Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-11-07

ization OF the pupil. 1t prefera nome 10
reformatory. As the matter now stands,
we commit to the hands of those who are
not responsible to the State, the reforma-
tion and care of the class the State should
consider its wards, and entitled to its i'm.
mediate and tenderest care. 1t is within
the province of the State to prevent crime,
and there is no field in which it can ope.
rate so proftably as that where the sur
roundings OF youth must direct it into
criminal paths. Such a work as the prl.
vate Boys and Girls Aid Society is doing
on the fund supplied by charitable eiti-
zens, should be extended under State con-
troll over the whole State. 1t aims not
to punish, or confne, or herd children
together in an institution, the brand of
which will remain quite ineffscable. but to
encourage the child in the pursuit OF right
living, to introduce it into proper home,
to bring it under the influence of good men
and women in homes 1t holds that proper
encouragement, little oversight and good
surroundings will, nine times out of ten,
save the child and turn it into the paths of
rectitude. The Massachusetts, system is
strongly recommended. It proceeds upon
the plan of placing out the children in
homes, or to trades with homes, as soon
after they are taken in charge as may be,
and their visitation and supervision by
agents of the State. That State finds it
more economical by far than to maintain
reformatories, and more rapidly and Ger.
tainly to work the reformation of the juve-
nile offender, or the child whom its parents
have been unable to control, and have
abandoned to the streets and vicious inhu.
ences. There are not now one-half as many
young offenders in the State Industrial
Schools, Reformatories and Prisons. The
commitments to jails, almshouses and pri-
vate institutions have really declined, and
the class of Juvenile criminals has visibly
decreased also. The policy upon which
the new system was based seems to have
been vindicated-"i is less expensive to
save children than to punish criminals.
The system has a State Developing School,
to which the child is sent from the Police
Magistrates Court, or by the police direct.
This is but a temporary stopping place.
Here thu child is placed in group, never
exceeding twenty-five, and its capacities
and disposition studied, and as soon as it
is ascertained what direction it is best
should be given to its life. the process is
put into operation to accomplish that
result, and seldom is there mistake made
or the end defeated. The child is sent out
to acquire the particular fitness for the
calling in life to which it is to be devoted.
The State agent places him into active life,
removing him from the artificial atmos-
phere of the reformatory, and effscing the
stain of the institution" from his char
scter. He is often visited, advised, en-.
couraged, corrected, and is throughout
treated as responsible being of whom
much is expected, and who is specially
favored with advantages.
In California we need some such system.
Almost any would be better than the
absence of all system, which is our present
condition. The whole question of the In
dustrial School and reformatory plans
needs to be debated by our people. We
must ascertain what is best for those
children of the State that are being raised
up in town and country alike to lives of
crime and degradation. AS a purely
economical question, divested of all higher
considerations, it is a proper topic for the
people of the State to consider, and to
bring into such form that when the Legis-
lature again assemblies, the representatives
of the people may be intelligently advised
as to what action should be taken. So far
as we are now informed, and In the light
of such examination as we have been able
to give it, the "aid " system commends
itself in opposition to the reformstory
system. tits certainly the least expensive;
it produces the most immediate and the
best results. AS matters now are, we are
strongly inclined to agree with Mr.. Dooley
in his statement that "the San Francisco
Industrial School in two years prepares
candidates for the State Prison and
criminal career, and the cost per head is
over $780," The cost of proper work
under the aid system should not exceed
one-sixth of that amount at the utmost,
and should give us, instead of criminal,
a person fitted for useful life.