Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

IT IS WISER AND LESS EXPENSIVE TO SAVE CHILDREN THAN TO PUNISH CRIMINALS

THEJUVENILE CURT

RECORD

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

BOARD OF REFERENCE.

[blocks in formation]

EL Rodenberg, New Orleans,
Charity Organization Society.
James J. McLoughlin, New Orleans,
Society Prevention Cruelty to Children.
MARYLAND.

Hon. Charles W. Heuisler, Baltimore,
Judge Juvenile Court.
Jeffrey R. Bracket, Baltimore,

President National Conference Chart
ties and Correction.
MASSACHUSETTS.

Chas. W. Birtwell, Boston,

43 Charity Building.

Leontine Lincoln, Fall River,
State Board Charities.

Miss Z. D. Smith, Boston,

Gen. Sec. Associated Charities.
MICHIGAN.

James F. Hill, Detroit,

Society for Prevention of Cruelty
Children.

MISSOURI.

Hon. Robt. M. Foster, St. Louis,
Judge Juvenile Court.

Hon. James L. Blair, St. Louis,
Missouri Trust Building.
W. H. McClain, St. Louis,

Supt. Provident Association.
Hon. James Gibson, Kansas City.
Judge Juvenile Court.

MINNESOTA.

James F. Jackson, Minneapolis,
Gen. Mgr. Associated Charities.
A. W. Gutridge, St Paul,
Sec. Associated Charities.
NEBRASKA.

Floyd M. Smith, Omaha,
Sec. Associated Charities.

G. W. Clark, Omaha,

Supt. Child Saving Institute.

NEW JERSEY.

Hugh F. Fox, Plainfield,

Pres. Board of Children's Guardiana.
Mrs. E. E. Williamson, Elizabeth,
State Board of Children's Guardians.

NEW YORK.

Hon. Willard H. Olmsted, New York,
Judge Juvenile Court.

Hon. Julius M. Mayer, New York,
Judge Juvenile Court.

E. Fellows Jenkins, New York,

Chief Probation Ómcer, Juvenile Court. Thos. M. Mulry, New York,

Saint Vincent De Paul Society. Edward T. Devine, New York,

Gen. Sec. Charity Organization Society Hon. Robt. J. Wilkin, Brooklyn,

Judge Juvenile Court.

Hon. Thos. Murphy, Buffalo,
Judge Juvenile Court.

Frederick Almy, Buffalo,

Sec. Charity Organization Society. Hon. Homer Folks, New York, Commissioner Public Charities.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

OBJECTS of THE JUVENILE COURT RECORD

The object of the JUVENILE COURT RECORD is to disseminate the principles of the Juvenile Court throughout the United States and, in fact, the entire world.

When the Juvenile Court was first established a little more than four years ago, the sociologists of the entire country stood by, watching anxiously the outcome of this new departure in child-saving methods. It was realized that a medium was needed whereby the results accomplished by the Juvenile Court might be set forth in an intelligent manner. The JUVENILE COURT RECORD stepped into the breach, and has devoted its pages exclusively to news of the various juvenile courts. As a result of the publicity thus given to the foundation principles and routine work of the Cook County Juvenile Court, fifteen other states have passed juvenile court laws, and bills are being prepared in nearly every state in the Union to be presented at the next session of the Legislatures of the various states, providing for similar legislation.

The foundation thought and idea of the juvenile court law is that children should be kept in the home to the greatest extent possible. The child's own home is preferred by the Court, but in lieu of that it is intended that any good home where proper care and training will be given, shall be provided for the child.

The State, in assuming its relationship as the guardian of the rights of the child, assumes a serious

responsibility. Every child has a right to education and physical care. Primarily, this duty lies with the parents. This obligation should be enforced wherever possible. The family is the unit of society, and most of the evils of society arise from demoralized homes. It is the duty of the State to co-operate with the family as long as possible, and help hold it up. If, however, for any reason the family fails, then a new home is necessary until such time as the family may again be brought together. If the family proves recreant and abdicates its functions altogether, it is the duty of the State to secure as nearly normal conditions for the children under its care and custody as may be in its power. The home is the normal place for a child's education and training. The Institution should be only a temporary station on the road from a ruined home to a permanent home with foster parents.

The fact that children are to be placed in homes presupposes the idea that some agency will be at hand to find a childless home for a homeless child. To the limit of its resources the JUVENILE COURT RECORD assists in finding homes for the homeless, helpless little waifs drifting about the country. These little unfortunates need an advocate, and the JUVENILE COURT RECORD acts in this capacity, standing side by side with them, pointing the way to a brighter, happier life, where the weeds of evil will be choked out of existence and the flowers of hope will bloom in their place.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[graphic]

Miss Brewer, the probation officer of the Chester (Pa.) Juvenile Court, reports à constant increase of work. The detention house is more and more recognized by the police department for the care of boys and girls under 16 years, who come before them either as defendants or delinquents. Some eight or ten children have been cared for at the house during the past month, in addition to the number outside who have been given a probation officer's supervision.

Probate Judge Waite of Salem, Ohio, intends to experiment with the juvenile court idea. He requested the reporters recently not to use the names of young truants, as he thinks publicity often does them harm. He made the request in the case of a young boy whom the truant officer wished to send to Lancaster. Mrs. Cotter and Mrs. Moore, of the advisory board, wished to give the boy a chance. The mother pleaded earnestly and as the judge saw the boy was dull and stupid, he thought work would do more good than anything else, and sent the boy home.

Prisoners under 16 years of age must not be confined at the county jail, says Assistant District Attorney Knoell of Milwaukee, Wis., in an opinion to the county board, from which a sufficient sum of money was asked to establish a separate institution. For some time the question of a place of confinement for juvenile prisoners has been discussed by those interested in the juvenile court work and who claim that a law passed by the last legislature means that youthful offenders cannot be confined at the jail, as has been the practice. Suggestions have been made that these youths be placed in charge of Superintendent Spindler of the county poor department. An addition is being made to that institution for the purpose.

* * *

The Shamokin (Pa.) police are somewhat interested in a case at Reading in which it was decided that juveniles, contrary o general opinion, as a result of the enactment of the new law by the last legislature, can be sent to jail for crime if they are over 12 years of age. Heretofore it was supposed that juveniles under 16 could not be jailed for any offense, but had to be committed to reformatories after being taken before the county judges sitting in what are termed as juvenile courts. The Reading precedent was established in the case of William Grey, who was brought into court on an application of his father to have him sent to the house of refuge because he was incorrigible. He had been arrested on three warrants charged with robbery. Judges Ermentrout and Endlich decided that, contrary to the decision of the magistrate, the boy, who is under 16, could have been sent to jail. They interpreted the recent act on the subject to mean that boys between 12 and 16 brought up merely on the charge of being incorrigible could not be sent to jail, but if arrested charged with a crime they could be jailed if over 12 years. He was committed to prison.

***

The result of the investigation conducted by Richard A. Bolt, a student in the University of Michigan, into the problem of dealing with juvenile offenders against the law, as illustrated in the city of Detroit, has been published as No. 3, Vol. V, of the publications of the Michigan Political Science Association, dated September, 1903. The University of Michigan has for the last several years sent a student to study some sociological problem at the Chicago Commons, a social settlement in that city. The funds are supplied by the Students' Christian Association. Last year also funds were given by Detroit people for a similar work

In

in Detroit, the worker to live at the Franklin Street Settlement. The results of this investigation cover sixty-four pages. general they may be stated thus: As there are special laws and ordinances applicable to children, there are thus more offenses that may be committed by juveniles than by adults. Many of the transgressions committed are slight, and many are results of improper training. If any sort of offenses against the law can be regarded as symptoms of a disease to be cured rather than the occasion of retributive punishment, the misdeeds of children are such. Every means, therefore, should be taken to ensure that those children who disobey the laws shall be so dealt with that encouragement shall be given them toward a better instead of a worse life. There can be no surer way of leading children into lives of crime than by familiarizing them with criminals, jails, and courts in which crime is the subject of attention. A court dealing solely with the cases of children and dealing with the young offenders not as criminals to be punished, but as boys and girls likely to do right if they have proper opportunity, has been found to be the best answer to the problem so far discovered. Such courts are in operation in Illinois and other states and Mr. Bolt believes that it would be of great assistance in Detroit as a means of saving a good citizenship a large number of children likely to drift into criminal lives.

[blocks in formation]

Lined up in a row in front of Judge Stubbs in the Indianapolis juvenile court recently stood eight small boys ranging in age from seven years to thirteen years. The boys were arrested by Detective Grady of the Big Four for breaking into a box car belonging to the railroad company. The boys were John and Mike Shea, 1444 Bates street; John and Mat Finn, 234 Arsenal avenue; Francis Daily, 1529 Bates street; Willard Smith, 1427 Bates street; Dan Gevan, 1412 Bates street, and Walter Fariner, 230 Detroit street. "No, sir, judge, I ain't guilty," was their plea. On the stand Francis Daily told the judge he had the inside of his shirt lined with stolen tobacco. This struck several of the parents of the children as being funny and they laughed. Judge Stubbs rapped sternly for order. "Ladies," he said, "some of you appear to think this is a joke. If so it is a most serious one. Here are your boys, plainly guilty of this offense, which, if repeated, will send them to Plainfield. It seems to me, from your actions, that you must encourage your boys to do wrong. I do not believe you realize how serious this matter is. It means that, unless your children are corrected, they will eventually land in the penitentiary."

"God pity a boy who has lost his mother."

These were the words uttered by Judge Estelle of Omaha, Neb., when Roy Swanson, a 14-year-old lad, was up for arraignment on the charge of incorrigibility. The court, after listening to the presentation of both sides of the case, entered a plea of not guilty and appointed Attorney T. J. Mahoney to make an independent investigation of the charges previously preferred against the lad and alleging grand larceny, and report his findings to the court. The lad's father appeared in the court room and testified as to the misdemeanors of his son. It was alleged by the father that his son had stolen $20 from him recently. The particular crime of which young Swanson had been charged was the theft of $94. A policeman entered young Swanson's rooms and recovered the $94 and secured a confession from the boy. This confession was given voluntarily and the youth did not seem to want to hide the fact that he had taken the money. He said he had taken it in order that he might assist his father. When arraigned before Judge Estelle the lad said he had but recently returned from an extended trip covering Milwaukee, Denver, Kansas City and other points. At this point Mr. Swanson interrupted to say that he had no home for the boy, as he had lost his mother some time ago, and then it was that Judge Estelle gave expression to his compassionate utterance. Young Swanson's history will be gone into in detail and some data and evidence will be furnished in order to enable the court to pass sentence upon him. Judge Estelle said that the lad impressed him as one who was able to earn his own living, and it was his opinion that not one boy in a hundred is benefited by being sent to the reform school.

The Missouri Supreme Court en banc at Jefferson City, Mo., on December 9, in an opinion by Judge James D. Fox, upheld the validity of the Juvenile Court bill passed at the last session of the legislature and intended to save the young criminal class from being sent to penitentiaries, where they associate with the hardened criminals. The case at bar was the conviction of James Loving of Kansas City of petit larceny and the sentencing of him to two years in the reform school. A writ of habeas corpus was sued out by his mother, the boy being but 8 years old, and the case was brought to the Supreme Court to test the validity of the act. Judge Fox, in his opinion, says: "This act is in perfect harmony with the important duty of the public in promoting good citizenship. It is not only the duty the lawmaking power owes the public to provide for the application of certain remedies which will tend to reform and at the same time protect the neglected and delinquent children, but it is a clear right which that branch of the government can and should air. We have thus given expression to our views upon the questions involved in this proceeding. We have reached the conclusion that the act before us is a valid exercise of the legislative power under the constitution of this state. While this conclusion is reached, the question as to the constitutionality of the bill is not without doubt, but, following the well-settled doctrine upon this subject, all reasonable doubt must be resolved in favor of the validity of the act. This we have done in this case. We highly commend the spirit manifested by members of the bar in the presentations of the questions involved. It was simply a legal proposition, discussed upon a high plane and for the sole and unselfish purpose of obtaining a judicial expression upon the validity of an act in which the public has a deep interest. We have declared the act valid. Its proper and successful enforcement depends largely upon the people and upon the conduct of the legal profession of the cities and counties to which it applies. If its provisions are enforced with the same spirit that has prevailed in the submissions and discussion of the question involved, then there is no longer any doubt as to the benefits to be derived from this act by the children, their parents and the public." The boy was remanded into the custody of Sheriff Gilday, all judges concurring in the opinion. For the passage of the bill originally the greatest share of credit is due to the women of Kansas City. Several women who are interested in humane and charitable work led in the fight for its passage and raised most of the money necessary to carry on the campaign at Jefferson City. Among the men the most active workers have been J. V. C. Karnes, L. A. Laughlin, H. M. Beardsley, Gardiner Lathrop, Roland Hughes, Alfred Gregory and Mr. Johnson, the probation officer. Mr. Lathrop volunteered his services before the supreme court and made no charge for them. Judge Gibson not only paid the docket fee in the hearing of the case, but it was he who caused the test case to be made in the circuit court. The judge of the juvenile court is selected by the circuit judges from among their own number. Judge Teasdale served at the last term. Another judge may be selected at the January term. When the bill was originally drawn it provided for a court at St. Louis only. It was amended to include Jackson county through the efforts of Judge Gibson and others.

LOS ANGELES JUVENILE COURT

[graphic]

HON. CURTIS D. WILBUR,

Judge Los Angeles Juvenile Court.

The advisory committee of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court is facing a serious problem in the matter of the disposition of children. In a few instances offers have been received from people who volunteered to provide homes for boys. Some of these were wholly unsuitable. In the meantime the crop of girls and boys who are getting into trouble continues to grow in numbers, particularly the former.

The ladies of the advisory committee are awaiting with eagerness the time when the machinery necessary for a proper administration of the juvenile law can be put in motion. It has been decided to make use of the old county jail building for a detention home. and it is reasonably certain that when that home is ready for occupancy fewer boys will be sent to Whittier and the children on probation will be held under closer surveillance by reason of the influences radiating out from a center where thought for children is given every day of the week.

Workmen have torn out the cells that remained in the old jail building and have rearranged the interior for its now occupants. The supervisors do not intend to spend very much money. for the building will have to come down a year, hence, and by that time suitable quarters for detention purposes will have been erected at some other place than in the shadow of the prison. But the new premises are to be ready in the near future and then instead of boys that have given evidence of being unruly and that require kind but rigid discipline being sent back home. where they merely renew their tricks, they will be submitted to a course of disciplinary treatment at the home that may brace them up, unless utterly bad.

Upstairs will be the dormitories. The matron, it is presumed. will occupy the same rooms that have been occupied by the matron in the past, while the guard will use the rooms set apart in the old building for the jailer. All of this will be provided by the county, and when the home is completed then the extra work for which the law makes no provision whatever wil be undertaken by the ladies of the advisory committee.

A school teacher will be obtained, and an old-fashioned district school, with a good many modifications, however, will be held in the detention home. In some cities special schools are being set apart for backward children and children who require more of individual attention than can possibly be granted in the grade schools. The school in the detention home will, in some measure, be along similar lines. The teacher will have no sinecure, but the work will be interesting for it will put the teacher on her mettle.

Then, too, the probation work will have to be carried on more systematically, and to do that it is intended to pay the chief probation officer. Children on probation outside of the home will have to be kept under surveillance in fact as well as in name, and while the youngsters will be made to obey, it will not be forgotten that, after all, that they are merely children, and that in penetrating the hard shell of precocious desire in which they have become enwrapped, and perhaps to some extent criminally, progress can only be made along natural lines.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »