[roughsquare]

"for certain children who are inmates of one of its schools for the mentally defective deaf."

Wow, that is a loaded statement that certainly has not aged well.

[hotnfresh]

It’s just a couple steps behind on the euphemism treadmill, is all.

Plus “inmates” has narrowed in meaning a bit, so that reads harsher than it was probably intended. That doesn’t help.

[aintgonnatakeit]

Inmates describes most public school children pretty well though. You got your locked doors, your tall fences, your armed guards, and a limited time to spend in the yard…err playground.

[klysm]

It is true by literal definition - you are confined to that space.