Brief Tour (From Last One Over the Wall: The Massachusetts Experiment in Closing Reform Schools P 53-80, 1991, Jerome G. Miller -- See NCJ-134645)

• NCJ Number: 134647
• Author(s): J G Miller
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Ohio State University Press
• Publication Type: Program Description (Demonstrative)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

These two chapters describe the visits to various reform schools made by Jerome Miller shortly after he became Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services. These visits inspired him to close all State reformatories and return juvenile offenders to community-based supervision.

Abstract

At the Judge Connelly Reception and Diagnostic Center in the Roslindale section of Boston, Miller was struck by the inhumanity of the facility and the procedures of institutional control it practiced. The Detention Center at Huntington Avenue was the only State facility exclusively for girls awaiting trial or placement; this facility was kept in rigid order by a superintendent who tolerated no relaxation of control. Other facilities visited and described by Miller included the Boys' Industrial School at Shirley; the Girls' Industrial School at Lancaster; John Augustus Hall; the Lyman School for Boys; the Institute for Juvenile Guidance, Topsfield; and the Forestry Camp at Brewster.