Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility
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| Location | Whittier, California |
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| Coordinates | 33°58′34″N 118°03′04″W / 33.975974°N 118.050982°WCoordinates: 33°58′34″N 118°03′04″W / 33.975974°N 118.050982°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Opened | 1891 |
| Closed | 2004 |
| Former name | Whittier State School Nelles School for Boys |
| Official name | Reform School For Juvenile Offenders (Fred C. Nelles School) |
| Reference no. | 947 |
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. Open for 113 years, it had been the oldest juvenile facility in the state, and became registered as California Historical Landmark #947. It was closed because of the reduction in the number of juveniles being housed.
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." In 1933, Erastus J. Milne, a former judge and bond salesman, was appointed superintendent of the School; Milne's tenure was marred by incompetence, especially by the deaths of wards Edward Leiva and Benny Moreno. It was renamed 'Fred C. Nelles School for Boys' in 1941, to honor the longtime former superintendent of the school from 1912 to 1927. The 'For Boys' was eliminated from the name around 1970. In Roosevelt Hall, the dormitory, there was a complete lack of privacy. In fact, wards had to earn a private cell. The high school boys team was a notorious football rival of Whittier High School, but "every time someone broke out, all the Whittier schools would be notified," inevitably upsetting the community. It was also reported that chemical restraints were used in 274 incidents. Later in the 20th century, the daily population averaged 439 young people, the school had at one time housed nearly 1,000 wards. The last boy left the school in May 2004.
No state refers to its juvenile correctional institutions as "reform schools" today. In California, they are under the auspices of California Division of Juvenile Justice and reducing the number of occupants of these facilities is a priority in the juvenile justice system. Only the most habitual offenders are now placed in detention centers. In an attempt to make the incarceration conform to more sociological and sociocultural norms, and in response to the rising number of young female offenders, many such institutions have been made coeducational.
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