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WORK OF THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES IN INVESTIGATING CASES OF DISTRESS.

Moreover, the Associated Charities, an organization of the citizens of the District of Columbia, is constantly at work investigating cases of destitution, and bringing persons who need help into relations with the various churches, beneficiary organizations, and other charities of the District. From the fact that this work is entirely voluntary, so that the relief afforded is in all respects a pure charity, and from the fact that the Associated Charities is at present covering the entire field, and is hampered rather than benefited by Congressional appropriations, the committee believes it unwise to make an annual appropriation to supplement the funds already in the hands of the Commissioners of the District.1

RECOMMENDATIONS.

The committee recommend:

First. That a specific sum be appropriated for physicians to the poor, and a further specific sum for medicines and printing prescriptions for physicians to the poor.

Second. That no discretion be given to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to grant moneys to any institution in the District of Columbia, but that all such grants be in accordance with specific appropriations for such purposes.

Third. That no appropriation be made for the out-door relief.

REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS.

THE REFORM SCHOOL FOR BOYS.

The Reform School for Boys now accommodates an average of 219 inmates, of whom 69 per cent were committed by the courts of the District of Columbia, 17 per cent by the courts of the United States, and 14

per cent by the president of the board. These figures are based on the statistics for the last five years. The school is not a charitable but a reformatory institution. It deals with boys who have committed offenses or who are so incorrigible or so outside of the control of their parents that they can not be dealt with longer by them, and the aid of the State is invoked. The Reform School gets no aid from private sources, but is supported by appropriations from Congress.

The institution is managed by a board of trustees appointed by the President of the United States, on recommendation of the AttorneyGeneral, and the general management of the institution is in the Department of Justice, although it is supported by appropriations made in the District appropriation bill.

The school is in so excellent a condition, and is so ably managed with such good results, that the committee deem that it would be unwise to

1 Hearings, pp. 10, 20, 21, 331.

2 Hearings, pp. 31, 44-5.

make any change whatever in its control; further than that, if the general system of organization shall be adopted, the school should have whatever advantages may arise from being a part of the general system.1

A CHAPEL NEEDED.

The board of trustees has also recommended an appropriation for an assembly hall or chapel structure. There is now an urgent need for such a building, and the board and the committee believe that it should be provided as soon as financial conditions warrant the expenditure.2

THE GIRLS' REFORM SCHOOL.

The Reform School for Girls is under the same form of management as the Reform School for Boys. The school was established in response to the urgent needs of the community, but it has never been able to realize the hopes of those who urged its foundation, and up to the present time has been a failure. This result is due to various causes: First, the buildings were never suited to the character of the work to be done; secondly, the officers and management of the school have been changed frequently; thirdly, the girls committed to the school would appear properly to be the subjects of the workhouse, rather than of a reformatory institution; fourthly, the institution was established to care for both white and colored girls, but the accommodations have been so limited that up to the present time only colored girls have been received; fifthly, the methods employed have been suited rather to a workhouse than to a reformatory institution.

RESTRAINT OF INMATES.

While the Reform School for Boys has been able to control its inmates without duress or any form of confinement, the Reform School for Girls has been practically a prison. The trustees of the school have asked In response to a letter addressed to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia the following reply was received:

OFFICE COMMISSIONERS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
Washington, June 5, 1897.

DEAR SIR: In response to your communication of June 3, 1897, the Commissioners have the honor to state that they are of the opinion that the Reform School for Boys, under its present management, is administered by a board of trustees of exceptional ability and integrity; and, while the Commissioners have not had an opportunity of giving the matter the personal attention which they would be glad to do under other circumstances, they believe that the affairs of the school are well and economically managed under the present system.

Very respectfully,

Hon. JAMES MCMILLAN,

JOHN W. Ross, President Board of Commissioners, District of Columbia.

Chairman Joint Select Committee, etc.

2 Hearings, p. 42.

for an appropriation of $50,000 to increase the facilities and efficiency of the school. The president of the board of trustees stated to the committee that if Congress would grant that amount of money the school could erect a building in such a way as to be able to separate the criminals from the other girls, and could admit white girls.

HIGH PER CAPITA COST.

The cost per capita of the girls in the institution is about $405 for 1897, which is an excessive cost, brought about largely by the limited facilities of the school, and also by the extra guards necessary to prevent the girls from escaping. In this connection the committee submits the following letter from Judge Kimball in regard to the situation at the Reform School for Girls:

POLICE COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

Washington, D. C., June 7, 1897.

DEAR SIR: I have received your letter of the 3d instant asking me to make a statement of my experience of the workings of the Reform School for Girls, together with any suggestions I might see fit to make as to the manner in which the school might be made an efficient institution.

Shortly after my appointment as judge of the police court I saw the great need of a reform school for girls, and did all in my power to secure an appropriation to erect the necessary buildings. The money appropriated by Congress was, in my judgment, not wisely expended, and in place of two family buildings, each capable of caring for 50 girls, but one was built, which could accommodate but about 30 inmates, and no increase has been made since the first appropriation. That building was speedily filled. There is great need of the erection at once of at least two family buildings, one for young white girls and one for young colored girls. As it is now, the one building is occupied by colored girls exclusively, and there is no place to send white girls. There should be an entire separation of the younger girls from those older.

The judges of the police court are frequently very much puzzled to know what to do with girls sent to them for trial. To send them to jail or to the workhouse keeps them confined but a short time and allows them to associate with older women who speedily teach them lower depths of iniquity, so that when they are discharged they are worse than before. If on the other hand the court lets them go with a warning, they get the idea that they can commit offenses without being punished, and are speedily again in the toils. The class of girls of which I am speaking can not be turned over to the Board of Children's Guardians, as it is difficult if not almost impossible to find homes for such girls. The two institutions are intended to provide for different classes of cases.

There is in the District a large number of girls just entering downward paths who could be saved by a properly conducted reform school, but with the present institution alone there is no possibility of help. I therefore most earnestly urge an appropriation sufficient to build at once two family buildings, and that a third building be provided for in one year thereafter.

There is great need of changing the law to apply both to the girls' and boys' reform schools by which the trustees may be authorized to grant tickets of leave, revokable by the board, so that should a boy or girl show that he or she is not reformed the ticket could be revoked and the person recommitted. The boys, as the regulations are now in force, can, for good conduct, be discharged in a little more than two years after commitment. They are committed, when under 16, until they arrive at the age of 21 years. A boy committed at 15 would be 17 when discharged

for good conduct and beyond the age of recommitment, and no matter what he does thereafter he can not be again sent to the Reform School. This, in my judgment, is entirely wrong. I believe in a revokable ticket of leave for good conduct where it is shown that there is a proper home to go to, or one can be found for him by the trustees or the Board of Children's Guardians with the necessary supervision of his conduct thereafter. Without such power of recommitment up to the age of 21 years, the discharge at the end of two years, in my judgment, acquired by my experience as a police-court judge, is in most cases a mistake. They go back into the old life and many of them are speedily in the police courts again and can not be returned to the Reform School.

I thoroughly believe that the Girls' Reform School should be continued, and by the erection of sufficient and suitable buildings would become of great benefit to the class intended to be reached by it.

Very respectfully,

Hon. JAMES MCMILLAN,

I. G. KIMBALL, Judge Police Court.

Chairman Joint Select Committee on Charities.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

The committee recommends:

That an additional appropriation be made to provide more ample accommodations, so that white girls as well as colored girls may be committed to the institution; that the maximum age at which girls can be committed be reduced from 18 to 16 years, thus answering the needs of the community and making a more efficient school.

THE INSANE.

The insane of the District of Columbia are committed by the courts to the Government Hospital for the Insane, the District paying its proportionate share for the care and treatment of its insane patients. The appropriations are paid to the hospital authorities in monthly checks from the Commissioners of the District of Columbia on vouchers submitted.

The Government hospital is under the control of the Secretary of the Interior, and more directly under the control of the board of visitors appointed by the President of the United States, and composed of nine citizens of the District of Columbia. Of the 794 insane from the District of Columbia remaining in the hospital June 30, 1896, 106, or about one-seventh of the whole, were not properly chargeable to the District, but were people who had come to the seat of Government to prosecute some claim, to obtain some office, or who were simply tramps. Of the 106, 20 were admitted during the fiscal year 1896, 23 had been in the hospital more than ten years, and the remainder for terms varying from thirteen months to over nine years.

INSANE NOT PROPERLY CHARGEABLE TO THE DISTRICT.

In the report of the Government Hospital for the Insane for 1896 it is stated that while the Revised Statutes, section 4850, give the superintendent authority to take charge of insane persons until their friends

can be discovered, or until their residence can be found, with a view to the return of such persons to such friends or to their proper places of residence, yet it often happens that no friends or residence can be found, and the District authorities have no choice but to let them remain. "But, after making due allowance for this," the report goes on, "it can hardly be doubted that there is a considerable number of assisted emigrants from neighboring States, where the hospital has almost too good a reputation, and in far too many cases correspondence with near relatives of the unfortunate man in the State of his residence shows no yearning on their part for his return. These would plainly seem to be cases where the District authorities should actively interfere, and thus, in the language of the statute, 'relieve the District of the expense and charge of such indigent insane nonresident.""

RECOMMENDATIONS.

That the board of management report to Congress, through the Secretary of the Interior, the draft of a bill to confine the benefits of the institution to those persons whom the law contemplates as beneficiaries.

DEAF AND DUMB.

The deaf and dumb of the District of Columbia to the number of 31 are cared for at the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, an annual appropriation of $10,500 being made in the District bill to cover the expense of such care and training. Pupils received from the District are retained so long as they give evidence of mental improvement, none being retained beyond the period of the collegiate course of study at the institution. Properly speaking, the Columbia Institution is not a charity, but is purely an educational institution, and it has been included here simply because the care of the deaf and dumb is usually regarded as a charity.

RECOMMENDATION.

The committee has but one recommendation to make in regard to this subject, the present provisions being regarded as satisfactory:

In case of the establishment of a board of charities, the admission of the deaf and dumb pupils from the District should be placed under the general control of that board, and should not be left with the Secretary of the Interior.

Obviously the Secretary should not be called upon to administer District affairs when there are District authorities capable of doing the work.

FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN.

The feeble-minded children supported at the expense of the District of Columbia number 34; of these 28 are placed at the School for the Feeble-Minded at Elwyn, Pa., at a cost of $225 per annum for each

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