Scotland in the nineteenth century

16. Appendix: Annual reports

Section 16.4: Reformatories and industrial schools

Reformatory schools of Great Britain. Reports of the Inspector.

"... schools scattered over every part of England and Scotland and Wales affording shelter, education, and industrial training to upwards of 20,000 children, mostly retrieved from the midst of poverty and criminal associations, the very waifs and strays of the streets and gutters, uneducated, half starved and neglected" (from 23rd report, 1880. [C. 2680])

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The Inspectors visited the industrial schools and reformatories and checked upon the suitability, comfort and cleanliness of the buildings, the health of the children and the education and industrial training given.

The Appendices contain detailed reports on each school including statistics regarding numbers of children and staff. The Scottish schools seem to have been less satisfactory than the English ones and the death rate was consistently higher.

Title of report changed to: Reformatory and industrial schools of Great Britain

Reformatories Act, 1866, Industrial Schools Act, 1866

During 1871, there were 45 deaths in the Scottish industrial schools, nearly half of the total U.K. number.

The Inspector showed concern for standards of sanitation and the presence or absence of satisfactory lavatories and baths. He disapproved of mixed industrial schools, which existed in Scotland on Bute, and at Leith, Greenock, Paisley and Falkirk. "The girls invariably suffer in mixed schools. They do more than their fair share of drudgery and their education is lightly regarded." He was also concerned that very young children were sent to reformatories where they mixed with relatively hardened criminals of up to 20 years old. "At a school in Scotland this year I saw a newly arrived boy a hardened criminal of 8 years of age, more fit for a nursery than a reformatory, sent there on a first conviction."

The standard of industrial schools varied enormously. Bute had a shortage of separate beds, poor food and cases of frostbite in winter. Glasgow Industrial School for Boys, Mosspark was damp and had an unacceptably high deathrate. The deathrate on the two training ships moored off Scotland worried the Inspector, who recommended that boys in feeble health should not be sent to sea. There were, however, success stories, including Newton Stewart Industrial Home for Girls described as "home-like", where each girl spent a month per year at the seaside through the good offices of friends of the institution, and of which the Inspector declared: "I have nowhere seen girls looking better."

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A day industrial school, the first in Scotland, had been established in Glasgow (p. 255) under the Glasgow Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Repression Act, 1878.

The number of mixed schools had decreased. The inspector believed girls in mixed schools tended to become household drudges and receive inadequate education and he continued to press for separation.

"An increasing class of girls in our schools are these who, under recent legislation, are being rescued from brothels." (p. 12)

A riot at Duke Street Reformatory, Glasgow, was only quelled when a large force of police was summoned and serious cases of arson were reported at the Old Mill, near Aberdeen and at Stranraer.

In the General Report, p. 20, the Inspector commented on the Scottish dislike of imprisoning children. The Reformatories Act, 1866 obliged magistrates to send children to prison prior to sending them to reformatories. Mr. Morrison for the Board of Juvenile Delinquency, Glasgow, considered the system pernicious and believed that a child who had been to prison was branded for life. The result of Scots dislike of this legislation was that the number of children in reformatory schools had declined as magistrates were reluctant to commit children to prison especially girls. Some were threatened with closure because of lack of committals.

The Industrial Schools Acts Amendment Act, 1894 came into force. It provided for the supervision of children under licence after they had left school up to the age of 18. Reformatory Schools (Scotland) Act, 1893 amended the clause in the 1866 Act which gave Scottish magistrates cause for concern. Henceforward, children could be sent to reformatories without spending a period in prison first. As a result of this, the number of children sent to reformatories in Scotland began to rise.

Separate reports on each reformatory and industrial school ceased to appear.

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Separate reports given in brief tabulated form in Appendix no. II.