Views about criminal or delinquent children, and what to do with them, have changed over time. In the 18th and earlier 19th centuries, children were treated as small adults, and those convicted of what to us seem like petty offences, such as shoplifting or pickpocketing, could find themselves faced with a death sentence. However, by the 1840s, views were changing, and the Juvenile Offences Act of 1847 set out that those under the age of 14 should no longer be tried in an adult court, but in a special one. It was also recognised that for petty or first-time offenders, being sent to prison had a negative effect: by mingling with adult, seasoned offenders, children might be encouraged to commit more or worse crimes on being released, having been swayed by bad company.

In 1854, therefore, the Youthful Offenders Act, also known as the Reformatory Schools Act, was passed, which set out how children convicted of offences could be sent to reformatories as an alternative to jail. These reformatory schools would give children structure and education, creating – it was hoped – a more law-abiding, employable person on release. There was a difference between reformatory schools and industrial schools, even though both housed children; whereas industrial schools were for vulnerable children – such as orphans, or those from difficult backgrounds – their pupils may not have actually committed a crime, but were seen as being vulnerable to becoming criminal in the future, if they were not dealt with. Reformatory schools, however, were for those convicted of crimes, and were the precursor of borstals.

By the mid 1860s, there were more than 50 certified reform schools in England, and 14 in Scotland. By the outbreak of World War One, this number had decreased, partly because industrial schools had become more popular. However, both had a clear benefit for children. They were given a regular structure and security, neither of which they may have had before. The diet was not interesting, but it was regular, and they were given education and training. Good behaviour was rewarded, and bad behaviour not tolerated, but instead being punished. One boys’ reformatory school was in the village of Weston under Wetherley, three miles from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. In November 1898, prizes were distributed to boys there before numerous local bigwigs, included titled ladies and gentlemen. These boys were being rewarded for working hard on their schoolwork, for their manual work, and for athletics – although the comment by the reformatory’s superintendent that 90% of the boys who had left the school were doing well does make one wonder what the other 10% had been doing.

The Warwickshire Reformatory School’s superintendent at that time was Cornishman William Pengelly, and his presence there must have given the children security and a family environment in one sense. For William lived on site with his wife Harriet, and their children; and they were there for years, having been in position by the early 1880s, and still in charge at the time the 1911 census was taken, by which time William was still only 52. Their staff included not just teachers but mechanics and tailors – presumably there to teach the boys a skill – as well as domestic staff such as cooks and nurses. The boys housed there were predominantly aged between 13 and 18, and they were drawn not only from the Midlands (with Coventry and Birmingham particularly well represented) but also from further afield – such as with Frederick Ellis, a 14-year-old from Wakefield in Yorkshire, who was in the Warwickshire Reformatory in 1891, along with 17-year-old Henry Woodward, from London, and Richard Ormond, also 17, from Barnsley.

Not all reform schools were in buildings on land; just as adults had prison hulks, children had training ships. One reform training ship was the Akhbar, on the Mersey, which was run by the Liverpool Juvenile Reform Society, and housed 200 boys aged between 14 and 16. They were expected to take part in cleaning the ship, but were also taught skills such as tailoring and shoemaking. For relaxation, they were allowed to read (as long as the material was deemed suitable), and to play games. Boys on the Akhbar and other ships sometimes mutinied, but they were swiftly punished – either with a whipping, solitary confinement or a restricted diet.

What happened to these children after they left the reformatory? Recent research by academics (see box) shows that children did better if they developed close ties with the reformatory staff and kept in touch with them after leaving. Those with less contact with the reformatory after leaving, or who moved around in a peripatetic manner, did not do as well. Looking at one case, we can see what happened to Arthur Henry Faulks. Born in Dudley in 1874, the eldest son of Richard, a labourer, and his wife Lucy, he was brought up in Aston, a working-class area of Birmingham. At the age of 17, he was in the Warwickshire Reformatory for Boys; on leaving, he became a labourer like his father and within eight years, he had married, the wedding to Florence Wicks taking place in Nechells, Birmingham, and with Arthur signing his name in a careful, but well-written hand. By 1911, he was working as a plasterer’s labourer and living with Florence and their four children in Erdington. Arthur settled in his home area, rather than moving around, and therefore was more likely to do well; but it also does not seem as though he embarked on a life of crime after leaving the reformatory – instead, he settled back home, married, and made a sufficient living in his work as a labourer to maintain a family of his own.

Reformatories continued during the First World War, and the children housed here did their part for the war effort. For example, in 1915, the report of the Girls’ Reformatory School at Dalry House, Edinburgh (which had opened as the Edinburgh Girls’ Reformatory and House of Refuge for Female Delinquents back in 1861), noted that the girls had been doing ‘patriotic work’. The girls were aware, it was said, that they were ‘comfortably housed and fed in the institution, and immune from the privations which affected many of their relatives’, but had also realised that they each had to ‘do their part’ in helping others during the war. They were therefore given wool by one of the staff to knit items for soldiers and, when they had finished this wool, they bought more out of their own money, and knitted more socks and belts. All was not perfect, as out of the 40 odd girls there during the previous year, two of them had been sentenced at Edinburgh’s Sheriff Court to three years’ detention in Dumfries Female Borstal Institution. However, it was noted that, overall, the girls had improved in both ‘tone and temper’ as a result of being in the reformatory; some of the older ones had joined the Girls’ Friendly Society (https://girlsfriendlysociety.org.uk) – designed to ‘protect working-class girls’ – and it was felt that this kind of membership would help them ‘make a start in life’.

Times were, by this point, changing; at the end of the 19th century, it had been proposed that schools for these ‘difficult’ children should focus on education, routine and discipline, and that younger children shouldn’t be faced with the same incarceration as those who were older. After the war, plans for the Scottish Education Department to take responsibility for reformatories and industrial schools north of the border, which had been put on ice as a result of the conflict, regained traction, and in 1920, the department took charge.

It was now believed that it was better for difficult children, where possible, to be placed into the ordinary school system, rather than being separated, although small residential schools might still be necessary for ‘exceptionally difficult’ children. Magistrates hearing cases involving children now increasingly chose to refer them to the probation system, rather than sending them to reformatories to be ‘punished’. However, in 1902, the borstal system – designed to separate those from 16 to 21 from older prison convicts – was established. In 1927, schools became known as ‘approved’ schools (children committed for trial or waiting to be sent to an approved school would be held at remand homes), with the 1933 Children and Young Person’s Act ending the reformatory and industrial school system with its focus on good behaviour and punishment for bad.