ABSTRACT
The reformatory and industrial school systems were linked by the elaboration of a theory of the genesis of delinquency. As illustrated in this tale of poor ‘Indolent Dick’, the fictional industrial school boy, who could have been any one of the inmates in their pre-incarceration days, the purpose of the residential schools system was much more than just recruiting idle, wayward and delinquent youth, or a daily regime of elementary education and moral instruction. Measures of success were not confined to admission and discharge rates either. Success was demonstrated by the manner in which former inmates went out in to the world. Being reformed involved much more than simply applying the rules learnt in the classroom to one’s daily life without the intervention of outside authorities. The goal was the making of a “new” person. Class, gender and sexual subjectivities were constructed for boys and girls through training and discipline that were designed to change their inner selves. “That was the very interesting thing”, a former headmaster remarked. “Many [children] would go back and reject…the standard in which their parents were still living… Partly due to the training…they were no longer ready to accept the standards their own parents still probably lived by.”2 This chapter will look more deeply at the hidden curriculum of the reformatory and industrial school, how the programme proceeded with regard to sexuality and work, and where these themes came together in a recasting of the ideal proletarian family.3
