Inspired by a recent thread in the Pit regarding “zero tolerance” in public school disciplinary systems, I was thinking back to my own childhood. Back then, there was a vague-ish threat that sufficiently serious misbehavior could get you sent to a “Reform School” (I think this was the actual term that appeared in the rulebooks we were issued), whose characteristics were not concisely defined but were implied to include practices seen as part of stereotypical “Reform School” institutions as they appeared in novels and films, such as mandatory uniforms, a lack of meaningful extracurricular activities (No football team! Want exercise? Run more laps! No chess team! If you want intellectual stimulation go write a 5 page paper on butterflies!), being yelled at all the time, having to march instead of walk, regular lockdowns, daily searches, and more severe discipline for minor infractions, e.g. being placed in a padded cell for not doing your homework as opposed to getting yelled at and a bad grade at a regular school.
Do such “Reform Schools” actually exist in any meaningful sense? Did they ever? Are there public schools that qualify as “Reform Schools” or did they really mean that if you keep misbehaving, your parents will pull you out and put you in one of those private “Military Schools” ala “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson”, not really harsh, mean, or abusive per se, just a school that is modeled along the lines of adult military academies and boot camps, and intended to make good kids better, not bad kids good.
They weren’t actually schools. They were prisons for misbehaving youths. They were created so that troublemaker youths wouldn’t be sent to adult prisons where they would learn adult criminal behavior.
In this case, the wikipedia article looks to be fairly accurate.
I seem to recall a Juvenile Detention Facility in my county. Usually we, I mean THEY… were just sent to a boarding school/convent school like this one:
I can personally attest to the existence of reform schools as late as the mid 1970s, when I spent the better part of a year as a resident of one of them. I believe that facility is still operating, though it no longer admits girls and its inhabitants are convicted of more serious crimes than the kids I served time with.
At the time I was there, the school was part of the local public school system, and it functioned more as a residential school than a prison. We lived in housing units of approximately 25 kids, each with a tiny private room with built-in bunk, desk, and cabinet. We attended school 8 hours a day. We had a stable full of horses that we rarely got to ride, but we did get to care for them. There were jobs available; I worked as a math tutor and in the laundry.
This place was the minimum security option for “delinquents.” If a kid messed up too badly there, he was sent to a more secure facility some distance from the city. We had opportunities for home visits occasionally and even field trips into the community. We attended compulsory Sunday church services which were some inoffensive brand of hippie Protestantism and easy to daydream through.
I never experienced any abuse from the fellow inmates or the staff. They had only female staff in the girls’ residential area and only males with the boys. The facilities were bright, pleasant, and modern, and the food was fine. I was very happy there, even though they kept me much longer than my minor offenses warranted. (They had nowhere else to put me.) It was a vacation from my rather grim childhood.
As I mentioned, I believe that school is still operating, and I know the higher security facility is still used. The population of kids they serve is much different now, with many more kids in for violent crimes.
Yes, they do exist. Sometimes they’re a bit coy in their public relations, but you can often identify them by marketing buzzwords like “honor,” “self-discipline” and “close community”. Then you call them and ask about prior explusions and you’ll find out if they’re equipped to deal with behavioral issues. When my brother was expelled from his second, or maybe third, school, my parents sent him to Pennington, a “college preparatory boarding school”. While there are indeed students there without behavioral issues, they will also take kids who are on their Last Chance. He says he learned a lot about drugs there. How to do them, where to get them, when to sell them…
Interesting responses. I was under the impression that Reform School was a completely different beast from “Juvenile Hall”, aka “Juvie” aka “Baby Jail”. Juvie was for kids convicted in court of offenses and was primarily a prison with some school-like features. Reform School was primarily a school with some prison-like features, but it probably didn’t have guard towers and might not have locked cells/dorms, and kids could end up there based on the recommendation of a teacher or parent without needing to get a Juvenile Court to issue a sentence.
I was speculating that if there were “Reform Schools” at the high school level, whether there were “Reform Universities” or “Reform Grad Schools” where disgraced frat boys found drunk and naked on the floor of Smith Hall and expelled now have to march to lecture and get excoriated for uniform violations during their thesis defense.
“Wipe that smirk off your face, Jones, and find a peer reviewed citation for that assertion in paragraph three!” “Sir yes sir!” “And don’t slouch! Give me 30 pushups!” “Sir yes sir!” “I’ll make a man out of you yet! Reach for that PhD!”
As was I. “Reform school” ahem “residental preparatory school” is the last step *before *actual Juvie or all ages prison, in my experience with the concept. It’s used in the hopes that the increased supervision by adults whose relationship isn’t utterly soured with the kid (like his parents) and a new environment without his delinquent friends might give him the fresh start he needs to turn him around and put him back on the path of college bound righteousness.
Yes, both my father and grandmother taught at one in the late 1970’s. Whether you call it a reform school or a juvenile detention center depends on the way you look at it. It was kind of a combination of a minimum security prison/boarding school/orphanage hybrid. Some of the kids had serious criminal records up to and including murder and others just came from really bad families that couldn’t support them. They were all there because they couldn’t be in regular school for whatever reason.
The rules were strict but it wasn’t exactly like a prison, more like a really strict boarding school or summer camp. I was really young (3 to 4) when they worked there but I went there sometimes with my father. We had field trips to things like the state fair and swimming parties. The kids were always really good to me and we had a great time. However, many went on to serious criminal careers when they reached adulthood and are locked away forever now if they didn’t manage to get killed first. There were a few long-term success stories but not many.
Interesting. Did the kids from “really bad families” have serious behavior issues, or was it more a perception that harsh discipline now would prevent them from developing behavior issues later that would cause them to have their own “really bad families”?
In our area, “juvie” or JC (for juvenile center) was the county jail for minors. Juvenile offenders were initially brought there, then sorted through the courts into various categories. Some went to group homes, some to foster homes, some home with their parents, and some moved on into reform schools.
There weren’t any institutions in my memory with the actual name of [Whatever] Reform School. Instead, they’d be named the Somebody Juvenile Correctional Institution or the Somewhere Home School. In the '70s, many of the kids were placed there for technical infractions like absenting (running away from home) or truancy or for minor thefts or drug offenses. You could only get there through the juvenile justice system, not via parental requests or recommendations by school or health care workers.
Most of the kids I knew eventually grew out of their illicit activities and became ordinary members of society, but there were some who went on to further crimes and additional prisons. One or two ended up as notorious TV-news-worthy criminals.
There is one near my mother in law. The Glen Mills School is a residential school that takes young men that are referred by the court system. They take kids from all over the US but I don’t think they take kids with severe emotional disturbances.
I remember kids in El Paso, TX, talking about folks getting “sent to Alternative” (not sure if the word was actually majuscular, since I never saw it in writing, but it sounded that way.) Of course now that the internets exist, I can’t find any mention of this in EPISD. They do have a Delta Academy that is associated with juvie, but I don’t think that’s it.
[QUOTE=http://www.window.state.tx.us/tpr/tspr/elpaso/chapt12a.htm]
EPISD has four alternative schools for students removed from regular education settings. These include Raymond Telles Academy, Sunset High School, the School Age Parent Center, and the Juvenile Justice Center/Delta Academy. Raymond Telles Academy’s enrollment includes high school and middle school students as well as adjudicated youth referred from the El Paso County Juvenile Probation Center. Sunset High School’s enrollment includes high school students with problems not related to behavior (such as students who work to support their families) who may benefit from alternative methods to complete their education. The School Age Parent Center’s enrollment includes high school and middle school girls who are pregnant. The Juvenile Justice Center/Delta Academy’s enrollment includes 10- to 17-year-old students, including elementary through high school-age children from the El Paso County juvenile probation system who have violated parole or committed crimes.
Through the Telles Academy, EPISD operates one of two JJAEPs in El Paso County, serving students in El Paso, Anthony, and Canutillo Independent School Districts (ISDs). Ysleta ISD operates El Paso County’s other JJAEP and serves students in Ysleta, Socorro, San Elizario, Fabens, Clint, and Tornillo ISDs.
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You may or may not heard of ours. It gives just the briefest history of it in that article. It now operates as Aurora Plains Academy. I don’t know if the state still owns the grounds and is leasing it to this company or if they sold it to this company.
ETA: Here’s a better chronological history of the school.
My Mom taught at such a “school” in the early '90s. It was described as a residential school, but it was part of the state prison system - it was only for boys who had been convicted of crimes and sentenced to incarceration. As others have mentioned, it was intended to keep juveniles away from adult prisoners. However, if a boy couldn’t or wouldn’t follow the rule, he could be transferred to the nearby state prison.
Another relative currently works at an “alternative school.” It is not part of the state penal system. It’s part of the public school system, but many of the students are there because they were not doing well in “regular” high school (mostly nerdy, geeky kids who don’t fit into the social environment, or bright kids with learning disabilities that make it hard for them to do well in the standard high school environment). Kids who can’t or won’t behave in the alternative school can be expelled and (presumably) moved to facilities that take kids with serious behavior problems.
I guess they did. My stepfather used to threaten to send me to “military school” when I was about ten years old. It was a dickish thing to do, and it eventually made me physically ill. I’m pretty sure my mother finally told him to knock it the fuck off.
Military Academy was for kids with problems, IIRC.
Reform School, at least in Canada, IIRC from during the 60’s, was a form of prison for under-age offenders. Worse than that, you could be sent there if your parents/guardian decided they could not handle you, or running away, as something like an “incorrigible child”.
The Christian Brothers at a school I once attended mentioned also running a “reform school” outside Toronto. One brother used to be a boxer before he found Jesus, and mentioned his technique if he caught the “inmates” fighting. He would teach them proper technique - put them in the ring with boxing gloves and make them “work it out”. If the wrong person won, he would then put on the gloves himself and give the fellow a boxing lesson.
I think the institutions still exist, it’s just the name that’s gone out of style and become a cliche.
