England Additional Criminal Punishments for Young Offenders - International Institute

Young Offenders (cont.)
Chart: Royal Philanthropic Society Admission Register for a Boy 1885

John (Archibald) WEDDELL This is a summary of many detailed columns.

Farm Colonies
Privately-run farm colonies training boys in farm work started in Warwickshire in 1818.

Parkhurst Prison
On the Isle of Wight, this was the first government penal institution for dealing with juveniles, and it housed boys from 1835 until 1868. They were segregated from adults, but Parkhurst was a prison not an educational facility. Some Parkhurst boys were pardoned on condition of emigration, for example to New Zealand in 1842 article in New Zealand Genealogist Oct 1992.

Ragged Schools
These were run by concerned volunteers or charitable bodies on a local basis from the early 1840s to educate and civilize the poorest city children.

Reformatory Schools
Reformatory or Reform Schools aimed at teaching good behaviour to convicted youngsters under age 16, not punishment, and commenced by Act of Parliament in 1854. Children were committed for 2-5 years to these institutions of which there were 45 by 1857. Records may be at TNA or with local archives (see Cale, Law and Society: An Introduction to Sources for Criminal and Legal History from 1800).

Industrial Schools
These were a parallel group of schools also brought in by parliament in 1854 but for children under age 14 deemed in danger of slipping into crime through neglect or criminal associations, but who had no conviction against them.

Youth served until age 16 in several hundred of these industrial schools, learning a trade that could allow them to earn a living once released. Records may be at TNA or with local archives (see Cale, Law and Society: An Introduction to Sources for Criminal and Legal History from 1800.); for example the records for the Middlesex Industrial School are mainly at LMA (London Metropolitan Archives) and are discussed by Watson (Was Your Ancestor an Officer at the Middlesex Industrial School? West Middlesex Family History Society Journal Vol 20 #2).

In 1866 revisions were made including provision of an Industrial Training Ship, the Shaftesbury moored on the Thames and Brown recounts her ancestor’s sojourn on this ship.

Borstals
These government institutions started in 1900 and were intended for convicted offenders aged 16-21. They were part-prison and part-reformatory with a strong emphasis on practical and moral training. They mainly dealt with males and terms of 1-3 years were typical; the records are at TNA (see Cale, Law and Society: An Introduction to Sources for Criminal and Legal History from 1800).

Approved Schools
A review and re-organization replaced reformatory and industrial schools for children in danger by approved schools in 1933. In 1980 the whole system for dealing with young offenders was re-organized again.

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