Illinois State Training School For Girls

Browsing Posts tagged Illinois State Training School for Girls

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Haunting Memory Finally Makes Sense

October 3, 2010 Cherie Bombell No comments

I recently read Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson. It helped me to make sense of an incident that happened at Geneva in the 70s – one that has haunted me since. A man that worked on Wallace Cottage sometimes made bad decisions. I’m going to call him Mr Jay. He played a [...]

Kids Behind Bars 1970s, African Americans, Blood Done Sign My Name, Department of Corrections, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, Illinois State Training School for Girls, incarcerated, life lessons, racism, Timothy Tyson, 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.

Kids Behind Bars child abuse, Cook County Jail, Department of Corrections, Detention Centers, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, herion addiction, heroin, Illinois State Training School for Girls, incarcerated, Joliet Illinois, pedophile, sexual abuse, young offenders

Cemetery in Fox Run

July 8, 2010 Cherie Bombell 9 comments

A new reader to this site has taken some pictures of the cemetery in Fox Run, Geneva Illinois. Except for this cemetery, there is no visual evidence that Illinois Youth Center at Geneva ever existed in Geneva or that hundreds of children, young men and women spent years behind bars at the facility.

Kids Behind Bars Cemetery, Department of Corrections, Fox Run, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, graveyard, Illinois State Training School for Girls

Mike (cont’d): Parole

July 4, 2010 Cherie Bombell 1 comment

Mike was eventually paroled to the YMCA in Aurora Illinois where he continued to attend junior college. Because of the temptations and pressure of friends in his old neighborhood, he agreed not to be paroled to Chicago. The realization that Chicago wasn’t a good option came after Mike visited his family on furlough. He’d smoked pot and excitedly told me on his return, “My fence was so glad to see me!”. The parole to Aurora didn’t last.

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Aerial Shot Geneva Girls School 1974

May 30, 2010 Cherie Bombell 4 comments

Aerial view of Illinois State Training School, Geneva, Illinois 1974

Kids Behind Bars 1970s, Department of Corrections, Detention Centers, Fox River, Geneva Illinois, Geneva Illinois Girls School, Illinois State Training School for Girls, Poverty, reform school

Incarcerated for Truancy

December 15, 2009 Cherie Bombell 5 comments

I remember a beautiful girl, Denise, 11 years old and incarcerated for truancy. She would sit in the TV room at night and rock forward and back, forward and back, her arms encircling her body in an attempted hug. Taking a young girl out of her family home for truancy was and is a terrible thing to do. Her innocence was exposed to older and wilder girls that had life experiences Denise couldn’t comprehend. She was a beautiful, innocent child and you can bet if she’d been white, she would never have heard of ‘Geneva’.

Kids Behind Bars Geneva Illinois, Illinois State Training School for Girls, incarcerated, Juvenile justice, racism, truancy, young offenders

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