The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-10-02
The Thinkers.
A REFORMATORY FOR YOUTHFUL
CRIMINALS.

State have long felt the need of
some better method of dealing with
youthful criminals.
Nearly every Superior Court has
before it boys between the ages of
twelve and eighteen years and not
unfrequently girls also, who r
charged with the violation of law in
one way or another. Unfortunately
in many cases a trial is necessary
and they are convicted.
What to do with them is the ques-
ton that puzzles the presiding judge.
The facts brought out, often satisfy
him that the boy or girl has been
associated with ignorance, vice and
crime from infancy has had neither
proper examples nor precepts given,
and has had little opportunity Of
knowing what is right and lawful.
Yet the law fixes the penalty and it
cannot be evaded.
If a fine is imposed, it is impOssi-
BILE to collect it if the youth is con-
fined in the county jail he is r
rupted and made more vicious; if
sent to the public roads, the work is
heavier than he can do, and if SEN
fenced to labor in the penitentiary
he is associated with older and
hardened cOnvicts and sChOOled in
all that is common to those who have
long been hopeless criminals.
Nothing is more painful than to
see a boy twelve or fourteen years
old chained to a gang of desperate
men and sent off to spend five or ten
years with them, and others in a
State prison. Yet, sad to say, such
a sight is an almost weekly occur
renee.
We are not disposed to write bit
ter things against the State because
of it's seeming Indifference about this
matter, not to say its gross negi-
gence of it. We remember that u
country, a few decades ago, passed
through a most disastrous civil war.
Thousands of our best citizens were
slain in battle and died from wounds,
diseases and exposure. Private for
tunes were swept away and the reve-
nues of the Commonwealth were de-
stroyed. We were left with a great
deal to accomplish and a very little
to do it with. But as the years have
gone on people have wonderfully
prospered. The State has grown in
population and in wealth, has multi
piled her resources and is now in a
condition to do something. She can
no longer excuse herself or justify
herself in not making proper pro-
vision for this unfortunate class.
From our point of view the
ligious denominations and churches
have responsibility resting upon
them in this matter, The moral
sentiment of every community ought
to rise up and demand some better
way of dealing with youthful crimi-
nails. Shall they go on from bad to
worse? Shall they be educated in
crime? Shall they become a menace
to society? Shall they give their
lives to vice, lawlessness and rob-
berry? No. We answer, a thousand
times, no.
The time has come for action. The
people constitute the State. They
have the power and the means. They
owe it to themselves and our unfOr-
tunate youths to provide for them a
reformatOry-a place of confinement
where they will have proper re-
straints and influences thrown
around them and where wholesome
instructions are given and where
they have, at least, an opportunity
for amendment and reformation.
Our legislature will meet the first
of next January. Talk with your
representative about it get the lead
ing men in your community inter
ested in it; develop sentiment in
favor of it and press the matter I'M
til success is obtained. There is no
good reason why the next legislature
cannot appropriate money enough to
build a house Of correction or a re-
formatory and prevent forever the
humiliating sight of seeing boys and
girls sent to county roads and the
p~enitentiary to be associated with
the most vicious classes, more
thoroughly corrupted and schooled
in crime of avery dascrintiOD