The province of Ontario, Canada, is trying to provide a means for more
adequately handling the delinquent girl or woman who is also
feeble-minded or suffering from venereal disease. It is well known that
a third or a fourth of the boys and girls sent to reformatories are
mentally deficient, but in many places there is no legal treatment for
them except that of the reformatory which is designed for normal people.
An act now before the Ontario legislature provides that any female
between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five who has been sent to an
industrial refuge, which is a house of correction, and who is discovered
to be so feeble-minded that she can not take care of herself shall be
kept in the refuge until the medical officer, with the approval of the
inspector, orders her discharge. All girls found to have venereal
diseases, or to be suffering from contagious or dangerous illnesses, are
to be kept in the refuge until they have fully recovered.