The Georgia
State Reformatory, for the detention and punishment of youthful delinquents,
was established in 1905 under the management of the Georgia Prison Commission
. Any prisoner, black or white, confined in the state prison farm or chain
gangs in the state who were 16 years old or under at the time it opened
and not sentenced for life were to be sent here." Any person committed
to the Georgia State Reformatory for an offence punishable by imprisonment
in the penitentiary may be held in said reformatory for a term not exceeding
five years, or, if committed for a longer term than five years, may be
held for such longer term; and any person committed to said reformatory
for an offence that is punishable as for a misdemeanour, may be held in
said reformatory for a term not exceeding two years; provided, however,
that no person shall he held in said reformatory after he or she has arrived
at the age of twenty-one years."
The general
supervision, control and government was "vested in the Prison Commission
of Georgia, and said commission shall have power to make all rules and
regulations necessary and proper for the employment, discipline, instruction
and education of the inmates detained in said reformatory, and shall also
have power to determine in their discretion as to what character or kind
of work any particular inmate shall be required at any time to perform."
The prison commission
had the " power to appoint, with the approval of the Governor, a fit and
proper person as superintendent of said reformatory, at a salary not exceeding
twelve hundred dollars per year. The said superintendent shall reside at
said reformatory and his lodging and board shall be furnished at the expense
of the State. The duties of said superintendent shall be prescribed by
the commission, and he shall be under its direction and control, and subject
to removal by the commission at any time. The said commission shall also
appoint such teachers, guards and other employees as are necessary to the
proper conducting of said reformatory, and shall prescribe their duties
and fix their salaries, but the amounts of such salaries before allowed
shall be approved by the Governor."
The inmates were
to be "employed in agricultural, domestic and mechanical work, and shall
be given a reasonable amount of instruction in the elementary branches
of an English education. The commission, if it deem best, is empowered
to establish and maintain in connection with said institution a system
of manual training and instruction in trades, and create such industries,
productive or otherwise, as are, in their opinion, to the best interests
of the inmates of said reformatory."
The discipline to be
observed in said institution shall be reformatory, and the commission shall
have power to use such means of reformation as is consistent with the improvement
of the inmates as it may deem best and expedient; but a method of discipline
shall be used as will, as far as possible, reform the characters of the
inmates, preserve their health, promote regular improvement in their studies
and employment, and secure in them fixed habits in religion, morality and
industry; and the commission shall maintain such control over said inmates
as will prevent them from committing crime, best secure their self-support,
accomplish their reformation, and that will tend to make of them good and
law-abiding citizens.
The reformatory
opened in December 1906 and started out with a two story brick building
(above picture) containing offices for officials, sleeping quarters for
more than a hundred boys, dining room, recitation room and chapel. It was
located on a site containing 200 acres of farm land belonging to the state,
a short distance from the state prison farm. Preparations were made for
caring for thirty inmates when opened. The first superintendent and matron
was Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin T. Bethune, of Milledgeville.
In 1912 Joseph
E. Lovvorn of Cedartown became the superintendent and Mrs. Lovvorn, his
wife, matron. By 1913 nearly 200 boys were inmates here. There was a separate
schools for white and blacks. School sessions in the mornings, farm
and other work in the afternoon. There were 7 grades with one teacher.
Agricultural training such as raising and storing forage and feed
stuffs for farm mules and her of milk cows was done by all the boys as
well as other farm work . An Industrial trade shop was started by Supernatant
Lovvorn. Trades such as shoe repair, sign lettering, painting, barber work,
tanning hides, blacksmithing, and bottoming chairs were taught.
About 1912 an attorney
named John Sibley organized a Sunday school here, aided by teachers, prominent
business men and faculty members of both colleges in Milledgeville. Also
the boys frequently attend church services in Milledgeville
Entertainment was provided by the manager
of the moving picture theatre im Milledgeville and the boys saw one selected
picture show each month. Superintendent Lovvorn resigned in June
1917 and was succeeded by J.L. Smith, of Green County. When Smith resigned
in 1919 Charles E. Bonner of Milledgeville was appointed to succeed him.
The name of the
facility was changed to Georgia Training School for Boys in 1919 and placed
under a board of managers
"consisting of the State School Commission
of Georgia, the Secretary of the Board of Health of the State of Georgia
(both of whom shall be ex-officio members of said Board of Managers, and
five other persons, citizens of said state, two of whom may be women, to
be appointed by the Governor." E.B. Cochran was appointed temporary
superintendent, replacing Charles .E. Bonner.
1921 Mrs. Orian Wood
Manson, a native of Irwinton Ga, and the first female member of the
board, was elected and she was superintendent until her death in July 1925.
In 1921,
it had become a self-supporting farm and some of the produce
sold purchased a gasoline engine, wood saw, gristmill, farm wagon, Ford
car. 200 trees and shrubs were planted. 1,000 privet hedge plants, 60 roses
and flower beds.
Tennis court and basketball court was donated
by F. J. Pason, of Atlanta, chairman of the board of the training school,
Ogden Persons, of Forsyth sent large collection of books.
William E. "Bill" Ireland, a former inmate and employee since 1921 was elected superintendent after the death of Mrs Manson. He was in this position from 1925 - 1947 and 1949-1964. In 1985 the facility was named in his honor William E. "Bill" Ireland Youth Development Campus.
Effective January 1, 1932 it was managed by the Board of Control of Eleemosynary Institutions which was changed to State Department of Public Welfare of Georgia in 1937. Currently it is under the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.
Due to budget cuts, all the inmates of YDC
were transferred out as of Oct. 11, 2009. This state institution, after
104 years in the community, is no more.
Sources: The Atlanta Constitution, Augusta Chronicle, Acts of The Georgia General Assembly.