Detention Centers | Cherie Livett Bombell

Browsing Posts tagged Detention Centers

Savage

July 2, 2011 Cherie Bombell No comments

Savage. His name was on my mind when I woke up this morning. Savage was the nick name of a young Puerto Rican man on Wallace Cottage. He was a born leader. He had poise and an air of authority that the other young men respected and looked to for direction. It eked out of [...]

Kids Behind Bars Department of Corrections, Detention Centers, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, Illinois State Training School for Girls, incarcerated, Juvenile justice, Outward Bound, Poverty, Santa Rosa, young offenders

Inmate’s Room

June 16, 2011 Cherie Bombell 17 comments

Imagine living in this much space. A tiny cell. Other areas of your ‘home’ are shared with at least 20 other people. There is no where to ‘get away’ except to your room and you can’t necessarily escape to your own space without permission. Prior to the early ’70, all activities were strictly controlled and [...]

Kids Behind Bars 1970s, behavior modification, Cemetery, Department of Corrections, Detention Centers, Geneva History Center, graveyard, Illinois State Training School for Girls, incarcerated, prison cell, reform school, young offenders

Illinois State Training School c. 1970

June 14, 2011 Cherie Bombell 9 comments

This is how I remember Illinois State Training School for Girls, Geneva, Illinois. I used to park my car in the lot just opposite the guard station then walk through the middle of the grounds to Geneva Cottage or to Oak and Wallace Cottage on the right (just out of the picture). The cemetery is [...]

Kids Behind Bars 1970s, Cemetery, Department of Corrections, Detention Centers, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, graveyard, incarcerated, young offenders

Who Was Sadie Cooksey?

June 13, 2011 Cherie Bombell 1 comment

The following information and photograph was kindly provided by the Geneva History Center. “Beginning July 23, 2011, the Geneva History Center museum will host Who Was Sadie Cooksey?, a photographic traveling exhibition developed by Maine photographer Maggie Foskett. The genesis of this exhibition reaches back to 1979, when Foskett stumbled onto an isolated cemetery on [...]

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Geneva History Center Exhibition

June 11, 2011 Cherie Bombell 5 comments

In July, the Geneva History Center will host an exhibition titled Who Was Sadie Cooksey?. This is a traveling photo exhibition developed by Maine photographer, Maggie Foskett. With the genesis in 1979 when Ms Foskett took pictures of the cemetery at Geneva Training School, the exhibition focuses on a single individual whose tombstone caught the [...]

Kids Behind Bars 1890 - 1960, 1970s, Cemetery, Defining Defiance: Sex, Department of Corrections, Detention Centers, Dr Michael Rembis, Geneva History Centre, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, graveyard, Illinois State Training School for Girls, Juvenile justice, Maggie Foskett, reform school, Science and Delinquent Girls, Who Was Sadie Cooksie?, young offenders

Mike (cont’d): His Shocking Last Call

August 15, 2010 Cherie Bombell 2 comments

Mike said when he was first locked up at 13 he was sent to the Reception Center at Joliet. There he was sexually assaulted by a guard that made Mike preform oral sex on him. This abuse he kept totally to himself, trusting no one as the horror replayed in a continuous loop in his mind for eight years. Mike was locked up at that young age to be ‘rehabilitated’ for being ungovernable (truancy) and deceptive practices. The judge probably thought his would help him ‘straighten out’. His mother must felt relief that her son would get the help he needed to settle down and attend school. Everyone’s trust was betrayed but not so much as Mike’s. His world was forever haunted by the horrors of this pedophile’s abuse.