SCHOOLS FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 1 3
it is said, shall contain more than forty boys, with the family officers. "It is the intention of this act," it is said, "that no boy shall be kept in such home, who can be properly placed out or returned home, longer than may be reasonably necessary to prepare him for such placing out." A board of trustees, of which Hon. R. S. Tuthill, judge of the juvenile court in Chicago, is the chairman, was appointed some time ago, a superintendent has been employed, and commendable progress has been made toward the establishment of the new school. If the present plans are carried out, this school should prove to be the greatest blessing which has ever been conferred upon the youth of this state.
II. ILLINOIS STATE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.
In 1886 the trustees of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls and other philanthropists introduced a bill into the legis- lature to provide a state home for juvenile female offenders, but it was not until 1893 that an act was finally passed, providing for its establishment. The name adopted was " State Home for Female Juvenile Offenders," but this has recently been changed to "State Training School for Girls." Under this act any girl between the ages of ten and sixteen years who may be con- victed before a court of record of any offense which, if com- mitted by an adult, would be punishable by confinement in a house of correction, or county jail, may be committed by the court to the State Training School, for a time not less than one year nor beyond her minority.
The "good time" feature is embodied in the act. The girls may be placed in homes, or may be bound out, or given to any reputable person who will adopt them, and the school must exercise a supervising care over them and see that they are properly treated.
Acting under this law, the governor appointed a board of trustees in the fall of 1893, and the home was opened on Indiana avenue in Chicago ; but the next year a tract of fifty acres of land, since increased to ninety-one acres, was purchased near Geneva, Kane county, one hour and a half's ride from Chicago on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, and a fine three-story brick and stone building was erected at a cost of $63,000.
