Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/25

 SCHOOLS FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 1 1

erection of a separate cell-house for the boys, and this was completed in 1899, and all boys under sixteen years of age were then transferred to this building. But the authorities soon saw the error of confining young boys in separate cells, and they were quickly abandoned and open dormitories substituted. The educational department of the John Worthy School is under the board of education of Chicago, while the care, discipline, and safekeeping of the boys are vested in the officials of the House of Correction.

The regular school day consists of two sessions, from 9 A. M. to 12 M., and from I to 4 P. M., with a half-day's session on Saturday, two hours being devoted to manual training and four hours to academic work. The boys are clothed in gray and brown uniforms, the more viciously inclined wearing the brown. They are organized upon the graded system into companies of seventeen, each in command of a captain chosen by the boys from two boys nominated by the superintendent. The captain holds his rank during good behavior and general progress of his company. Of course the company plan does not prevail in the classes. There the boys are graded as in the public schools.

Prior to July I, 1899, the boys were committed to this school (and the House of Correction) by the police justices on petty fines, running from $i to $100, which, if not paid, were served out at the rate of 50 cents per day. But the Juvenile Court Law of 1899 abolished all this, and boys are now committed on an indefinite sentence, their release depending upon their con- duct, progress in studies, and home conditions. In 1897 there was an average school attendance of 83 boys, whose average time in school was twenty-four days; in 1898 an average daily school attendance of 100 boys, whose average time in school was thirty-two days each; in 1899, an average daily school attendance of 126 boys, whose average time in school was forty-five days each; in 1900, owing to the operation of the Juvenile Court Law, an average daily attendance of 251 boys, whose average time in school was seventy-six days each.

Now, there can be no doubt that the establishment of the John Worthy School was a great improvement on the old