Minutes of meetings of a special committee of the Board of Visitors A3057

Minutes of meetings of a special committee of the Board of Visitors

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Overview of the Records

Repository:

New York State Archives
New York State Education Department
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230

Summary:

This series consists of meeting minutes in the form of hearing transcripts from a committee investigating the problem of runaways at the Agricultural and Industrial School. Testimony included personality traits of good supervisors; methods of discipline and preventing runaways; punishing runaways; frequency of home visits; past and present conditions at the school; reasons for inmates running away; criteria for assigning inmates to colonies; and possibility of regular meetings of cottage supervisors to exchange ideas on treatment and discipline of inmates.

Creator:

New York (State). State Agricultural and Industrial School

Title:

Minutes of meetings of a special committee of the Board of Visitors

Quantity:

0.1 cubic feet

Inclusive Dates:

1938

Series Number:

A3057

Arrangement

Chronological by date of meeting.

Scope and Content Note

Minutes are in the form of original and carbon typescript hearing transcripts.

A committee investigating the problem of runaways at the institution took testimony from cottage supervisors concerning: necessary personality traits for good supervisors; methods of discipline and preventing runaways; punishing runaways; frequency with which inmates should be permitted to visit home; superiority of present over past conditions at the school; reasons for inmates running away; effectiveness of the "merit system" of rewarding good behavior with visits home or other activities; criteria for assigning inmates to colonies; and possibility of regular meetings of cottage supervisors to exchange ideas on treatment and discipline of inmates.

Bylaws of the institution authorized the Board of Visitors (previously the Board of Managers) to exercise overall executive and supervisory powers over the operation of the institution.