Reformatories aim to reform offenders rather than just incarcerate them. Early reformatories housed juvenile offenders, while adult facilities were called correctional centers. The Brockway school set the standard for many other venues, despite allegations of cruelty to its charges. Women’s establishments were set up to improve conditions and the dismal survival rate of children born to female prisoners. Boot camps resurfaced in the 1990s, but community programs and small group shelters are more effective in rehabilitating juvenile offenders.
A reformatory is a detention facility primarily aimed at reforming offenders rather than simply incarcerating them. The early reformatories housed first-time juvenile offenders, and there were also adult correctional facilities for women and men. Correctional institutions are commonly called juvenile detention centers or correctional centers, and the term reformatory is often reserved for adult facilities. Young people are directed towards community and home-based programs.
Reform houses were first established in the United States around 1825 in New York State. Early reform schools focused more on discipline than education. Boys and girls were initially incarcerated together, and later segregated. In 1876, Zebulon Brockway established the rehabilitation model in his boys’ facility in Elmira, New York, emphasizing education and training, supervised probation, and indefinite sentence, in which each inmate was held until reformed but not anymore.
The reform school was popular until considerations of money and limited resources began to take their toll. The Brockway school set the standard for many other venues, despite subsequent allegations of cruelty to its charges and indifferent and ineffective enforcement of its strategies. In the early twentieth century, the newly established juvenile court system began referring to institutions such as trade schools or industrial schools. Militant institutions began to give way to rural, family-style establishments, with cottages and a more homely feel, following European models.
Women’s establishments were horribly squalid in the early twentieth century. The reformatory was set up by religious advocates to improve conditions and the dismal survival rate of children born to female prisoners. The women were given vocational education and training to help them after release. Like their male counterparts, female reform schools have become correctional facilities, with less emphasis on reintegration.
Military-style juvenile reform resurfaced in the 1990s with the establishment of boot camps, which are tough, no-nonsense programs for juvenile offenders designed for rehabilitation through discipline. An offshoot of similar adult programs in the penal system, shock incarceration in juvenile boot camps has been found to be no more effective at reducing recidivism than any other reformatory setting. Some facilities have even garnered allegations of abuse.
Most juvenile offenders are sent to community programs or small group shelters where they can receive drug rehabilitation, counseling, education and job training services. Programs are designed with lofty goals in mind, but must be implemented correctly to be effective, a difficult task when jurisdictions cut budgets. Inmates recently released into one of these programs need support to return to their communities, schools and jobs.
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