Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/673

 REFORMATION OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS 653

education. Ninety per cent, of those who had attended school confessed themselves to have been chronic truants. But while the inmates of our reformatories are largely ignorant of books, it is their lack of skill in a trade or some useful vocation which seems to be the chief cause of their downfall. Hence great emphasis is laid upon industrial training in the Illinois reforma- tory, as in other similar institutions. Instruction is given in carpentry, brick and stone masonry, plastering, painting, paper- hanging, tinwork, glazing, plumbing, gardening, electrical engi- neering, blacksmithing, shoemaking, tailoring, laundry work, stone- and granite-cutting, printing, bookbinding, cabinet work, music, photography, knitting, chairmaking, bookkeeping, and domestic service. " So skilled do many of the inmates become," we are told, "that it may be truthfully said that they could build a workshop or residence from foundation to roof, and paint it in good style, with but little outside assistance, and that of a super- visory character." The result is that the vast majority of "the graduates of Pontiac" earn an honest living after leaving the reformatory, and those who fall are without excuse, unless, indeed, "innate depravity " be considered an excuse for commit- ting crime.

On October I, 1900, there were 1,275 inmates in the reforma- tory, and they were organized into four battalions, each 300 strong, to whom military instruction and drill are given by com- petent officers. Workshops, cell-houses, and other buildings have been erected during the last decade, until this reformatory is now as well equipped as perhaps any similar institution in the country save in one particular. As already stated, about two hundred small boys, between ten and sixteen years of age, are incarcerated with the older inmates. It is true that they are kept separate from the older boys have separate schools, din- ing-rooms, playgrounds, and dormitories and are not under as strict discipline as are the others. But the reformatory authorities admit that these young boys ought not to be confined in the same inclosure with the older and more vicious prisoners, and they have been asking for money for some time to erect cottages for the small boys outside the reformatory walls. But a still more serious objection to committing these small boys to