estimate or sixty
five dollars per annum.


The necessary forms to be observed in
making applications for admission into
this institution will be sent without delay
to the Auditor OF each county in the State


In witness whereof, / have hereunto SUBJ
scribed my name and caused the seal of
the State to be affixed, at the city of Indi-
annapolis, the date first above given.


CoNRAr BAKER.


Nelson Trusler, Secretary of State.