0 (especially in the past) a type of school where young people who have broken the law are sent instead of prison: --
1 intended to change something in order to make it better: --
the reformatory objectives of liberal free trade
I think that, in the direction of the more careful subdivision of various types, we should find the most hopeful development of our industrial homes and reformatories.
I know that reformatories are not so bad as they used to be in the past, but the same class of criminals is still sent there.
Can they be sent to reformatories?
With the overcrowding of prisons the state came to believe that it would be better to separate habitual drunkenness offenders and put them in what were then known as reformatories.
The only alternative to sending them to prison is to send them to reformatories or industrial schools, and then you run the risk of turning out hardened criminals.
At that time such schools were called reformatories.
Today, our prisons have three in a cell, and our reformatories are overfull.
Our prisons, our reformatories, our remand homes, are filled to overflowing, many prisoners living three in a cell.
