Protectory

Nine children, just gathered from the streets, were present and formed the nucleus of the new establishment that later grew to vast proportions on Randalls Island.

[1] In the great majority of cases the institutions were public, but in several states the reformation and correction of delinquents was entrusted in whole or in part to private or religious agencies.

On a marble slab inserted in one of the interior walls he read further: "It is of little use to restrain criminals by punishment, unless you reform them by education".

The same pontiff established in connexion with this foundation of San Michéle a special court for the trial of offenders under twenty years of age, a plan that has re-appeared in the Juvenile Courts established in America and elsewhere for the trial of delinquents under (seventeen years of) age.

By the mid 1860s, many children in New York City were the offspring of immigrants living in squalid and disease-ridden neighborhoods.

Adding to the destitution was the fact that casualties of the Civil War left many women widows and their children fatherless.

In 1938, due to high overhead and declining residents with other resources and options available, the Girls' Department was closed and the Boys' relocated to the Lincolndale facility.

The 129-acre main campus was sold to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which constructed the Parkchester planned-housing development on the site.