You might enjoy this, it was the first girls’ reform school in North America and is still in operation today:
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ma43.htm
I read a local newspaper write-up and they made it clear the “offense” most of the girls were charged with having a child out of wedlock.
It is an criminal offense, one that is correctable by marriage. In healthier times it was on the books as a crime.
In today’s culture it is the innocent child born out of wedlock, without a dad, that we sentenced to a life of poverty and bitterness. To a much higher chance of becoming a criminal, a hazard and burden to society.