The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1904-12-17

thieves. From stealing coal to stealing
brass journals is another step.
1T is not so many years ago that
boys and girls, men and women, We're all
lodged in the one police station, cells ad-
joining. Thanks to the efforts of some
good women of our city, women's pris-
on was established, and now all women,
and children under the age of sixteen
/ years, are sent there pending trial. This
Is but small step in the right direction,
however. The influence over the children
in that place is almost as bad as former
ly.
i have told You about the young Grim
inal-the first offender-and the only
place provided for him, awaiting trial
and sentence. How many of you know
that an innocent woman who is the Wit
ness of crime and has no settled resi-
dence in Jersey City, is thrown in the
same surroundings and forced to lie in
the city prison and the County Jail while
ofttimes the criminal is on bail awaiting
trial?
What is the remedy for this? A mu-
nicipal home, where the barred doors
will not be so much in evidence and the
surroundings will be suggestive of better
things and not of worse than the unfor-
tunate has known
Assistant Probation Officer Butler diff
fered slightly from Mr. Ransom's views.
He advocated methods to get at the junk
dealers and merchants who buy stolen
goods from the little fellows for few
| pennies. He said that parents were re-
sponsible for not teaching the child that
it was wrong to steal and they should be
dealt with by law: that if children didn't
know where to sell their stolen wares
they would not steal There, he said,
was the foundation of crime. The par
ents and the dishonest merchants and
junk dealers, he said, felt they We're out
side the pale of the law. Examples he
insisted should be made of the parents.
Even in the matter of selling liquor to
minors, he said, change for the better
had been effected by making an example
Butler is in getting proper laws and both
political parties We're responsible for this.
Assistant Prosecutor yickers also de-
clared that the law was lax and that the
difficulty lay principally with the law
makers. He said that if the ladies had
a hand in making the laws there would
be some Improvement As to punishment
for a receiver of stolen goods, said Mr..
ViclSers, the law fully covers that. Mr..
Vickers said that the Grand Juries were
responsible for many Of the present evils.
As to the matter of young girls and wom-
en- being detained in Jail as witnesses
among hardened criminals he declared it
was not the fault of those in charge of
the Jail. He advocated a county institu-
ton rather than a municipal one and sug-
gested that the Board Of Freeholders he
asked to establish such an one He fur
ther suggested that the dwelling former
ly occupied by Congressman Allen L. Nc
at present occupied by the County Board
of Elections would make an admirable
house of detention for those in whose in
terest the meeting was called.
Probation Officer Stevens described
the difficulties that Hudson County had
in the matter of dealing with juvenile
criminals in contradistinction to that ex-
perieneed in Essex and Union counties
on account Of Hudson's foreign popula-
tion. He sided with Mr. vickers in the
matter of county institution.
Police Justice Manning advocated the
enlargement Of the women's prison. con-
neeted with the Oakland avenue sta
tion. He thought that provision could
thus be made as place of detention
for juvenile criminals and girl witnesses
without contamination from deIbased
women. He eulogized Matron Wyatt,
who furnished 3S5 meals during the year
from her own table to children and IN
nocent women, free of charge, and out
of pity for little fellows who cried for
even the scraps of meat from her table.
Criticism was made in the method of
sloormen in securing d raleoff in furnish
iSS meals to prisoners.
Truant Officer stell advocated the es-
taslshment Of a school for incorrigible
pupils. In describing the lack of pro-
vision for children whose parents are
obliged to work, Mrs. William D. Ed