Reformatory Schools (1851)

Carpenter, Mary

doi:10.4324/9780203041154

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…This is in keeping with the arguments of the British reformer Mary Carpenter, whose early campaigns for the creation of reformatory and industrial schools were influential in the Australian context. For Carpenter, who advocated for compulsory schooling for all children before this became British law, reformatory and industrial schools were connected to, if distinct from, other means of providing education to disadvantaged children such as the ragged schooling movement (Carpenter, 1851).…”

Section: Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing moral reformation: the case of Queensland's reformatory for boys, 1871–1919

Carden

2020

HER

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PurposeThis article explores the case of the Queensland's reformatory for boys through the years 1871–1919 to analyse how the institution negotiated the complex, and at times competing, goals of reforming, educating and punishing its inmate population.Design/methodology/approachThe article relies on documentary evidence, including archival material produced by the institution and newspaper records published between 1865, when the legislation allowing the institution to be created was passed, to 1919, when the institution ceased to be known as a “reformatory”.FindingsThis research demonstrates that, despite considerable changes during the studied period, the overarching goal of reforming criminal and potentially criminal young people continuously relied on achieving a balance between reformative techniques such as religious instruction and work placements, providing a useful education and punishing offenders. It also demonstrates that, despite efforts to achieve this balance, the institution was often described as unsuccessful.Originality/valueDue to the paucity of available archival evidence, there is still relatively little known about how the reformatories of late-19th- and early-20th-century Australia attempted to carry out programmes of moral reformation. This paper contributes to the field through an analysis of an institution which faced unusual challenges as a result of a complex inmate population.

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Section: Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing moral reformation: the case of Queensland's reformatory for boys, 1871–1919

Carden

2020

HER

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“…In England, industrial and reformatory schools were introduced with a similar goal: the moral improvement of young people accused of, or at risk of, committing crimes, and the removal of vulnerable youth from the adult prison population. This purpose was most famously articulated by early British reformer Mary Carpenter (1851). In her vision of the reformatory, these institutions were to provide a useful education and an opportunity for the moral reform of young offenders.…”

Section: A Queensland Reformatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was in keeping with the purpose of the reformatory institutions in England advocated by Mary Carpenter. Carpenter (1851) believed that children who had already been trained to engage in crime, or who were in such circumstances as to make criminality almost inevitable, could not have their life chances improved by the mere provision of free education (pp. 223-224).…”

Section: A Queensland Reformatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

A breakdown of reformatory education: remembering Westbrook

Carden¹

2018

HER

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Purpose Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in Queensland, Australia, existed in various forms for over 100 years. As such, it offers a valuable window into Australian approaches to managing and reforming boys through the twentieth century. The purpose of this paper is to examine its approach to reforming teenage boys during a period marked by a mass escape in 1961. It argues that the reformatory education initially intended was no longer tenable during this moment in history, and that this period represents a breakdown of that approach. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on material including newspaper reports, memoirs, and the report of an inquiry into an escape by inmates in 1961. These are analysed in order to construct a picture of the type of reformatory education during this period and the public and official responses to this. Findings Westbrook Farm Home for Boys was, during this period, an institution attempting to provide a reformatory education at a historical moment when such an education was no longer viewed as appropriate means of addressing the criminal behaviour of youths. This, combined with the leadership of a domineering figure in Superintendent Roy Golledge, led to a culture of abuse, rather than education. The uncovering of this culture was a pivotal moment in the transition of Westbrook into an institution explicitly dealing with criminal youths. Originality/value No academic work relating to this moment in Westbrook’s history has been previously published.

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“…This is a position which inflected the institutions she advocated. Carpenter (1851) believed that education alone could not improve the lot of children who were already in impoverished or criminal circumstances, not least because such children could not necessarily be persuaded to attend a free school. She believed that, nonetheless, all deviant children or those at risk must be subjected to the ‘right training’ in order to become useful members of society (pp.…”

Section: Child Removal and The Reformatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reformatory schools and Whiteness in danger: An Australian case

Carden

2018

Childhood

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The Queensland Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (1865) provided for the creation of a system of reformatory and industrial schools. This paper explores the early years of the reformatory for boys. The Act defined Aboriginal children as 'neglected' and eligible to be sent to this institution. However, of the first thousand children admitted, all but thirty-three were white. This paper explains this contradiction by positioning the reformatory as a space in which fears about the fragility of whiteness were enacted.

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Reformatory Schools (1851)

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Managing moral reformation: the case of Queensland's reformatory for boys, 1871–1919

Managing moral reformation: the case of Queensland's reformatory for boys, 1871–1919

A breakdown of reformatory education: remembering Westbrook

Reformatory schools and Whiteness in danger: An Australian case

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