England Criminal Punishments for Young Offenders (National Institute)

Young Offenders
It was not until the early 19th century that a few enlightened individuals questioned the placing of juveniles in prison with adult criminals, which only enhanced their criminal skills, debauchery and violence. The efforts of Howard, Bedford, Buxton, Fry, Hill and Carpenter are detailed by David T. Hawkings (Criminal Ancestors: A Guide to Historical Criminal Records in England and Wales. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1996) and Michelle Cale’s Law and Society: An Introduction to Sources for Criminal and Legal History from 1800. Slowly things began to change for destitute and delinquent children, however juvenile offenders were still given about two weeks imprisonment before entering a juvenile facility until 1899. It should be noted that after 1854 some youths were still given sentences in adult prisons. Some examples of training and guidance for such neglected and formerly harshly-treated youth are now discussed.

Marine Society
The Marine Society commenced in 1756 for training poor distressed boys for service at sea, either with the Royal Navy or the East India Company. Cheney has an interesting account of such a boy, and records for this private charitable society are at NMM (National Maritime Museum).

Philanthropic Society
In 1788 the Philanthropic Society created an institution for the admission of the offspring of convicts and the reformation of criminal poor children. The children were housed, clothed, fed, schooled and apprenticed so that they could become useful members of society. Most were from London and Cheshire, many absconded, but the records of those that stayed are extremely detailed, some with photographs. Excerpts from early girls’ records are shown below. Youths out of training were encouraged to emigrate, with dates, ships’ names and letters home being included in the records, and an example is also shown here. Records are at Surrey Record Office and on film, for example those for 1788-1890 are on four films starting at.

Chart: Excerpts from Royal Philanthropic Society Records of Girls Charlotte NORMAN complete report

Sarah NORMAN complete report

Mary KING extracts

Mary MITCHELL extracts

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