Talk:Reform school

Merge?
Does anyone think Youth detention center is close enough to be a merge? I know I can officially propose one, but I wanted to get a feel about the idea before I'd even do that. It seems similar, but they might be different concepts. Curtangel 01:46, 10 April 2007 (UTC)


 * No! The term Reform School has fell into disuse because of its history of child abuse and sex abuse. However, reform schools are nothing like Youth detention centers. Reform schools are (were) training schools, i.e., prisons for youth wherein some attempt to "reform" or "train" was supposed to occur. Youth detention centers, on the other hand, were (and still are) secure facilities where youth are kept pending trial or other legal action. For instance, if a thirteen year old's parents are killed in an automobile accident, the youth may be housed in a youth detention center until the courts place him in some foster home. In other words, being detained in a youth detention center does not mean that the detainee actually did something wrong! Not so with reform schools. Whether or not a resident of a reform school actually broke some law, an inmate of a reform school would not have been committed unless the state thought that a law had been violated. --LymanSchool 13:18, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Only boys?
The article defines a reform school as "a penal institution for boys". In the film Three on a Match, a reform school for girls, ca. 1920, is featured briefly. So it seems there were also reform schools for girls. --Rosenzweig (talk) 15:56, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Quo vadis
This article is an uncared for embarrassing mess. Heavily tagged- no structure, flipping between US and UK and even the first sentence is wrong. What we need is a an essay section on the philosophy followed by description of the instances in anglophonic cultures and beyond ( POV alarm). But before we start twiddling words- we should collect the references. To start:



--ClemRutter (talk) 10:52, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Following the trail- we have a B quality Florida School for Boys study of one instance.
 * is a very long article.
 * may help to scope the article. ClemRutter (talk) 11:26, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Another well written instance- State Reform School for Boys in Mass. ClemRutter (talk) 11:33, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
 * may help to scope the article. ClemRutter (talk) 11:26, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Another well written instance- State Reform School for Boys in Mass. ClemRutter (talk) 11:33, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

UK side we have a case study on the Leeds Reformatory:
 * ClemRutter (talk) 11:42, 1 March 2019 (UTC)