Date of Award:

5-1950

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Sociology and Anthropology

Department name when degree awarded

Sociology

Committee Chair(s)

Joseph A. Geddes

Committee

Joseph A. Geddes

Committee

Joseph A. Geddes

Abstract

This study deals with the program, personnel, and physical plant of the Utah State Industrial School. Studies made of the school are few. Among them, the Survey made by John Schapps, Field Consultant of the National Probation Association, between January and July, 1946, is probably the most comprehensive and professional in nature. Since Mr. Schapps's study began only three months after Mr. Parley Kilburn was appointed superintendent, this investigator covered conditions mainly as they were under the old administration. This study aims at comparison of conditions, facilities and programs as they existed in 1947 and 1949 with those found by John Schapps. More specifically, the objectives of the study are as follows:

  1. To describe in considerable detail the conditions and facilities at the Industrial School in 1947.
  2. To clarify the principal features of the new program and compare the findings with those of the National Probation Association.
  3. To bring together the opinions of authorities on what conditions ought to exist in a correctional institution on 14 items and compare the conditions found to exist in 1946, 1947 and 1949 with these standards.
  4. To examine the present physical plant in relation to the influence its various parts are likely to have on the positive procedures within the program.
  5. To use opinions and findings from competent sources as to the additions and alterations necessary in the physical plant to sustain effectively, the positive features of the new program.
  6. To ascertain the approximate costs of such alterations and additions of buildings.
  7. To compare the training and experience of the present staff and personnel at the Industrial School with that found in the National Probation Association study.

The methods employed in gathering needed information were chiefly these:

  1. Information regarding the new program was obtained through personal observation of its workings and through contacts with the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and school staff. Prepared schedules were used in securing this data. The records of the school were made available.
  2. The program at the Industrial School was studied in relation to standards recommended for correctional institutions by such organizations as the Osborne Association, the Child Welfare League of America, Russell Sage Foundations, and the United States Office of Education. These organizations have completed extensive research programs operating within correctional institutions. On the basis of their findings they have formulated standards of excellence in the more important areas of correctional endeavor. The principal approach in this study has been to ascertain and describe the programs and selected conditions existing at the Industrial School in three years--1946, 1947, and 1949--in relation to the standards above indicated.

The 1946 data was gathered by John Schapps, a field worker of the National Probation Association, and was incorporated in what is known as the Schapp's Report.

Mr. Parley Kilburn had only recently been appointed superintendent of the Industrial School at the time the Schapp's study was made, so that Schapp's findings represent conditions as they existed during the latter years of the former administration.

The 1947 appraisal was made by the writer and covered the principal areas included in the Schapps's Report. The 1949 data is less extensive, but is inclusive enough to carry the main features of the Schapps study up to the close of 1949.

It is expected that a comparison of conditions in the Industrial School at the three periods with each other and with recognized standards of excellence that should exist in correctional institutions will reveal the nature and extent of growth or retrogression that has taken place during the period under study.

Scope of the study:

Only facts concerning the program that was in operation during 1946, 1947 and 1949 have been gathered. No attempt has been made to secure first-hand information on the program that was in effect previous to the appointment of H. Parley Kilburn as superintendent in December of 1945. Mr. Schapps's study (1946) has been relied upon chiefly for earlier comparisons. This limitation applies also for data on personnel.

The study of the physical plant was confined to an evaluation of the types of buildings now available at the school with some description of their relative value to the total program. Since the children's living quarters are their substitutes for homes, a more thorough examination of these facilities has been undertaken.

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