650 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
concluding that about 75 per cent, of those discharged became law-abiding citizens. The trustees and superintendent claim that they followed the career of the boys for years after they left the school, and base their report upon reliable information. We may, therefore, place considerable confidence in the conclu- sion drawn.
III. THE ILLINOIS STATE REFORMATORY.
In 1 890 it was determined to convert the reform school into a reformatory similar to the New York Reformatory. A com- mittee had been appointed by the legislature the year before to visit the eastern and other prisons and reformatories and report on their construction, organization, and discipline. This com- mittee made its report to the legislature of 1891. The Elmira institution and system were fully described, and the construction of a similar reformatory was advocated. As early as 1886 the state board of charities, which had the supervision of the reform school, had declared that the school was not based upon the law of guardianship, according to which the state stands in loco paren- tis to dependent and delinquent children, but upon the stern principle of retribution for offenses committed against the crim- inal law. It was also pointed out that commitments to this school were for a definite term of years, and that parole or conditional liberation of imates was not allowed. The act of 1871, convert- ing the reform school into a reformatory, sought to remedy some of these defects. It provided that the inmates should be divided into two classes, the first to include males between ten and six- teen years of age, the second to include males between sixteen and twenty-one years of age. A boy of the first class who should commit an offense which, if committed by an adult, would be punishable by confinement in a jail or penitentiary, should be sentenced to the reformatory for not less than one year nor longer than the maximum term of confinement pro- vided by law for such a crime.
The boy might be sent to jail, at the discretion of the court. No one who had been guilty of a capital offense or had served a term in the penitentiary might be committed to the reforma- tory. The law reads :
