Carpenter began working for poor children. In 1835 she founded a Working and Visiting Society (and was its secretary for 20 years) - and after her father's death in 1840 she also took up some of his charitable work. In 1846 Mary Carpenter opened a ragged school in Bristol slum. 'In this she was faced with the riotous behaviour of untamed and poverty-stricken children, yet she succeeded in holding their interest by her ability and enthusiasm' (op. cit.). Mary Carpenter began to focus on the needs of the more 'difficult' youngsters - and they were often also offenders. She was appalled by the way in which these young people learnt criminal behaviour at an early age.
She began to study the situation in other countries - and some of the key reform programmes that had been developed. In 1851 Mary Carpenter published her essay on reform schools: Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes and for Juvenile Offenders and called a conference in Birmingham to discuss the institutional care of young offenders. There was a lot of interest in her proposals and in 1852 she opened her own reformatory for boys at Kingswood to experiment with and publicize her ideas. Two years later she started a reform school for girls close by in Red Lodge (an Elizabethan building that had fallen into disrepair, above). She was also active on the writing front, publishing in 1853, Juvenile Delinquents, their Condition and Treatment.
Her work was influential - in part affecting the writing of Youthful Offenders Act 1854 (which recognized such schools). Later her lobbying helped lead to the passing of the Industrial Schools Acts 1857, 1861, and 1866. Mary Carpenter also opened a workmen's hall and was later to publish a book on the convict system (1864).
In addition to this field of work, Mary Carpenter was well known for her interest in Indian affairs, and in the space of ten years (between 1866 and 1876) made four visits there. She was especially concerned with the education of women and penal policy. In 1870 she founded the National India Association (1870) and pressured British governments for reform. She was an advocate of higher education for women and became convinced of the need for women to be involved in public life.
Mary Carpenter remained single, but adopted a daughter in 1858. She died in 1877.
Educational principles and methods
Treatment should be founded on the love of the child. In this way the trust, affection and sense of security the 'normal' child can expect in their own family can be awakened. Following the example of the Rauhe Haus, Hamburg Mary Carpenter believed that the reformatory should be as close in size as was possible to a family so that individual needs could be dealt with and an appropriate environment created. This also entailed employing a skilled and capable staff. (ibid.: 169)
Change required the cooperation of the child. Mary Carpenter believed that it was difficult to do any meaningful work unless children must be ready and willing to change and believed that progress was possible. Without active participation 'change would not be forthcoming' - and this was true of industrial training just as much as moral development (ibid.: 169-170).
Work was to be a means to an end, not an end in itself. There should be no forced work. Mary Carpenter believed that it had no educative quality. While she believed that the basis of the curriculum should be work - especially of a kind that excites interest, calls forth all a child's powers, and that helps them to see they are useful - it should not be forced upon them. As Young and Ashton put it, 'It would be better for a child to be idle, even refused access to work, so that when he was tired of his idleness work could be made available as a favour' (ibid.: 170).
Recreation was as important as work. Children need sport, Mary Carpenter believed, and the chance to participate in it. In this respect she swam strongly against the dominant thinking of her day. She recognized that teachers in schools had more opportunity to discover 'the true nature of the boy in his periods of recreation than at any other time.ibid.: 170).
Corporal punishment was reduced to a minimum. Carpenter thought that both constant severity and over-indulgence were counter-productive. If children earnt money through work and had their own possessions, for example, they were more likely to respect property - and to realize 'that what belonged to others was as prized as what they themselves possessed' (ibid.: 170-1).
The approach should be educational - and should be founded on Christianity. Christian and moral teaching had to run in parallel with learning a trade. 'The delinquent would thus be equipped in every way to occupy his station in life on release' (ibid.: 171).
Unlike a number of other practitioners in this area, Mary Carpenter had no fixed idea of how long the reform process would take. 'Each case should be dealt with on its merits, release dependent on the progress made, and decided by the school managers under a government inspection' (ibid.: 171).
Mary Carpenter made a profound contribution to the
development of more humane and enlightened treatment for young
offenders. The liberality of her educational methods and principles
stand in stark contrast to the dominant ideology and practices of her
Further reading and references