The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-09
Juvenile Courts.


 Editor The Advertiser:
 While the National Congress of Mothers has done much good work along many lines of sociological reform, perhaps nowhere has us enorts i1s nfs sotiea Deen work for the establishment in some or our large cities of the juvenile court court separate and distinct from the usual court of justice, and designed. as its name implies, for the nearing ana trial ofsyoung offenders against the law.
 sive quantity-a great amount of en- thusiasm, backed by. persistent enort. Is usually necessary. but ilA this natter of the juvenile court, the necessity Ter public sentiment has yielded without much opposition.
 No subject more vitally concerns each one of us as citizen of a great reptb- lie than the best methods of treating and preventing crime, and the oauper- ism that leads to criminality. The juvenile court once instituted and gieen fair trial proves Its reformatory DOW CT. While 1t Is true that readjustmsnt of conditions requires a certain outlay of money and enort. the reiorm dn,ttad onee Again and again 1t has been proved that the prevention of crime. however cCst- ly, Is less so than its cure.
 to be an unnecessary expenditure, the youthful delinquent is given a sepa- rate hearing and trial usually private This Is a good step in the right direc- ton, but the separate court Is much better. The young. however depraved. should not be subjected to the excite ment and publicity of the general court room with its many spectators and the wretched detail of criminal case. etc. In connection with the juvenile courts and sometimes apart from them. Where | Is carried on system of probation tha. works admirably. Under this system no first offenders. or even second or lenders. are sent to prison; they are committed to the care of d probation officer This officer is either a man or a woman, humane in character and inte'- ligent The young offender Is allowed his work, but during the following six months (the minimum sentences or a year. according to the sentence given, he is under the strictest observation duty of this oficer Is educational to lead "out of the darkness into the light" Each officer has a certain ward or wards of the city allotted him. and he soon learns the social and economi- cal environment of his charges. Some times one officer has from fifty to a l hundred boys and girls under probation. Occasionally there are home missiona : ries, ladies and gentlemen. wno do this work as labor of love, but, as a rule, the probation offiter Is paid well for I his | be hard to compute the value of his work However, the gradual benefit to community in this upbuilding of it's I citizenship. far outweighs any tempo l rary expenditure of its money. In the long run there Is saving in finance also; but the lasting gain Is in child saving. the upbuldng of the State on the sure foundation of morality. For several years in Birmingham Judge Reagan has been trying. in a modified way, the probation system for youthful offenders, both white and colored. with pronounced success. When will Mont gomery assert her rights for the pro- deformity of mind as disease Is deform- ity of body. It is the privilege, nay, duty of the State to spend it's best re- sources in the redemption of its little ones, r. c. C..