The Reformatory Schools Act 1866 (30 Victoria, Act No. 4, 1866) came into operation in 1869. Under the Act, any child under the age of sixteen who had been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to fourteen or more days imprisonment could be sent to a reformatory for one to five years. There were to be separate reformatories for boys and girls, and parents were asked to pay maintenance for children, if possible, while they served time. The Act was repealed by the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act 1901.
Reformatories were controlled by the Comptroller General of Prisons until the 1880s, when they were transferred to the Department of Public Instruction.
From
1869
To
1901
Alternative Names
An Act to establish Juvenile Reformatories
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