Utah State Industrial School was a juvenile

reform school A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who were ...

that operated in

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

from October 31, 1889 to 1983.

History

In 1888, the

Utah Territorial Assembly The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term lim ...

passed the Reform School bill, at the initiative of Salt Lake City attorney

James Moyle James Henry Moyle (September 17, 1858 – February 20, 1946) was a prominent American politician in Utah and noted as "one of Utah's most distinguished citizens and one of the Nations' able and devoted servants." Biography Moyle was born in Salt L ...

, to help

juvenile delinquent Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...

s by teaching new skills and improving habits. In May 1888, a committee researched schools around the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to determine which model would be best for the

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state. ...

. The Utah Territorial Reform School opened in Ogden on October 31, 1889. Boys and girls lived in the same dormitories during the first ten years, but daily activities, were divided by gender. Discipline was an ongoing concern deemed necessary to keep children in line at the school. Punishment ranged from deprivation of meals and privileges, to

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

whipping Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on an ...

, and the use of restraints. Youths were confined at the school by the order of

juvenile court A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal s ...

judges. On June 24, 1891, a fire destroyed most of the building, including the resident halls. The Ogden Military Academy offered its vacant buildings to operate in while the school was to be rebuilt. In 1896, the school permanently took over the site of the old military academy. With

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

becoming a state, the school was officially renamed the Utah State Industrial School.

Investigations

The school was placed under repeated scrutiny over the course of the 20th century. In 1909, it was investigated for

graft Graft or grafting may refer to: *Graft (politics), a form of political corruption *Graft, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Graft-De Rijp Science and technology *Graft (surgery), a surgical procedure *Grafting, the joining of plant ti ...

. In October 1963, political pressure was brought upon the state after a rash of escapes by internees culminated in the shooting death of Detective Sergeant Marshall N. White. In 1973, the state considered closing the school because of overcrowding and a lack of adequate facilities. In 1977, it was renamed the Youth Development Center. The Utah affiliate of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

brought suit against the center in the 1980s, charging it with inhumane conditions of confinement. The center was finally closed in 1983 and replaced by two newer facilities in Ogden and

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

as Utah moved towards community-based treatment and rehabilitation instead of

incarceration Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

of juvenile offenders. In 1984, the site became the present-day location of

Ogden–Weber Technical College Ogden–Weber Technical College (also referred to as OTECH, Ogden-Weber Tech or OWTC) is a public technical college in Ogden, Utah. It is one of the largest of the eight technical colleges within the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). The c ...

Notable internees

* Jack Abbott - Author and career criminal who claimed he was scarred for life by the school guards. *

Ronnie Lee Gardner Ronnie Lee Gardner (January 16, 1961 – June 18, 2010) was an American criminal who received the death penalty for killing a man during an attempted escape from a courthouse in 1985, and was executed by a firing squad by the state of Utah in 20 ...

- Robber and double murderer who was later

executed by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

References

External links

Utah: State Industrial School and Youth Development Center
at

Utah State Archives Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its we ...

Picture of Utah State Industrial School -1896 - Utah State Historical Society
{{Coord, 41, 14, 45, N, 112, 00, 27, W, scale:10000, display=title Defunct schools in Utah Educational institutions established in 1888 Educational institutions disestablished in 1983 Juvenile detention centers in the United States Buildings and structures in Ogden, Utah Prisons in Utah Schools in Weber County, Utah 1888 establishments in Utah Territory 1983 disestablishments in Utah