" The first idea of
_home_ precludes the possibility of the inmates being sent here as a
punishment for crime; therefore they are neither adjudged nor actual
criminals, but persons exposed to a vicious life. Secondly, the idea of
home involves the necessity of reproducing the family relation, as
circumstances may permit. Hence, the members of this institution are to
be divided into families; and over each a matron will preside, who is to
be a kind, affectionate, discreet mother to the children.
And here, for once, in Massachusetts, a public institution has escaped
the tyranny of bricks and mortar; and we are permitted to indulge the
hope, that any future additions will tend to make this spot a
neighborhood of unostentatious cottages, quiet rural homes, rather than
the seat of a vast edifice, which may provoke the wonder of the
sight-seer, inflame local or state pride, but can never be an effectual,
economical agency in the work of reformation. Every public institution
has some great object. Architecture should bend itself to that object,
and become its servant; and it must ever be deemed a mistake, when
utility is sacrificed that art or fancy may have its way.
Reformation, if wrought by external influences, is the result of
personal kindness. Personal kindness can exist only where there is
intimate personal acquaintance; this acquaintance is impossible in an
institution of two, three, or five hundred inmates.
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