Research

Scope and Content Note

This volume contains copies of contractual agreements between the reformatory managers, inmates, and employers (or "masters") to bind out inmates for vocational training until the age of twenty-one. The indenture system, which was authorized by the law that established the Western House of Refuge, operated until 1871, when it was discontinued by Superintendent Levi Fulton. However, no indenture agreements are extant for the period after 1860.

The agreements are printed on standard forms. In return for the inmate's labor, the master agreed to provide the inmate with clothing, room and board, medical care, and educational and vocational training. In addition to signatures of the inmate, master, and the President of the Board of Managers, the following information is entered on each form: inmate's name and age; master's name and place of residence; and type of vocational training to be provided.

The most common entry for vocational training is farming. Other entries include shoemaking, chairmaking, housepainting, carpentry, and brushmaking.