TRUSTEES. Names, Residences, Commissions and Retirement of the Trustees of the State Reform School from the Commencement to the Present Time. Date of Commission. Names, Residences, etc., of Trustees - Concluded. NAMES. Residences. Date of Retirement. REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF VISITATION. To the Trustees of the Lyman and Industrial Schools. During the year closing Sept. 30, 1897, there have been subject to the visitation of this department 683* probationers from the Lyman school. Of these, 115 boys have either become of age or have been transferred to other institutions during the year, leaving 568 boys on our visiting list Sept. 30, 1897. An analysis of this number shows: : 460 boys in various occupations. 23 boys at board. 18 boys released so recently that occupation cannot be given. 4 invalids. 12 not employed. 17 in other penal institutions. 34 boys whose whereabouts are unknown. The 460 boys given above as in various occupations are engaged in seventy-one different employments, as follows: • One of these, who is out of the State, is reported on by letter. It may be of interest to note that of the boys given in the above table 31 per cent. are employed on farms; 9 per cent. are employed in mills (textile); 6 per cent. are classed as laborers; 5 per cent. are employed in shoe shops; 5 per cent. are attending school and doing chores; 3 per cent. are peddlers of various kinds; 2 per cent. are clerks; and the remaining 39 per cent. may be classed as miscella To properly place those boys who have no homes of their own suitable to receive them, to relocate those who would be benefited by such a change, to visit and encourage those who are weak, to command the wavering and stubborn, and to recall the unruly, these are some of our duties toward our charges. We also visit boys in their own homes, assisting by our authority those parents whose control over their children is weak. Such parents always welcome us, relying upon our aid and counsel. We endeavor to do our work quietly and judiciously, never obtruding our authority except where absolutely necessary, and using special care with those. boys who are approaching their majority and are at work for themselves. If such boys are ever visited at their work no employer or comrade ever learns from us the object of our call; and while keeping ourselves informed of the conduct of such boys and being in communication with them, we, like the best teachers, try to make ourselves as useless as possible. Fifteen hundred and fifty-seven visits upon probationers have been made by this department during the year. This number includes about one hundred visits made by individual members of your Board, mainly to the boarded boys, or boys from the Berlin School. This service has been most beneficial to the little boys and a well-nigh indispensable assistance to our work. 176 boys have received but one visit each during the year, 55 of this number because so near twenty-one years old, and 121 either because placed very recently or remaining in place but a very short time before return or leaving place, or because their whereabouts were unknown during a part of the year. The average time such boys remained in place having received but one visit each was less than three months. Forty-four boys have not been visited this year; 10 because within a few months of twenty-one years of age Oct. 1, 1896; 25 because placed within a few weeks, and the remaining 9 because their whereabouts were unknown or they were returned to school or other institutions within a very short time after release. To the remaining 462 boys we have paid 1,381 visits, or an average of 29 visits to each boy. 99 Besides these visits to boys we have investigated 207 homes and made a written report thereon. We have investigated also the homes. of 66 applicants for boys, either to board or for employment. We have made 17 special calls and personally conducted 47 boys to their places. We have relocated 24 boys, recalled 18 to the school and transferred two. We have spent 36 days at the Lyman School consulting in regard to boys and interviewing the boys themselves, and each month have spent one evening at the regular committee meeting of your Board. The sum of the above data added to the previously reported 1,557 visits makes a grand total of 1,936 calls upon our time, over territory covering all six of the New England States, a year's record we can never exceed nor with our present force do we expect to equal. The same classification of conduct of probationers has been made |