This article extends the literature on juvenile justice historiography by providing an analysis of the Illinois State Reformatory—a combined juvenile reformatory and reformatory for young adults—from 1891 to 1915. Primary and secondary sources reveal that the Illinois State Reformatory was a unique institution which offered an alternative to traditional congregate and family models. An examination of the institution's goals, population, programs, and sentencing and parole systems exposes the complexities of attempting to organize and operate a hybrid institution. There was, in the final analysis, a wide disparity between the promise and practice of the Illinois experiment.
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