Book Description

Excerpt from Charities and Corrections in Michigan, 1876-1877: Extracts From Governors' Messages, With Official Reports and Documents Since its opening 412 children have been received, mostly from the poor-houses of the State. The average age of its inmates is nine years. Homes have been found for 117 of these children, and 255 were remaining Sept. 30, 1876, being all that can be cared for. The current expenses for the year were $27,612.51, an average of $126.66 for each child. When it is remembered that this institution is not a permanent home, but only a door-way to home for the houseless, homeless, poor-house children of the State, and that while under its care they must be clothed, fed, and educated, it will be seen that the expenditure per capita is very slight. From its first opening up to the present time it has been most economically conducted. The board estimate the current expenses at $33,000.00 per annum, and they ask for this and other purposes the sum of $90,000.00 for the ensuing two years. The State Public School is in no sense a penal institution or a hospital. It is only designed for neglected and dependent children of sound mind and body, and free from criminal taint, - yet some others will unavoidably find their way into it. Though fully deserving its care and benefit, they should not be kept in the school, owing to their influence upon the rest. The board should be given power, under careful restrictions, to return to the counties idiotic and permanently diseased children. There are a very few such children now in the school who can acquire no good for themselves by remaining, and whose presence is injurious to their more fortunate comrades. I commend this institution to your consideration as one of the means that will by and by save you the expense of another prison; as an institution that will, in time, make other institutions unnecessary, - provided that the underlying idea of its founders, viz.: that it is only a temporary home, be always kept in mind. I desire to call your especial attention to the reports of this institution for 1875 and 1876. "After many days" it is now a Reform School, - the bars and iron doors have disappeared, - the high fence that walled it in is kindling wood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.