REFORMATORY OF ILLINOIS STATE
A prison for the incarceration of male offenders under 21 years of age, who are believed to be susceptible of reformation.
It is the successor of the "State Reform School" which was created by act of the Legislature of 1867, but not opened for the admission of inmates until 1871. It is located at Pontiac. The number of inmates, in 1872, was 165 which was increased to 324 in 1890.
The results, while moderately successful, were not altogether satisfactory. The appropriations made for construction, maintenance, etc. were not upon a scale adequate to accomplish what was desired, and in 1891 a radical change was effected.
Previous to that date the limit, as to age, was 16 years. The law establishing the present reformatory provides for a system of indeterminate sentences, and a release upon parole, of inmates who in the opinion of the Board of Managers, may be safely granted conditional liberation.
The inmates were divided into two classes
(1) those between the ages of 10 and 16
(2) those between 16 and 21
The Board of Managers is composed of five members, not more than three of whom shall be of the same party, their term of office to be for ten years. The course of treatment is educational (intellectually, morally and industrially), schools being conducted, trades taught and the inmates constantly impressed with the conviction that only through genuine and unmistakably evidence of improvement, can they regain their freedom.
The reformatory influenced of the institution may be best inferred from the results of one year's operation. Of 146 inmates paroled, 15 violated their parole and became fugitives, 6 were returned to the Reformatory, 1 died, and 124 remained in employment and regularly reporting. Among the industries carried on are painting and glazing masonry and plastering, gardening, knitting, chair-caning, broom making, carpentering, tailoring and blacksmithing.
The grounds of the Reformatory contain a vein of excellent coal which it is proposed to mine, utilizing the clay, thus obtained, in the manufacture of brick, which can be employed in the construction of additional needed buildings.
The average number of inmates is about 800, and the crimes for which they are sentenced range, in gravity, from simple assault or petit-larceny, to the most serious offenses known to the criminal code, with the exception of homicide.
The number of inmates, at the beginning of the year 1895, was 812. An institution of a similar character, for the confinement of juvenile female offenders, was established under an act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1893 and located at Geneva, Kane County.