The New York House of Refuge was the nation's first juvenile reformatory, opening its doors on New Year's Day, January 1, 1825. By opening in New York, it brought to a A house of refuge was built in Boston in 1826, followed by Philadelphia opening its own in 1828.11 The prison was funded by a philanthropic association called the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, which conducted an investigation in 1820 that extensively examined prisons across the country, and their findings led to the creation of the House of Refuge.12 In particular, the discovery found that revenge was often a primary motivation for dealing with prisoners, and that the age or severity of the crime committed rarely affected the severity of the punishment meted out. . In short, the punishment did not always fit the crime. On the day of the prison's inauguration, only nine children were admitted, six boys and three girls. This number soon exploded, as in just ten years the prison was occupied by 1,678 inmates.13 Two key features definitively distinguished this institution from those of Great Britain and Pennsylvania, including the fact that children were committed not only for vagrancy, but even for small crimes. Second, rather than having a specific sentence, the House of Refuge admitted children