Gatesville State School

[4] Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, said that the institution gained "a reputation for ruthlessness" as decades passed.

[3] Gatesville, which served as the main juvenile detention facility for Texas since its opening, had a focus on labor instead of rehabilitation.

Before the state school first opened, the reformatory officials complained about an influx of non-White children who they believed were not capable of being rehabilitated.

[5] In 1909 the legislature changed the facility's name to the State Institution for the Training of Juveniles and placed it under the control of a five member board of trustees.

[7] By 1970, the state school, with 1,830 boys,[2] consisted of seven sub-schools: Hackberry, Hilltop, Live Oak, Riverside, Sycmore, Terrace, and Valley.

The boys moved to smaller state schools, foster and group homes, halfway houses, and residential treatment centers.

: Race and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth-Century Texas, said that the school newspaper's main purpose was to serve as a pro-prison administration propaganda organ.

A graveyard with sixteen graves containing the remains of children in the state school who died during their stay is located on the Riverside Unit.