Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice
1897 Year Book of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira
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1897 Reformatory Year Book Table of Contents
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1880 Census - Reformatory
BIOGRAPHICAL COMPENDIUM

These tables are compiled from information relating to 8,319 of the 8,321 inmates indefinitely sentenced. Of one, an illiterate foreigner, no reliable data can be secured; another refused to give any information as to his family or past life.

RELATING TO PARENTS OF INMATES

HEREDITY

Insanity or epilepsy in ancestry
925 or 11.0%

DRUNKENNESS (IN ANCESTRY)

Clearly traced
3,131 or 37.6%
Doubtful
4,296 or 51.7%
Temperate
892 or 10.7%

EDUCATION (IN ANCESTRY)

Without any education
1,081 or 13.0%
Simply read and write
2,221 or 26.7%
Ordinary common school or more
4,589 or 55.2%
High school or more
428 or 5.1%

PECUNIARY CIRCUMSTANCES (IN ANCESTRY)

Pauperized
268 or 3.2%
No accumulations
6,724 or 80.8%
Forehanded
1,327 or 16.0%

OCCUPATION (IN ANCESTRY)

Servants and clerks
  1. or 10.3%
Common laborers
3,012 or 36.2%
At mechanical work
2,815 or 33.8%
With traffic
1,453 or 17.5%

The professions (so-called):

Law
41
Medicine
63

GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT 37


Theology
31
  
Teaching
48
  
     
Total  
183 or 2.2%

RELATING TO INMATES THEMSELVES

ENVIRONMENT

    1. Character of home:
    Positively bad
    3,886 or 46.7%
    Fair (only)
    3,416 or 41.1%
    Good
    1,017 or 12.2%
  1. Duration of home life:
Left home previous to 10 years of age
308 or 3.7%
Left home between 10 and 14 years of age
523 or 6.3%
Left home soon after 14 years of age
2,846 or 34.2%
At home up to time of crime
4,642 or 55.8%

As to the 3,677 homeless:
 
Occupied furnished rooms in cities
1,400 or 38.1%
Lived in cheap boarding houses (itinerant)
681 or 18.5%
Lived with employer
741 or 20.1%
Were rovers or tramps
855 or 23.3%

EDUCATIONAL


 
Without any education (illiterates)
1,516 or 18.3%
Simply read and write (with difficulty)
3,596 or 43.3%
Ordinary common school
2,938 or 35.2%
High school or more
269 or 3.2%

INDUSTRIAL *


 
Servants and clerks
1,989 or 23.9%
Common laborers
4,685 or 56.3%
At mechanical work
1,234 or 14.9%
Idlers
411 or 4.9%

CHARACTER OF ASSOCIATIONS


 
Positively bad
4.511 or 54.2%
Not good
3,614 or 43.4%
Doubtful
81 or 1.4%
Good
113 or 1.0%

NOMINAL RELIGIOUS FAITH OR TRAINING


 
Protestant
3,635 or 43.7%
Roman Catholic
3,863 or 46.4%
Hebrew
580 or 7.0%
None
241 or 2.9%
GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT 39

RATIO OF PROGRESS IN THE GRADES

*Of the present 1, 486 indefinite inmates, there reached the Upper

First Grade:
 
After only six months
71 or 4.8%
After from seven to nine months
59 or 3.9%
After from ten to twelve months
31 or 2.1%
After from thirteen to eighteen months
38 or 2.6%
After from nineteen to twenty-four months
34 or 2.3%
After from twenty-five to thirty-six months
42 or 2.8%
After from thirty-seven to forty-nine months
21 or 1.4%
   
Total
296 or 19.9%
In progress now
1,190 or 80.1%

The grade status of the 1, 486 indefinite inmates now here, is as follows:

In the Lower First or neutral grade
540 or 36.4%
In the Upper Fist or probationary grade
296 or 19.9%
In the Second grade
593 or 39.9%
In the Third grade
57 or 3.8%

PERIOD OF DETENTION OF PRESENT INMATES

Of the 1,486 indefinite inmates there have been here:
 
Less than one year
608 or 40.9%
One year and less than two
381 or 25.7%
Two years and less than three
231 or 15.6%
Three years and less than four
140 or 9.4%
Four years and less than five
115 or 7.7%
Five years and more
11 or .7%

Average period of detention of present indefinite inmates: 22 months.

*The minimum of time requited to reach the Upper First or probationary grade, preparatory to release, is six months.