Daniel Macallair, Executive Director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) is a practitioner-in-residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU)'s Department of Criminal Justice Studies. These slides are from his Intervention Policies in Juvenile Justice course materials.

1. 1850 – 1892
By
Daniel Macallair

2. New York House of Refuge established in 1825 by the
New York Legislature and the Society for the
Reformation of Juvenile Delinquency as the first
institution in the United States for neglected, vagrant
and delinquent youths.
Ushers in a new era of state intervention in the care
children…

3. New York House of
Refuge established
in 1825 by the New
York Legislature
and the Society for
the Reformation of
Juvenile
Delinquency as the
first institution in
the United States
for neglected,
vagrant and
delinquent youths.

4. 1850

5. Arrival of the gold seeking “49ers” increases San
Francisco’s population from 459 in 1847 to 56,802 by
1860. The largest peace time migration in modern
history
San Francisco quickly becomes largest American city
West of the Mississippi River
Lawlessness and disorder consume the city as gangs
of young men roam the city with impunity
Committees of Vigilance established in 1852 and 1856
by civic leaders to restore law and order

6. San Francisco leaders look to the East Coast cities for
solutions to growing population of vagrant and
destitute children
1852 San Francisco Board of Supervisors designate
plot of land located in city’s southern sector for future
House of Refuge

7. “We should remember that those little boys whom we
see wandering about the streets ragged and dirty,
spending the day time in watching opportunities for
theft, and at night coiling themselves up in barrels, or
among bales and boxes upon the wharves; it should
recollected, we say, that those drinking, swearing,
loafing children, most of them, become so from the
force of circumstances, and that society at large is, to
a great extent, responsible to itself for the amount of
evil they may do in the future, as well as morally
responsible to the children themselves (SF Chronicle
1856).”

8. California legislature creates first institution on the
West Coast for neglected and delinquent youths.
Industrial School’s purpose was “…the detention,
management, reformation, education, and
maintenance of such children as shall be committed
or surrendered thereto…

10. Indeed, such an institution is absolutely indispensable at San Francisco. Our
need for it is greater even, than that of more populous cities elsewhere; and
for very obvious reasons. The journey to California from the Atlantic States
and from Europe is long arduous. Many families arrive here sick and
destitute, and in their struggles with poverty and disease, their children are
utterly neglected and left to shift for themselves. The sequel is soon told.
They ramble through the streets, fall into bad company, and quickly become
thieves and vagabonds. Another reason is to be found in the fact that so many
families have no permanent homes, but live at boarding houses, hotels, or in
some temporary manner, by means of which wholesome home influences are
destroyed or impaired, and the children are almost withdrawn for the parental
authority….
There is but one remedy for these evils. The offenders must be withdrawn
from evil associations. They must be restrained from all vicious indulgences,
and, by considerate kindness, must be weaned from their ill practices. They
must be taught to labor, and must be elevated in their own esteem…
We have only to follow the example of New York, and Pennsylvania, and
Massachusetts, and Missouri, and the result will not be doubtful.

11. Robert Durrkin (left)
and John Ellich: Faces
of the Industrial
School
Robert Durkin was
the first youth
committed to the SF
Industrial School
upon its opening in
1859

12. Bob Durkin alias Frank Russell alias
John Reed No. 15252 was the first
prisoner sent to the Industrial
School in this city in the early days.
Then on Feb 16th 1865 he was sent
to San Quentin from Sacramento
County for burglary. On June 21
1869 he was again sent over to S.Q.
from El Dorado Co. for 3 years. July
25th 1874 he broke jail in this city
amd [sic] was afterwards captured
and sent to S.Q. for 2 years for
breaking and injuring jail. Jan 29th
1877 was sent over to S.Q. from
Butte County for 5 years Burglary.
Fenruary [sic] 21st 1893 was sent
again to S.Q. for 7 years from Kern
County for Burglary. After coming
out he was picked up at San Jose in
1897 and charged with Vagrancy
and sent to jail there from whence
he made his escape but was latter
[sic] picked up and served out his
time.
Bob Durkin in
later years

14. At 5 1/2 o'clock, A.M., they are called up, and from that
time to half past six they are preparing for breakfast;
immediately after that meal is over, they are taken out to
work - not light mechanical business, forsooth, but to use
a pick and shovel in grading the hill at the back of the
building; such labor that is not only much too heavy for
their strength, but in which a couple of Irishmen would do
more in half a day than the entire corps of twenty-two
boys, (the present number in this institution,) could
perform in a whole week. At noon, dinner is served up;
from one o'clock to half past two, they are employed at
picking and shoveling, same as in the morning; at three
o'clock they go to school until half past five; supper is
given at six; at seven o'clock they again go to school until
half past eight; and at nine they are sent to bed.

15. This strict regimen and prison-like configuration led local
observers to question the veracity of school proponent’s
claims:
after passing into the sleeping quarters of the boys, and
looking at the iron-barred windows, and the little brick cells
with small iron gratings in the doors, the first impression
was, ‘this is more like a prison than an Industrial School.’ It
is true that several of the youthful inmates have sought to
make their little cells as inviting as possible by pasting
engravings from illustrated papers on the wall – and even
these, on the morning of the day of our visit, some crusty
and self-important personage of the old fogy school
requested that “them things” should be “torn down.”

16. “How is it possible that, with such a routine of daily
employment, they can possibly be improved in morals,
and which is the great and laudable aim of the
founders of the institution? There is no gymnasium; no
workshop; no suitable play-ground, so that now they
are all huddled together in the basement story, in front
of their cells, during the little time allowed them for
leisure. Indeed they are made to feel by far too much
that they are juvenile prisoners, rather than boys and
girls who are placed there by a generous public, for
their physical, mental, and moral improvement…”

17. SF Industrial School
Laundry Building –
(located behind the main
building c 1860)
The laundry building is
where the Industrial
School girls were primarily
employed.

18. Rather than compliantly accept their prison-like
confinement, youths took every opportunity to escape and
make their way back to the City. According to many
accounts
escape for many Industrial School youths became a
preoccupation:
Left to themselves they are constantly plotting mischief,
unmistakable evidence of which were noticeable yesterday.
One little rogue, not over 10 years of age, with the aid of a
common hair comb alone, sawed off a brick from the side of
his door; another with a similar implement had industriously
dug deep grooves in the wall adjoining his cell…

19. $20 Reward! Ran away from the Industrial School, John Smith.,
Age, 9 years; height, 4 feet 11/2 inches; complexion fair; eyes,
blue; hair, light brown. General appearance: Large head; high
forehead; firm, close-set lips; small scar over left eye; bright and
intelligent looking. Father dead. Mother living at 49 Blank
Street.
Or thus:
Escaped yesterday: Tom Brown; 16 years old; dark complexion;
black hair; rather coarse features; low forehead; squints with
one eye; chews tobacco, and swears terribly. Had on a white
shirt, and a good suit of clothes. Father in State Prison; mother
dead. General appearance, decidedly bad. Took with him a
gold watch and chain. A liberal reward, and all expenses paid
for his apprehension. Address, Industrial School Department.

20. Between the jaws of each a stout, short stick, three-fourths of an
inch in diameter, was forced back to the throat and held in
place by cords tied around the neck. This gagged them. Then
they were doubled up in front of their knees as they sat, knees
up, arms down. Over their arms and under knees was placed a
stout stick, and their hands, brought up in front of their knees,
were manacled securely. Thus each was “bucked.” A person
“bucked and gagged” must sit doubled up or roll over on his
side. In either position, the pain after a short time is almost
indescribable. The offenders thus fixed, were left for the night.
One of them was obliged to endure his torture; the other, in his
desperation which his agony produced, broke the stick and
wrenched from his wrist the strong steel manacles. Yesterday
they were still in the cells Reform Schools – (The Indus. Sch. of this City –
Faults of Discipline, THE DAILY BULLETIN, July 14, 1869, at 1).

21. During the 1868 investigation a delegation conducting an
inspection of the isolation cells discovered five boys, whose ages
ranged from fifteen to nineteen, “shut up in close, dark, damp
cells, with nothing to sleep on but the asphaltum floor.” The cell
doors were covered to prevent any light from penetrating and
inmates were maintained on a diet of bread and water. The
following is an account of the incident:
“The door was opened and there lay a boy with his face
down a narrow crack, where he had been stealing a ray or
two of sunlight. The boy was brought out a living
skeleton, his face was blanched, he reeled, and blinked his
eyes like a bat in the sunshine. He had been in the cell two
weeks for running away, but the Grand Jurors declared their
opinion that a week’s confinement in that hole of utter
darkness and breathing stench would make an idiot of an
adult.” (THE DAILY DRAMATIC CHRONICLE, 1-3).

22. The charges against the Industrial School management for the treatment of
inmates were countered by assertions by Captain John C Morrill, a former
superintendent, that the methods were justified as necessary to control the population.
“All can understand how very bad is the influence of this class over the younger inmates.
Some of these young men had learned all of crime they could, save that of murder, and
even that was twice attempted at the School. Others committed beastly crimes, the very
names of which are a curse, upon the younger lads of whom I have spoken; and, because
they received a little wholesome punishment for it, a howl of indignation went up from
the city, which threatened to engulf all who refused to join in the hue and cry. A few
months later, the people were equally anxious to execute sudden and well-deserved
vengeance upon one of these same “poor unfortunate children,” for the rape and murder
of little Maggie Ryan!”

23. Girls were initially comingled with boys and housed
on one floor of the Industrial School
Girls comprised a smaller percentage of the Industrial
School population
Industrial School girls were consigned to domestic
chores – primarily at the Industrial School laundry, to
prepare them for marriage or domestic servitude– the
common practice of 19th
century institutions.

25. 1884 REASON FOR COMMITMENT
Boys Girls
Leading an idle and dissolute life 40 38
Petit larceny 38 1
Misdemeanor, vulgar language, drunkenness, etc 15 13
Surrendered by parents and guardians as unmanageable 1 16
Malicious mischief 3 0
Attempt to pick pockets 1 0
Total 98 68

26. Training at the Magdalen Asylum involved long hours
of sewing in the facility’s workshop including
manufactured household linen, ladies wearing
apparel, and embroidery work.

27. In 1906 the Magdalen Asylum moved to Potrero Street
and was renamed Saint Catherine Training School. It
remained the primary San Francisco institution for
wayward girls until 1934

28. Primary determiners of Industrial School
Commitments.
Ironically, the statute provided greater discretion to
police judges in non-delinquent matters. Police
courts were limited to sentencing delinquent youths
with misdemeanor offenses to six months in the
Industrial School. However, youths that were the
victims of parental neglect or considered on the path
to later criminality were subject to indeterminate
confinement up to their eighteenth birthday.
Youths who committed felonies were sent to adult
jails.

31. As a result of anti-
Chinese sentiment
in the 1860s a
growing number of
Chinese youth in
San Francisco were
targeted by law
enforcement and
committed to the
Industrial School.
Chinese youth
and the
Industrial
School

32. Challenging the Industrial School's Constitutionality

33. It is obvious that these provisions of the Constitution have
no application whatever to the case of this minor child. . . .
The purpose in view is not punishment for offenses done,
but reformation and training of the child to habits of
industry, with a view to his future usefulness when he shall
have been reclaimed to society, or shall have attained his
majority. . . . The restraint imposed upon him by public
authority is in its nature and purpose the same which under
other conditions, is habitually imposed by parents, guardians
of the person and other exercising supervision and control
over the conduct of those who are by reason of infancy,
lunacy, or otherwise, incapable of properly controlling
themselves.

35. The children were housed by the society for an
average of six weeks in a facility donated by Charles
Crocker. During this phase the society endeavored
“to fit each for an honest and useful future by the
implanting of decent personal habits, better tastes
and more wholesome inclinations.” At the end of six
weeks a placement in a family home was sought. Most
of these homes were located far from San Francisco in
surrounding rural counties including Contra Costa,
Alameda, Fresno, San Joaquin, Tulare, and Merced.
Once placed, an agent visited the children three times
a year.

36. In applauding passage of the act, San Francisco Boys an
Girls Aid Society Superintendent Dooley noted:
In connection with this class I might speak of one thing
that has been accomplished by the society to prevent
the incarceration of delinquent juveniles, who have not
passed the reformation period in the Industrial School
and jail. This was securing the passage in 1882 of
section 1388 of the Penal Code, providing for the
probationary treatment of these juveniles. Prior to the
passage of that act these children could only be kept in
jail and sent to the State Prison

37. Indenturing Delinquent s to Merchant Ships

39. In 1875

40. As Industrial School superintendent M.A. Smith stated:
I know that many of our inmates after leaving our care fall
into former bad habits. But this cannot be charged against
the institution. They nearly all come from evil associations
or wretched localities, and when released is it to be
wondered at that they should, in many cases, resume their
former associations and become part of the people by whom
they are surrounded.
In 1892, after a tumultuous thirty-three years, the San
Francisco Industrial School was ordered closed and the
remaining youths were transferred to two new state
administered reformatories in Ione and Whittier,
California. The building was converted to a women’s
prison and staff were dismissed.

41. The Industrial School Committee submitted an
elaborate report at the meeting of the Board of
Supervisors, announcing the practical abolishment of
that institution…
The judicial department long since denounced it as a
“nursery of crime. (Wiped Out at Last. The Indus. Sch. Has Passed Into History, S.F.
MORNING CALL, Nov. 24, 1891).”