Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1894 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

j. INDIANA REFORM SCHOOL. From a leaflet compiled by Prof. T. J. Charlton, "Superintendent of the Indiana Reform School at Plainfield, we glean some interesting information regarding the institution, its management, aims and methods. The reform school farm consists of 225 acres. There are over thirty buildings, all of brick. The schooF is under at board of control, consisting of three commissioners, ap--poiated the Governor, each commissioner holding his office for four years. This board appoints the Superintendent and all minor officials. The aim is to employ no one about the institution whose life is not exemplary in every way. Four thousand boys have at various times been under the discipline of the school. Of these 3,500 won their “honor,” and about 80 per cent, have become good citizens. Statistics show that the causes which mostly tend to bring boys to the school are: Truancy from school; idlenss; intemperance and vice on the part of parents; over-indulgence and lack of home restraint; step-parents and neglected orphanage. The school teaches every boy committed to its care habits of industry and aims to teach each boy a trade. Brick making, brick laying, plastering, gasmaking, plumbing, steam fitting, bread making, cooking, tailoring, shoe making, gardening, farming,

■caring for stock, laundry work and printing are the avocations open to the inmates. The internal economy of the school is founded on what is known as the ‘‘cottage or family” system. There are eleven cottages where the boys live when not in school or at work. The classification of the boys depends on their “normal condition.” These cottages have a basement for a play room, a second story ' consisting of a sitting room, wash room and officers’ room, and a third story for sleeping purposes. All the boys, however, eat in the general dining room. Circuit and Criminal Courts can commit boys, and these only after the boy has had a fair trial in open court. For crime a boy may be committed from eight to sixteen, and for incorrigibility from ten to seventeen. The Governor may also commute the penitentiary sentences of boys over these ages and under twenty-one, and send them to this school. All boys are committed until they reach the age of twenty-one years. No boy is ever discharged until he reaches the age of twenty-one, but they are sometimes released on “Furlough” or “Ticket of Leave.” The institution is in a flourishing condition at the present time, and is open for inspection every day in the year. Visitors are always welcome.