Offered is a thin paper “Escaped Juvenile Wanted” card offering a $10.00
reward for capture of William Finley. Finley escaped the Whittier State School
in April 1904. The card has a photo and full description of the boy. The Fred
C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility was in essence a prison for youth located
on Whittier Boulevard, in Whittier, California. Operated by the California
Youth Authority, now part of California Department of Corrections it once
quartered young people incarcerated for law-breaking until it was closed by the
state of CA in June 2004. Originally it was called the Whittier State School,
when it opened in July 1891 as a reform school for boys and girls. The March
11, 1889 Act of the California Legislature authorized the establishment of a
school for juvenile offenders. The state school was considered to have some of
the best job training and music courses in the state for the first part of the
twentieth century. In 1913, the girls were transferred to the newly established
Ventura School for Girls and Whittier State Reformatory became a "Boys'
School." The card is 3 ¼” x 5 ¾” on pinkish toned paper. It is single
sided. Mild creasing and a pencil check mark above the image. This does have
some paper residue on the back.