Research

Scope and Content Note

The series contains approximately fifty survey forms completed by superintendents of training schools and other custodial institutions for the mentally deficient throughout the country. There are forms for nine institutions in New York.

The three-page survey form contains approximately fifty questions relating to the following: institutional information (name, when founded, staffing, cost of operation); inmate information (number of men, women, boys, and girls; classification of numbers of imbeciles, feeble-minded, moral imbeciles, and epileptics); training programs (type of work done by inmates, special courses, any research done); release and follow-up of inmates (percentages of cases that become self-supporting, return cases, inmates released who commit crimes); and suggestions from the superintendents on need for new legislation, changes in administration procedures, and improvements in classification and methods of mental and social diagnosis.