Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-04
REFORM SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.
The Justices Of the District Approve
the Bill Pending in Congress.

There is pending in Congress q bill making
an appropriation to purchase site and erect
buildings for reform school for girls The
trustees are Hon. Samuel Shellabarger presi-
dent; A 8. Worthington. Prof. A. J. Hunting.
ton. W. c. Dodge, Mills Dean secretary; o. g.
Staples, James E. Fitch, Thos. P. Morgan and
Alexander Graham Bell.
VIEWS OF THE SUPREME COURT yusr1oEs
Chief Justice Bingham of the Supreme Court
OF the District has written letter to Hon. Mr.
De Lano OF the subcommittee of the House Dis
trict committee having the bill in charge, ex-
pressing the views of the court thereon. The
chief justice says:
the proposition and are unanimously of the
OPINION that provision for such a reformatory
IN TINS District Is imperativelv demanded. An
nuaiiy hundreds OF young girls come before
the courts IN this city charged with ofenses
more or less serious, usually those who are
without any proper or efficient guardianship,
whose reformation under proper auspices might
be hoped for. II punished they must be i'm
prlsoned to mingle with felons of every grade,
with certainty that their moral status will
only be degraded thereby. If cleared from the
popular charge preferred they are turned
loose to pursue their downward course to utter
ruin. What is needed is that the Law shall
provide that all such girls shall be placed in an
institution where they can be controlled and
properly disciplined; be taught good morals
and at least the elements of education; learn to
work and to acquire industrious habits. Such
institutions elsewhere have proved successful.
as well for girls as boys. We therefore most
heartily approve of the provisions of the bill
before mentioned and most earnestly request
Its passage by the present Congress-"
Judge Thos. +. Miller of the Police Court,
Mr.. Randolph Coyle for twelve years assistant
US. attorney: Mr.. c. H. Armes, assistant US
attorney; Mr.. s. T. Thomas, assistant attorney
OF the District and others have also written
strong letters urging the passage of the bill.
THE LETTER OF JUDGE MILLER
says: 81 cannot express too strongly my opin-
ion as to the necessity for the establishment of
a reform school for girls in the District of Co.
lumbia. 1t is almost daily occurrence to
have girls OF tender years brought before me
charged with various offences. The report of
the superintendent of police for the last year
shows that ZAP girls under twenty-one years of
age were arrested in the District of Columbia
during that period. Disorderly conduct. petty
larceny, profanity, vagrancy, assault and bat
terry, simple assault, intoxication and suspicion
were among the charges on which they were
arrested. vi this number q considerable pro-
portion ought to be sent to a reformatOry in
stisution. There being no place in the Dis
trict of Columbia to which these girls can be
sent other than the United States jail and the
District workhouse, and the longest sentences
to the work house possible under the law being
ninety days, it is unnecessary to say that am
often at loss as to what disposition to make Of
some Of the offenders. They are often without
home or friends, living in an atmosphere of
vice and GENERALIZATION and to send them to
jail or the work house is simply to confine
them for short period, to return, when re-
leased, to their old associations These reform
atory institutions having proved effective with
boys it Is difficult to conceive why these bene-
hts should not be extended to girls. Hoping
that this most important measure may pass"
&c.