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30-585: The Mountain View School for Boys opened on September 5, 1962. Mountain View, designed to handle chronic and serious juvenile delinquents previously housed in the Gatesville State School , had a capacity of 480 boys. In the early 1970s Mountain View began to be designated as a secure treatment facility for juvenile delinquents who were considered to be dangerous. In 1971 a class-action lawsuit

60-757: A 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) tract of leased land. In 1949 the State Youth Development Council began to operate the Gatesville State School. In 1950 the state school had 406 boys. In 1957 the Texas Youth Council, now the Texas Youth Commission , was established, replacing its predecessor agency. The Mountain View School for Boys opened on September 5, 1962, and chronic and serious juvenile delinquents were moved to Mountain View. By 1970,

90-485: A Childhood?: Race and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth-Century Texas , said that the school newspaper's main purpose was to serve as a pro-prison administration propaganda organ. The Hilltop Unit still uses many buildings that were a part of the original House of Correction and Reformatory. A graveyard with sixteen graves containing the remains of children in the state school who died during their stay

120-541: A caseworker, said that 30-40 of the Mountain View inmates had intelligence quotients of less than 70; according to Stephens some students had IQs of 54. Kenneth Wooden, author of Weeping in the Playtime of Others: America's Incarcerated Children , said that most standards would consider those IQs to be indicators of mild retardation. The Texas Youth Council's pre-entrance diagnostic testing considered 293 boys within

150-496: A few in second grade and those under punishment in third grade. However, following Brockway's resignation, the reformatory reinstituted to standard custody and treatment methods and eventually converted to the Elmira Correctional and Reception Center, an adult maximum security prison holding approximately 1,800 inmates. In 1970, the complex was renamed the "Elmira Correctional and Reception Center". Elmira retained

180-482: A focus on younger offenders until some time in the 1990s. In the late 1970s through late 1980s, Elmira and Corning Community College had a partnership whereby college professors volunteered to lecture within the prison, and inmates were able to earn an associate degree . However, during the recession of 1990–1992 there was a public outcry over spending taxpayer money to educate felons while many middle-class families struggled to pay their children's college tuition. As

210-629: A former Gatesville state school student who attended the school in 1961, said that long periods in solitary confinement, stoop labor, fights between gangs, beatings perpetrated by staff members, and sexual assault occurred at the facility. Perkinson said that Gatesville, intended to resemble the Elmira Correctional Facility in Elmira, New York , instead had an attitude similar to that of the Texas prison farms for adults. In 1909

240-473: A reduction of their sentences or being granted parole . Note that inmates could also be demoted if failing in their duties. Those inmates who were less responsive to rehabilitation or had behavioral problems were placed at third grade. However, under instituted indeterminate sentencing, tension was often high among the general population, as prisoners were rarely informed how long the terms of their imprisonment lasted. Brockway's later use of corporal punishment,

270-420: A result, the program was cut. There were attempts to revive the program in later years but by the time George Pataki, the former GOP governor, finished his budget cuts, the program was completely terminated. In the fall of 2023 the program with CCC started back up again with college professors lecturing at the prison. On July 7, 2003, convicted murderers Timothy Vail and Timothy Morgan escaped by digging through

300-494: A system of incentives to encourage self-discipline. Among the programs begun at the reformatory included courses in ethics and religion, vocational training in various trades and extracurricular activities (such as a prison band), a newspaper, and various athletic leagues. Influenced by the methods of Walter Crofton 's " Irish system ", as well as Alexander Maconochie's experiments in Australian penal colonies, discipline

330-503: Is located 2 miles (3.2 km) away from Elmira. The facility was founded in 1876 as the Elmira Reformatory and run by its controversial superintendent Zebulon Brockway . Acting with rehabilitative aims, Brockway instilled strict discipline along the lines of military training. Although accused of brutality for his corporal punishment in 1893, Brockway was an acknowledged leader in his field. At his retirement in 1900,

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360-820: Is located on the Riverside Unit. 31°28′07″N 97°44′19″W  /  31.46861°N 97.73861°W  / 31.46861; -97.73861 Elmira Correctional Facility Elmira Correctional Facility , also known as " The Hill ", is a maximum security state prison located in Chemung County , in the City of Elmira in the US state of New York . It is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision . A supermax prison , Southport Correctional Facility ,

390-475: The "Paddler Brockway" system that would eventually result several prisoners' being transferred to mental asylums , caused some to question the reformatory system. Still, the Elmira system was influential in prison reform. Two central ideas emerged from the Elmira system: differentiating between juvenile and adult offenders; and acknowledging the possibility of prisoner rehabilitation. Despite its mixed results,

420-523: The Elmira Reformatory would influence the construction of 25 reformatories in twelve states over the next 25 years, reaching its height in 1910. Although the education programs introduced in Elmira were the first to serve inmates in a correctional facility, the majority of the teaching staff were often unqualified, and its complex grading system made progress difficult to maintain. Eventually, all well-behaved inmates were placed in first grade with

450-563: The Elmira System had been adopted by the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota. Elmira is a major stop in the New York State Department of Corrections bus network, with a large enclosed yard that holds many, and inmate transfers. In 1876, the facility was founded as the "Elmira Reformatory". Its first superintendent was Zebulon Brockway . It differed from many prisons of

480-587: The Gatesville State School and the Mountain View State School and to redesign the agency's juvenile corrections system. The Mountain View school closed in 1975, and its boys were sent to other facilities. The Texas Department of Corrections bought the land and buildings. The facility re-opened as Mountain View Unit , a women's prison. The Mountain View Unit opened in July 1975. In 1964-1965

510-481: The agency's system to be "emotionally disturbed." 158 of those boys attended Mountain View, making up 25% of the state school's population. 31°29′14″N 97°43′40″W  /  31.4872°N 97.7277°W  / 31.4872; -97.7277 Gatesville State School The Gatesville State School for Boys was a juvenile corrections facility in Gatesville , Texas . The 900-acre (360 ha) facility

540-401: The day as it focused on reforming the convict using psychological methods rather than physical. Previously, prisoners were required to abide by the "holy trinity" of silence, obedience, and labor. Sentences were indeterminate. Inmates were only released after a warden's determination that they had "paid their debt to society". In contrast, Elmira sought to reform and rehabilitate. Brockway set up

570-565: The facility intended for the farmwork in the dry climate and the schooling to reform juvenile delinquents. At the beginning the institution also housed boys who did not commit any crimes but had no family and no other place to live in. Children were previously housed in the Huntsville Unit , a prison which also housed adults, in Huntsville . Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire , said that

600-929: The former state school lands. In 1980 the Live Oak, Riverside, Sycamore, Terrace, and Valley schools became the Gatesville Unit (now the Christina Melton Crain Unit ), and the Hilltop and Hackberry schools became the Hilltop Unit , both of which are women's prisons. In 1915 the Texas State Board of Education certified the state school as an independent school district , allowing it to get funding for school supplies and teacher salaries. The school newspaper, State Boys , started in 1914. William S. Bush, author of Who Gets

630-542: The institution gained "a reputation for ruthlessness" as decades passed. Gatesville, which served as the main juvenile detention facility for Texas since its opening, had a focus on labor instead of rehabilitation. Throughout the state school's history the state government did not appropriate sufficient funds, and the dormitories became overcrowded. Before the state school first opened, the reformatory officials complained about an influx of non-White children who they believed were not capable of being rehabilitated. Michael Jewell,

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660-662: The legislature changed the facility's name to the State Institution for the Training of Juveniles and placed it under the control of a five member board of trustees. In 1913 a law that was passed renamed the facility to the State Juvenile Training School. The 1913 Juvenile Act stated that White boys at Gatesville would be separated from boys of other races. In 1913 the school opened the "Negroes' Institute," facilities for Black boys. In 1919

690-413: The newly established State Board of Control began managing the state school. In 1939 the legislature named the juvenile correctional facility the Gatesville State School for Boys. In 1940 the Gatesville State School housed 767 boys who were under 17 at the time the state ordered them to attend the state school. At the time the boys conducted activities on a 900-acre (360 ha) tract of state-owned land and

720-986: The operations of the state schools consisted of cruel and unusual practices that violated the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Justice ordered TYC to close the Gatesville State School and the Mountain View State School and to redesign the agency's juvenile corrections system. Gatesville State School closed in 1979. The boys moved to smaller state schools, foster and group homes, halfway houses, and residential treatment centers. The state schools taking juvenile offenders included Brownwood State School (now Ron Jackson), Crockett State School in Crockett , Gainesville State School near Gainesville , Giddings State School near Giddings , and West Texas Children's Home of Pyote near Pyote . The Texas Department of Corrections purchased

750-486: The school on average held 316 boys. In the early 1970s Mountain View began to be a secure treatment facility for juvenile delinquents who were considered to be dangerous. In 1973 its average population was 70. A Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry in 1972 found that, of the 385 students, 68% were being incarcerated in a juvenile detention center for the first time. Of the population 48% were African American, 33% were White American, and 19% were Hispanic American. Most of

780-537: The state school, with 1,830 boys, consisted of seven sub-schools: Hackberry, Hilltop, Live Oak, Riverside, Sycmore, Terrace, and Valley. Gatesville also housed the reception center for boys entering TYC. In 1971 a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Texas Youth Council on behalf of the children in TYC facilities. In 1974 the school had 1,500 boys over 250 staff members. During that year, federal judge William Wayne Justice ruled on Morales v. Turman . Justice said that

810-417: The students were considered to be poor. 68% of Mountain View students had divorced parents. The majority of Mountain View students were behind in their educations, by scholastic achievement levels, by six to seven years. The average intelligence quotient of a Mountain View inmate was 86; The averages of black students, White students, and Hispanic students were 79, 89, and 83, respectively. Clarence Stephens,

840-827: Was converted into two prisons for adults, the Christina Crain Unit (formerly Gatesville Unit), and the Hilltop Unit . The Texas Legislature established the House of Correction and Reformatory, the first rehabilitative juvenile correctional facility in the Southern United States , in 1887. The facility, operated by the Texas Prison System , opened in January 1889 with 68 boys who had previously been located in correctional facilities with adult felons. The Victorian reformers who opened

870-586: Was filed against the Texas Youth Council (TYC), operator of the school, on behalf of the children in TYC facilities. Charles Derrick, a man later designated as the ombudsman of the court case, revealed that the school was actually being used as a punitive institution for children; children who did not follow orders at other Texas Youth Council institutions were forced to go to Mountain View for punishment. In 1974 federal judge William Wayne Justice ruled on Morales v. Turman . He ordered TYC to close

900-446: Was largely patterned after military academies. Inmates would be dressed in military style uniforms, often marching to the tune of a military band. Inmates were classified by three "grades", with newly arriving prisoners being placed at second grade for their first six months. Those who became the most responsive and cooperative prisoners earned a first grade, with the opportunity to earn additional privileges or "marks", including earning

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