The following rules have been framed by the Provincial Government under Section 8 of the Reformatory Schools Act:-"I. No boy shall be sent to a Reformatory School if under ten years of age, for a less period than seven years; if over ten years of age, for a less period than five years, unless he shall sooner attain the age of eighteen years.II. In determining whether a juvenile offender is a proper person to be sent to a Reformatory School, the Court should be guided by the following considerations:-(1)The most proper subjects for reformatory treatment are those boys who are without proper parental or other control, and who have committed an offence or offences against property.(2)As a rule no boy should be sent to the reformatory on a first conviction unless there is reasonable cause for supposing that he is being trained up to, or likely again to lapse into, crime.Explanation. - There would ordinarily be reasonable cause for this supposition if, among other circumstances,-(a)either of the boy's parents is a habitual criminal; or(b)the offence of which he is convicted is one anguring great depravity (that is, a general corruption of morals apart from the specific criminality of the particular act); or(c)the boy is destitute.(3)As a rule it is not desirable to send a boy to a reformatory before he has completed the ninth year of his age.(4)Boys who appear to be habitual offenders should be committed (if at all) at an early stage in their career, being less amenable to reforming influences as they approach the age of fifteen years.(5)No boy should be sent to reformatory who has been convicted of an unnatural offence or of gross indecency indicative of habitual immorality.[Notification No. 4717, dated the 27th May, 1897, as amended by Notification No. 1330, dated the 16th June, 1910, and No. 1202-435-V, dated the 22nd June, 1934 and notification No. 13467, dated the 15th November, 1905.]
