Lyman School for Boys

The State Reform School was established by Massachusetts per St 1847, c 165, for the instruction, employment, and reform of juvenile offenders. The school, governed by a board of trustees appointed by the governor, opened at Westborough in 1848. Any boy under the age of sixteen convicted of an offence punishable under state law by imprisonment could be sentenced to the school. Along with discipline the school emphasized reform through instruction and employment. The trustees could recommend that a boy be sent to another correctional facility if he were thought not capable of reform or otherwise unsuited to the school. The trustees could discharge a boy only if his term had expired, he had reached the age of twenty-one, or he was reformed. No boy committed served a term longer than his minority or less then a year.

The Nautical Branch of the school, or State Nautical School (called the Massachusetts Nautical School from 1867) was established by St 1859, c 285 and c 286. It instructed boys in seamanship and navigation. Successful candidates would then be discharged from the school and allowed to go on sea voyages. Reaching the peak of popularity in 1869, it was abolished per St 1872, c 68. (See: Massachusetts Nautical School (1867-1872))

In 1879 the school's trustees were subsumed by the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools, which had responsibility for the State Reform School, the State Primary School at Monson, and the State Industrial School for Girls at Lancaster (St 1879, c 291, ss 1,8). This change coincided with the replacement of the Board of State Charities, which had had oversight over all public charitable and correctional institutions since 1863 (St 1863, c 240), by the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity (St 1879, c 291, s 2). That board's oversight of the State Reform School and other such institutions was continued by that of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity (St 1886, c 101) and the State Board of Charity (St 1898, c 433)

St 1884, c 323 renamed the instititution as the Lyman School for Boys, after Theodore Lyman, a former mayor of Boston who donated money to the school, offering to match any sum appropriated by the legislature. The 1884 act also specified that no boy over fifteen years could be committed to the school. St 1884, c 255, s 13 provided for transfer of Lyman School inmates as warranted to the newly established Massachusetts Reformatory at Concord.

In 1895, on the abolition of the Monson school, the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools were renamed the Trustees of the Lyman and Industrial Schools (St 1895, c 428). The following year an annex was set up at the Flagg Farm in Berlin, pursuant to Resolves 1896, c 118, to relieve crowding at the school. Boys under thirteen were to be sent there unless their lack of cooperation forced their return to the main school. St 1908, c 639, establishing the Industrial School for Boys at Shirley, provided that boys could be exchanged between that school and the Lyman School at the request of the latter's trustees.

Per St 1911, c 566, the joint board of trustees established in 1895 was merged with that of the Shirley school to form the Trustees of the Massachusetts Training Schools. Per St 1915, c 113, trustees could transfer Lyman School boys to the Massachusetts Reformatory, and could act as their legal guardians. The state govenment reorganization of 1919, which abolished the State Board of Charity, transferred the trustees from its jurisdiction to that of the Dept. of Public Welfare and made the department's director of juvenile training a member of the board (St 1919, c 350, ss 87, 92)

Per St 1948, c 310, the Youth Service Board replaced the Trustees of the Massachusetts Training Schools; per St 1952, c 605, jurisdiction over the Lyman School and other state institutions for juveniles was placed under the Division of Youth Service, an independent unit of the Dept. of Education. Per St 1969, c 838, the Youth Service Board and Division of Youth Service were abolished and institutions for juveniles placed under the Bureau of Institutional Services of the Dept. of Youth Services. This reform legislation led to replacement of such institutions with community-based homes supervised by regional offices. Though never abolished by statute, the Lyman School and four similar institutions were closed by the Commonwealth in 1972.

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agencies described above can be found by searching the following access points for the time period stated: 1848-1884--Massachusetts. State Reform School (Westborough, Mass.); 1884-1972--Lyman School for Boys.