is unsuitable that he shall remain in his own home until trial, for every effort is made to have few children in detention. The magistrate's hearings occur twice each day, and the probation officers are notified to investigate the cases that come up. sits once a week. The court No judge sits more than a month at a time, and that has been a drawback to the work in Philadelphia, preventing uniformity of administration or the conversance with the cases that a longer period would give. Each probation officer makes thorough investigation into the causes that have led to the child's misdeed, and a comprehensive statement of conditions and previous history is given to the judge when the case is heard, and all this is most helpful in his decision. The probation officer is always asked to testify in each case. Wherever the home is not criminal the child is returned to the home under the care of the probation officer. That is always the first choice. If the home is absolutely unsuitable, the second choice is to provide the child a home in a family rather than in an institution. The reform school and the institution are the last resort, only to be used when other methods have proved unvailing. The probation work in Philadelphia is on a high plane, for it has been under the direction of the leaders in the National Congress of Mothers, whose specialty has been the study of childhood. They recognize that trained service is needed greatly for those who must deal with the eternal future of an immortal being, and that untold harm has been done by unwise methods. As a trained nurse can more successfully cope with disease than can the untrained nurse, so in moral disease the trained worker is most needed. Child study, psychology, as related to the characteristics and development of various stages of childhood, a study of penology and sociology, and such legal training as is required for the presentation of cases, combined with common sense and a consecrated love for the children, are requisites for good probation work. The entire time of the officer and individual care and thought for each child are essential to satisfactory probation work; therefore, an officer must not have too many cases under her care. Our officers are women. Dealing as they do with the child and the mother, they come into closer relations than a man ever can, and child care is every woman's work, the mother work which the work needs. All recommendations for appointment of probation officers come through the New Century Club committee on juvenile court and probation officers. In this way we control the quality of the service. The political leaders and the judges say they could not have secured such probation work if it had been a political appointment, and this is certainly true. We meet with the probation officers and all difficult cases receive careful consideration. We have no head probation officer. Each officer is responsible for her district and reports directly to the court. Philadelphia is about to purchase a house for the children awaiting trial. There will be separate rooms for the children. A resident probation officer and the magistrate's hearing in the house of detention daily will be features of the house, and no child will be detained there when it is possible to let him give bail to appear at court. A woman of rare culture and refinement is in charge of the children detained, and attends the magistrate's hearing, so that now in Philadelphia a woman's loving thought and judgment are exercised in the case of every unfortunate boy or girl who is brought into the court, and it has an influence of inestimable value in the disposition of the cases. Physical examination of children's mental condition by expert physicians has resulted in the placing of many children in feeble-minded schools and special schools for treatment. An experience with thousands of children has proved conclusively that there is no criminal class of children. A child's environment, lack of home care, and neglect may lead him into crime, but in each we find the germ of good, and to quicken and develop it is our work. Punishment does not accomplish this. Education, help, love, and patient stimulation of the better instincts can alone develop that germ. We do not consider the crime. We consider the child, and we have saved those whom even the reform schools feared to take, considering them prodigies of crime. We also encourage parental responsibility and provide help and instruction for ignorant, careless parents. The National Congress of Mothers recommends and is trying to establish courses of training for probation officers and other workers with children in connection with the universities. Such a course should have, with the theoretical training, the practical work in connection with the court, and by putting it on a professional basis it would bring to it those who would do more intelligent work. Such trained intelligent service is also needed in penal institutions of all kinds, and if once tried the results would show how vastly superior such service is. It is God's own work to uplift the weak and the fallen, and in this probation care the more nearly it resembles His love and His patience for His children the more nearly will it approach the standard it should attain. How can we expect great changes in a few months or a year with those who have had every disadvantage, when slowly and with many backslidings We build the ladder by which we rise Love for the child, patience, insight, and comprehension of child nature and its needs applied to the life of each child will revolutionize the world. COURT RECORDS. Official report from court records, Philadelphia, June 14, 1901, to November 1, 1902. Total number of cases of children Delinquents Dependents. Returned home on probation. Back twice Back three times Sent to house of refuge Total number of cases from October 1, 1903, to January 30, 1904. Visits made by probation officers Sent to house of refuge. Dependents Delinquents Under probation care 1,793 1,112 681 1,008 24 3 104 645 4,700 62 31 614 367 22 Returned to court a second time Total number of cases in detention house February, 1903, to February, 1904, 1,327 boys. H. Doc. 701, 58-2—11 WISCONSIN. HISTORY OF THE JUVENILE COURT OF MILWAUKEE. By BERT HALL, Probation Officer. In its general features and in its general scope and purpose the Milwaukee juvenile court law does not differ from the Illinois law, which has served as a model for so many other States in framing their juvenile court laws. For many years persons engaged in this city in philanthropic work among children, especially those whose work brought them in touch with children charged with violations of the law, realized that all the essentials of the most cruel barbarism were contained in the methods of dealing with these unfortunate little ones. From the hour of their arrest children were treated with no more consideration than the most hardened criminals. They were thrown into the same cell on the same corridors in the jail and were taken with the "bums and vags" to court, where their cases were heard and disposed of in the same flippant manner that usually characterizes proceedings in the police courts of our large cities. If released by the court, they went back to their old surroundings, where they at once became the heroes of the boys of the neighborhood on account of their experience and the added equipment for a criminal career which they had received from their associates in the jail and prisoners' pen. When the condition became unbearable the child workers of the city, led by Mrs. H. F. Whitcomb, drew up a bill for presentation to the State assembly and which became our present juvenile court law. The bill was passed in 1901 and became operative in July, 1902. THE WISCONSIN LAW. It provides that the judges of the county shall meet once each year and select one of their number to act as the judge of the juvenile court. Judge N. B. Neelen, of the district court-the polite name by which Milwaukee designates her police court-was chosen and has been rechosen each year as the judge of this important court. The juvenile court is in session one-half day each week, Wednesday afternoon. The rest of Judge Neelen's time is devoted to the consideration of the usual cases that come before a police magistrate. Many of those who have watched the working of the court feel that it is practically impossible for a judge who devotes so much of his time to the contemplation of the offenses of the most depraved criminals to be in the correct frame of mind for the consideration of the proper disposition of the cases of juvenile violators of the law. They feel that it would be much better if the cases could be heard in some place outside of the criminal court and by a judge who is not engaged in hearing criminal cases. Our law provides that children under 16 shall not be confined in the county jail, and yet for more than two years our county authorities have kept up the old practice of lodging the youngsters in jail. Recently the Children's Betterment League threatened mandamus proceedings, and the county board is now preparing a place of detention for juvenile offenders. The probation officers of the court serve without remuneration, and, on the whole, their work has been well done. There is, however, a growing feeling that the public ought to pay for this most important work, and that only persons known to be expert in the management of children should be appointed. One case will serve to illustrate the manner in which the law works for the good of the child offender: One year ago three boys, not one of whom had reached his twelfth year, were arrested charged with burglary. They were brought into the court and readily admitted that they had removed the glass from a window and had taken from a store a baseball outfit, consisting of gloves, bat, mask, and a cheap ball. They did not even know the meaning of the word burglary, and said they only took the things because they wanted to play ball. These boys were placed in the charge of a probation officer who thoroughly investigated the home conditions and the school records of these little fellows. One boarded with his father in a saloon, his mother was in an insane asylum, and the wife of the saloon keeper divided her time between housework, bar tending, and whipping the boy. His school record was good and the police said he had never been troublesome before. The other boys resided in the same neighborhood and were not considered bad. These three boys were the sons of very poor parents. They told the probation officer that they had never been given one cent of money to spend; that they had never had a baseball to play with, and that they wanted one very much. They thought they could get one from the store without being caught, so they helped themselves. These boys were found to be idle on the streets after school hours, and it was in these idle hours that temptation assailed them. They were asked if they would care to earn a little money after school each day, so that they might buy their baseball outfits, and seemed delighted with the proposition. A daily paper was appealed to, with the result that they were each given a few customers whom they must serve with the paper each day after school. |