The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-01


The interview of Judge Norwood in
yesterdays Morning News upon the
subject of a reformatory for Chatham
county is timely, and what he says is
true. As judge OF the City Court he
has more to do with the punishment
of juvenile offenders than any other
man in the county, and what he says,
therefore, for that, as we'll as other
reasons, is entitled to great weight.
1t is his duty almost every week
to punish some child and he can send
children convicts only to the chaingang
or the Jail. Only last week he was
forced to send boy, 10 years old, TO
the. convict gang. because there was
no other place for him. The child had
not committed any crime. His only
offense was that he was without WISH
bic means Of support, and was con-
victed of vagrancy. 1t seems that both
his father and mother were dead and
he had been abandoned by his "bruz-
zer," as he pathetically called his old
er brother. who had been taking care
of him. The chances are one hundred
to one that when this child comes out
he will have been taught, not only all
the criminal vices with which the old,
hardened offenders, with whom he will
be compelled to associate, are familiar
but he win have been debauched by
the hideous and disgusting moral vices
inc which these rotten wretches are
stepped.
The suggestion has been made that
under the present twelve months SEN
tence no great amount of good can be
done to Juveniles. This is not correct.
great deal of good to a child can be
done in twelve months. But, suppose
you could not do much good; by sepa-
rating him from the older criminals
you prevent him from being made
worse. 1t is not, therefore, so much
a question of how much good can be
done in twelve months as it is of how
much harm can be prevented.
AS Judge Norwood very forcibly
says, 1t need not be an expensive affair
at all. These youthful offenders are
children, and will not require an army
more than fifty of them now in the
convict camp, and the little fellows
are not obstreperous, at least they are
not so when they first appear in the
camp. The necessary building could
be put on a part of the farm distant
from the camp of the hardened Grim
inals, and need not be an expensive
one.
The law requires that the superin-
tendent shall be a man of high moral
character humane disposition and
irreproaehable integrity and compe-
tent and practical business man of
first-class ability" Savannah has
many such men, who are working for
moderate salaries. There is nothing
unusual in these qualifications. There
are hundreds of clerks and bookkeep-
ers and other business men in this
city, who fill all these requirements.
and are working for 500 a month or
less.
The suggestion that it ought to be a |
state institution, located at a central |
point in the state, will not probably |
meet with much favor in view, as
Judge Norwood points out, of our ex-
perience, as taxpayers Of this county, |
in connection with the pension roll, |
the public school funds and other state |
institutions. In view of our recent ex-
perience in connection with the estab- |
lishment of a sub-treasury here, one |
might suppose this suggestion ema- |
mated from Atlanta.
The present law may need amend
ment. If so. let it be amended. But |
why delay work under the present |
law? Amendments can be made bet
ter after the reformatory is establish
ed than now, because experience will |
teach what is required.