In the past, children who committed minor offenses were either punished directly by a judge or they were sent to reform schools. These schools were in some ways similar to the juvenile delinquent centers we have today, but in many ways they were much worse.
Only One Shower
Many of the state reform schools for children accused of minor offenses were in poor condition in the early 1900s. This was due to lack of funding as well as to the people who were running the schools.
One particular reform school in Marianna, Florida, had a problem with the building where they housed the young children back in 1915. First, the dining area was open and there were no screens over the windows. This led to an infestation of flies that would cover the food fed to the children.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the school had no bath tubs for the kids to wash in. It only had one shower, leaving the juvenile inmates filthy and at risk of disease. [1]
Bread, Water, and Darkness
Nothing says reformation like a diet of bread and water, and yet that was a form of treatment for young offenders at a boys’ reform school in Rhode Island back in 1890.
According to published accounts, Charles McCarthy was stubborn and insubordinate. The superintendent of the school wanted to break the boy’s will so he had him placed in a dark room and made sure he was fed only bread and water for thirty-two days.
By the time the boy was removed from the dark room, he was stricken with tuberculosis. He had to be taken to a local hospital for the remainder of his days.
Of course, this was not the only abuse that happened at this particular reform school. There had also been a report of five boys who were handcuffed together for a total of six days simply because they talked about running away from the school. During that time they were also only given bread and water for sustenance. [2]
Punishment Decided by Little Girls
Young Ezra Moulton had to stand before a Wyandotte County, Montana judge in 1909. Charged with the crime of being incorrigible, it was the judge who was supposed to decide his fate. Instead the judge turned to a group of little girls, all witnesses to the boy’s incorrigibility, and asked them how he should punish the boy.
The choice punishments were either a courtroom whipping performed by the boy’s mother or several years in a juvenile correction house. The girls, perhaps wisely, chose to see the boy whipped.
The judge wholeheartedly agreed with the girls and demanded that the boy’s mother whip her son right there in the courtroom. She refused to whip her child publicly and the judge finally agreed to allow her to whip him on the back porch of the courtroom, which she did, and the case against the incorrigible boy was ended. [3]
The Mayor’s Spanking Squad
Not wanting to send boys to reformatory school for minor offenses, Mayor Arthur C. Whitaker of Bridgeton, New Jersey decided that the best solution would be to have the young offenders spanked by the police.
In a rather disturbing description of the operation published in 1920, the Mayor said:
“The ‘spanking machine’ consists of an assortment of barrel staves selected to fit the particular victim’s anatomy. Every boy has to take down his trousers in the old fashioned way before he starts through the ‘machine,’ which is well oiled with elbow grease. The spankings are all administered privately in a back room at the City Hall…”
Not all the boys being spanked were young. In fact, one of the ‘boys’ was twenty-three years old. He was so embarrassed about what had happened that afterwards he had packed up and left town, never to be heard from again. [4]
Bent Over a Box and Caned
There were times when the employees of reform schools would go public about the abuses being placed upon children in the juvenile system. Such was the case back in 1873, when a former employee of the New York House of Refuge, the United States’ first reform school for juveniles, came forward with some serious allegations.
In a question and answer report, the former employee described how a cane was used to beat the boys inside the school walls. The inmates were given tasks to perform at the House of Refuge. Of course, failure to complete any of the tasks meant a beating.
One particular boy was punished for not completing his given task. He was dragged down to the office by the assistant superintendent, made to take down his pants, and lay across a box. The assistant superintendent then beat the boy with a cane for fifteen minutes. Blood was running down the boy’s back by the time the punishment was over and he was returned to the shop to complete his task. But the boy still could not complete the task, so he was taken away and caned a second time and return to the shop to work. By this time the boy could not even speak, let alone work, so he was caned a third time and afterwards he was unable to walk. The boy was taken to the hospital where he died four days later. [5]
Overworked and Underfed
The Kansas State Reform School got into a bit of trouble back in 1902 when former employees accused the school of starving the boys placed in their care.
The boys were made to work twelve hour days and were barely given enough food to stay standing. A look at one day’s menu showed that for breakfast the boys were given potatoes, bread, and coffee. For dinner, cabbage, potatoes and bread. Finally, for their supper they had stewed apples and bread. No meat was being served to the boys and their meals came in small portions.
One morning the boys were only given bread, onions, and radishes to eat. The woman in charge of managing the boys’ work in the laundry room went to the superintendent and told him she could not work the boys on so little food. The superintendent would say nothing to the woman, but fired her shortly thereafter.
Not surprisingly, the school also practiced starvation as a form of punishment. Boys who committed some infraction would be denied food for a few days while still being forced to work. [6]
