Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1919 — THE JULIA WORK HOME [ARTICLE]

THE JULIA WORK HOME

VISITORS SHOCKED AT CONDITIONS—INMATES APPEAR STARVED. Sheriff Woodworth and County Probation Officer C. M. Sands returned from Plymouth Wednesday, where they had (been to take the Clifton boy to the Julia A. Work home, located near there. Upon arrival at the home they found Mrs. Work absent and the j home in Charge of female attendants. They asked to be shown the : home and were* certainly shocked | at the conditions they found there, which much resembled some of the conditions found in the tales of Charles Dickens. Upon their request to see the inmates they wfere taken to a large room where .the 'boys were located. It was almost the noon hour, but the boys were still locked in. They were sitting in chairs and seemed to have lost 1 all ambition. They looked emaci--1 ated, pale, and appeared halfstarved and when the boys from

' Jasper county were called by name (they did not seem to have enough strength to arise and kept their seats. When the attendant was asked if they were kept in all the time she said that they were allowed to exercise on the play .ground and 'before dinner they were released and allowed on the play ground for not to exceed twenty minutes, but not more than two or three of the boys had ambition enough to try to play. In reiply to a question, the attendant said that there was no drinking water on the grounds for the boys, but that at certain hours they could procure water inside the building. 'They visited the kitchen, where dinner was being prepared, and one look at the mess being prepared for the inmates was enough to make the visitors siCk at the stomach. Some kind of ill-looking and ill-smelling soup was being prepared and this, with some dry bread, constituted the dinner of the inmates. It can only be imagined what the breakfasts and suppers consist of. There are over ninety 'boys in the school and a number of girls and the mess that was being prepared for dinner was not sufficient to sustain life, even if it had been palatable, for half the number of inmates found in the home.

The sleeping quarters were overcrowded and badly ventilated and unhealthy. When the visitors attempted to question the boys they would not answer, evidently being afraid of the consequences if they complained of their treatment at the home. Upon their return to Plymouth the visitors made inquiries and no one was found to speak a good word for the school. The Julia Work home is supposed to be a home for orphans and for those whose home surroundings are such as to make a change necessary. It is supported by the state to some extent, -the counties paying from fifty to sixty cents per day board for each child sent there, depending on their ages. Jasper county at present has three children there and pays $1.50 per day for their care. If the proprietor of this institution can keep the children alive for a ferw cents a day, the difference between fifty or sixty cents a day for each child and the amount spent to maintain life, is her profit. Mr. Sands is intending to call the attention of the authorities to the conditions found there in hopes that some way can be found to stamp out this helh hole, iwhidh is a disgrace to the state of Indiana, ilf there is no other way to get the boys from Jasper county released or transferred to some other institution the county commissioners should refuse to pay the home for the support of the boys from here, which would probably result in their being discharged. The matter will be called to the attention of Judge Hanley, who committed the boys from Jasper to the home.