Hungary maintains seventeen institutions for indigent, abandoned,
delinquent and abused children. It is the custom to receive every
child applicant, to give him a bath and clean clothes, and then to
investigate his condition. If the investigation warrants the state’s
interference the child is admitted. Seventeen thousand children were
thus received in 1908. Most of them are placed out in the country
or smaller cities with farmers or artisans of good character and in
moderate circumstances. Five reformatories have been established
for delinquent or absolutely unruly children. They have room for a
thousand inmates, who live together in family groups of twenty-five,
learning a trade under the supervision of the head of the household.
Corporal punishment is still administered. Up to 1908, 2,331 inmates
had been released on parole, 86.6 per cent had worked steadily and
had kept straight, 5.4 per cent had committed crimes and 8 per cent
had disappeared.