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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 56
The Royal Commission on Reformatories, &c
The Royal Commission on Reformatories, &c.
During the past year there has been issued a comprehensive Report from the Royal Commission on Reformatories and Industrial Schools, containing much valuable evidence and many practical suggestions. Considering the special importance of all which relates to the prevention of crime, or its arrest in its earliest stages, the Committee of the Howard Association have devoted their endeavours to promote and extend the circulation and knowledge of that Report in other countries, and especially in the British Colonies and the United States. Grateful acknowledgments have been received from State officers and private philanthropists in these countries.
At home, also, the Committee have sought to utilise this Report in various ways. There is one point upon which more emphatic and decided recommendations would have been desirable, although the Commissioners have not been wholly silent upon it, namely, the importance of better classification in the establishments reported on, and in particular an entire separation between the younger children and the elder youth.
By means of letters in the newspapers and to influential persons, the Committee have urged the necessity for public attention to this point. Their views have received repeated confirmation and approval from some of the ablest and most experienced managers of Reformatories and Industrial Schools.
"The evils resulting from a promiscuous intercourse of the elder and younger boys in Reformatories can hardly be described in words. The corruption to which I allude is the root of almost every outbreak of insubordination, incendiarism and so forth, of which we so frequently hear, in connection with Reformatories. You will be doing good service to the State by continuing to draw the attention of the public to this most important subject."
Amongst the letters received in relation to this subject is one from Captain Brooks, the efficient Superintendent of the large Industrial School for boys, for Middlesex, at Feltham. His position and experience give special value to his opinions. The Committee, however, are not prepared to endorse them in their entirety, though heartily uniting with much that he expresses. As to the mischief wrought by the drunken and vicious parents who have insisted upon resuming their control over their children, on leaving Feltham, this has resulted in their ruin so often as to impress Captain Brooks strongly on the question. Even on the occasion of their visits to the children on Bank Holidays, so many of the parents and "friends"used to arrive drunk that it was found necessary to forbid their visits on such days. Captain Brook's letter is as follows:—
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(feltham experience.)