Reform of Delinquents

Report Outline
Changes in Care of Young Troublemakers
Shortcomings of the Training Schools
Methods of Reclaiming Delinquents

Changes in Care of Young Troublemakers

State work camps for reclamation of delinquent youths are receiving wide acclaim as an instrument for dealing with one of society's most troubling problems. The camps have been highly successful in the ease of certain groups of carefully selected boys, but it has been emphasized that they cannot supply all the answers to the complex questions involved in juvenile delinquency. One of the most significant things about the camps is that they give prominence to a gradual change in correctional methods which is taking place generally in institutions for delinquents.

The change is away from incarceration, plus a certain amount of vocational training, and in the direction of treatment programs which take into account the individual needs of each offender. In this context the work camp assumes a place as one among many other facilities, such as the probation system, social case work, the mental hygiene clinic, and the training school, designed to meet the problems of particular groups of delinquents. In effect, the camp is another kind of training school, operating in a freer atmosphere and laying greater stress on the performance of socially useful work. It is a part of what the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency referred to recently as the “new look” in training schools. The subcommittee said in a report on Mar. 4, 1957, that the change originated several decades ago when “some states removed their training schools from the clutches of patronage and opened the door to trained leadership and trained staff.”

Traditionally, the training or industrial school—once called the reform school—has been the dumping ground for youthful delinquents whose anti-social acts were so serious or so persistent as to compel confinement. The public in general was indifferent to what went on behind training school walls so long as the young outlaws were kept out of the community's way. But the rise in juvenile delinquency, and particularly the tendency toward repetition of offenses, aroused public interest in the methods of the training schools. Reports that one-half of the inmates of adult jails are training school graduates have heightened this interest.