Indiana Boys School
[1] For most of its existence, it was a self-sustained institution, providing vocational training to the inmates in many different occupations, including agriculture, electrical, cooking, tailoring, barbering and shop work.
IBS was a state operated, medium to maximum-security facility with approximately 245 staff and 335 boys housed in campus style cottages.
On January 11, 1867, Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed a commission to explore the possibility of creating a House of Refuge for delinquent boys.
In April 1867, the first Board of Control was organized and visited houses of refuge in Chicago, Cincinnati and Lancaster, Ohio.
[2] In the 1890s, the disciplinary system at IBS was semi-military in nature, which can be attributed to the tenure of Colonel Thomas Charlton as superintendent.
"The disciplining here is much as it is at West Point or Annapolis, except in this—that, instead of placing under arrest as is done with the worst offenders there, we use some corporal punishment," Charlton is reported to have said.
Under the merit system, a student needed to accumulate 5,000 "points" in order to be paroled but was required to stay for at least one year.
[2] IBS hosted movie crews in 1949 for the shooting of Johnny Holiday starring William Bendix, Hoagy Carmichael and Allen Martin Jr.
Monthly activities with the Indiana Girls' School located about 9 miles (14 km) to the east were incorporated and included a co-ed newspaper called The Herald and Super-Star Spectrum.
Most were gang members, till tappers and common thieves, but many were orphaned, neglected or homeless boys.
[6] A report in 1975 by Superintendent Alfred Bennett estimated that one-third of the 400 boys at IBS committed rape, burglary or assault.
As a result, IBS instituted a "strong treatment program" for violent offenders that provided psychiatric care.
[8] On July 27, 1975, an inmate wielding the arm of a chair beat a guard during an escape attempt by ten boys that was later thwarted.
[11]: 137–146 In November 1971, three boys successfully escaped from IBS by breaking a window in a game room and running from the grounds.
Two teenage escapees attacked a Plainfield woman, Lauretta Robinson, in her home and severely beat her during their six-day run from the law.
[14] In particular, the surrounding communities protested allowing boys to wear street clothes at IBS, which made it difficult to identify escapees.
