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2

sentence.

fences or taken up and committed under and by virtue of an act 1825, 182, § 2. of this commonwealth for suppressing and punishing of rogues, vagabonds, common beggars, and other idle, disorderly, and lewd persons, " and who may, in the judgment of any justice Courts may of the supreme judicial court, sitting within and for the county Ibid. of Suffolk, or of the judge of the municipal court of the city of Boston, or of any justice of the police court within and for the city of Boston, be proper objects therefor; and upon the conviction or commitment aforesaid of any child in the judgment of such judge or justice a proper object for the said house of employment and reformation, the said judge or justice, previously to declaring the sentence of the law on such child, shall cause notice to be given to the directors of the said house; and in case Directors to be the said directors shall declare their assent to the admission of such child into said house, the said judge or justice shall sentence him or her to be committed to said house of employment and reformation, subject to the control of the directors thereof, in conformity with the provisions of the succeeding sections.

notified and

assent.

Ibid.

leading an idle or dissolute

be sentenced

city, to house of

reformation.

3. Any justice or judge of either of the said courts respective- Children ly, on the application of the mayor, or of any alderman of the city of Boston, or of any director of the house of industry, or house life, &c., may of reformation, or of any overseer of the poor of said shall have power to sentence to said house of employment and Ibid. § 3. reformation all children who live an idle or dissolute life, whose parents are dead, or, if living, from drunkenness or other vices neglect to provide any suitable employment, or exercise any salutary control over said children. And the persons thus com- To be kept, &c., mitted shall be kept, governed, and disposed of as hereinafter mid. provided, the males till they are of the age of twenty-one years, and the females of eighteen years."

3

1 The act here cited, that is, Stat. 1787, c. 54, was repealed by Stat. 1834, c. 151, § 22, and the latter statute was itself repealed by the Revised Statutes. Most of the provisions of the former in relation to the punishment of the class of offences named therein, were incorporated into Rev. Stats. c. 143, § 5, and subsequently into the General Statutes, passed 1859. See ante, Houses of Cora rection and Jails, p. 345, § 27.

2 Now the superior court for the transaction of criminal business.

3 All of this section, except the last sentence, was substantially re-enacted by Stat. 1847, c. 208, § 1. See post. p. 379, § 9.

till of age.

See § 9.

Directors to employ and

instruct

children.

1825, 182, § 4.

Shall have power to bind out. Ibid.

4. The directors of said house of industry, or such other persons as said city council shall appoint directors of the institution, authorized by the first section, may receive the persons sentenced and committed as aforesaid into said institution ; and they shall have power to place the persons committed to their care-the males until they arrive at the age of twenty-one years, and the females until they arrive at the age of eighteen years at such employments, and to cause them to be instructed in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be suitable to their years and capacity; and they shall have power to bind out said minors as apprentices or servants, until they arrive at the ages aforesaid, to such persons, and at such places, to learn such arts, trades, and employments, as in their judgment will be most for the reformation, amendment, and future benefit and 1793, 59, §§ 4, advantage of such minors. And the provisions of an act entitled "An act providing for the relief and support, employment and removal of the poor, and for repealing all former laws made for these purposes," passed the twenty-sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninetyfour, contained in the fourth, fifth, and sixth sections thereof, so far as they relate to binding out children as servants or apprenTo have pow- tices, are adopted as a part hereof; and the said directors shall have all the powers, and be subject to all the duties, of the overseers of the poor, as set forth in the sections aforesaid of the act aforesaid; and the master or mistress, servant and apprentice, bound out as aforesaid, shall have all the rights and privileges, and be subject to all the duties, set forth in the sections aforesaid of the act aforesaid.1

5, 6.

ers, &c., of the overseers of

the poor. 1825, 182, § 4.

Court may discharge, on recommenda

tion of direc

tors.

Ibid. § 5.

5. Whenever said directors, overseers, or managers shall deem it expedient to discharge any minor committed to their charge as aforesaid, and not bound out as a servant or apprentice, and shall recommend the same in writing to the court by whom such minor was committed, said court shall have power to discharge him or her from the imprisonment or custody aforesaid.

1 The sections of the act referred to, (Stat. 1793, c. 59,) were repealed by the Rev. Stats. c. 180, and these were repealed by the Gen. Stats. c. 111. For the authority of overseers of the poor to bind out children, &c., see Overseers of the Poor and Paupers, post.

already com

may be trans

6. The said judge or either of the said justices, on the ap- Children plication of either of the persons mentioned in the third section, mitted to house shall have power to order the transfer of any child committed to of correction the common jail, or the house of correction, and inmates of the ferred to house same, on March 4, 1826, to the said house for the employment offenders. and reformation of juvenile offenders, to be received, kept, or bound out by the directors thereof, in conformity with the foregoing provisions.

for juvenile

1825, 182, § 6.

branch for

established.

1843, 22, § 1.

7. The city of Boston is authorized to establish, in any Separate building or buildings, or part of any building used by said city females may be as a house of industry, or for any other purpose, a separate branch or branches of said house of reformation and employment for females, or for the separate classification of such females.

judgment of the

second section,

cipal court.

1829, c. 18.

8. Any party aggrieved by the sentence of the police court, Appeal from or any justice thereof, passed pursuant to the second section, police court, may appeal from such sentence to the next municipal court1 in under the the said city, whose judgment shall be final, as in other cases of to the muniappeals from the judgment of justices of the peace to the courts of common pleas in criminal cases, the party appealing recognizing with sufficient surety or sureties, to the satisfaction of the justices of the police court, by whom the sentence is passed, to enter and prosecute such appeal, and in the mean time to keep the peace, and be of good behavior.

or dissolute

be sentenced

reformation.

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9. The municipal' or police court of said city, upon the children complaint, under oath, of the mayor or any alderman thereof, leading an idle or of any of the directors of the house of industry or of the life, &c., may said house of reformation and employment, or of the overseers to house of of the poor of said city, that any minor, under the age of six- 1847, 208, § 1. teen years, lives an idle and dissolute life, and that his parents are dead, or, if living do from vice or any other cause, neglect to provide suitable employment for, or to exercise salutary control over, such minor, shall have power, upon conviction thereof, to sentence such minor to such house of reformation and employment, to be kept and governed according to law.*

1 1 Now the superior court for the transaction of criminal business.

2 The second section of the Act of 1843, c. 22, which was repealed by the

Right of appeal saved.

1847, 208, § 2.

1843, 22, § 3.

Directors of

house of indus

directors of

house of reformation. House of reformation united with Boylston Asylum.

10. Nothing in the preceding sections is to be construed to take away the right of appeal from the police court to the municipal court.1

1

ORDINANCE.2

SECTION 1. The directors of the house of industry are hereby try appointed appointed directors of the house of reformation, with authority to take such steps as may be necessary to unite the same with the Boylston Asylum, now under their charge, and henceforward to use the building for the new institution, which shall be called the Boylston School and House of Reformation," but shall be a part of the house of industry, and which is hereby declared to be also the institution for the reception, instruction, employment, and reformation of juvenile offenders, under the act passed March 4, 1826.

June 28, 1841.

Rights and

SECT. 2. The said directors shall have all the rights and

Act of 1847, c. 208, § 2, was identical with § 9 in the text, excepting that it was not restricted, as in the text to minors "under the age of sixteen years."

1 Now the superior court for the transaction of criminal business.

2 Orders relating to the house of reformation, passed June 28, 1841, and an ordinance passed June 5, 1861.

3 The house of reformation was originally established in 1826, in a portion of the building in South Boston then occupied as a house of correction. In 1836 a separate building was erected not far from the house of correction for the inmates, where they remained until July 1, 1858, when they were transferred to Deer Island, excepting those who were supported from the Boylston Fund, and who were under the management of the overseers of the poor in accordance with the Act of 1802, c. 44, by which act the said overseers, with others, were incorporated as a body politic to hold and dispose of "the bequests, devises, and donations made and granted by John Boylston." See Overseers of the Poor, post. The house of reformation was under the care of the directors of the house of industry until 1833, when a separate board was chosen. In 1841 a committee was appointed, of which Mr. Chapman, the mayor was chairman, "with instructions to consider the whole subject of the house of reformation, and whether any change is expedient in the law establishing said institution, and to report by ordinance or otherwise." This committee reported among other things, that it was expedient to place this institution under the charge of the directors of the house of industry; and they reported two orders to that effect, which were adopted June 28, 1841, as above. See City Documents of 1841, Nos. 6 and 14. See also City Records, vol. iv. pp. 24, 46, 52, 112 (b), 148, 149, 200, 223, 333; vol. x. pp. 145, 147, 480; vol. xi. pp. 127, 149, 250, 324; vol. xii. p. 283; vol xix. p. 167.

directors.

powers of the directors of the house of reformation, as to all powers of children who have been heretofore indented from the said house, June 28, 1841. and as to protecting their rights and superintending the welfare of said children, and enforcing the provisions of said indentures.

females

June 5, 1861,

SECT. 3. Agreeably to section one, chapter twenty-two of A branch for the Acts of eighteen hundred and forty-three,' a separate branch established. of the house of reformation for females is hereby established in the building at Deer Island now used as a house of industry and for other purposes, and the board of directors for public institutions are hereby authorized and empowered to provide accommodations for and to make all needful and proper regulations concerning the same, subject to the approval of the city council."

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1. Whoever, without a license therefor, establishes or keeps Intelligence an intelligence office for the purpose of obtaining or giving for keeping

1 1 See the Act, ante, p. 379, § 7.

2 An ordinance passed May 9, 1860, providing for a branch for girls in the house of reformation, was repealed June 5, 1861.

By the Acts of 1850, c. 294; 1852, c. 283; 1853, c. 343; and 1854, c. 88, the justices of the police court in Boston were authorized to send truant children to the house of reformation; and the like authority is given in the Gen. Stats. c. 42, §§ 4-8. See Truants, post.

office, penalty

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