The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-06
SAVE THE BOYS.
That Is Slogan of Advocates of Juve-
nile Court Bill.

Speaking of the bill for the crea-
ton of a Juvenile court now pending
before the house of representatives on
the favorable report Of the judiciary
committee, Judge 7. f. Carver, VINO
was interested in the framing OF the
bill, says: mo measure that will come
before the legislature this session is
entitled to more earnest and serious
consideration than the Brady Juvenile
court bill It is a departure in judi
cial procedure that has been long de-
layed, but is Of such supreme i'm
portance that longer delay is almost
criminal. Hitherto, we have been de-
vising plans and expending thousands
of dollars every year in the vain eff
furnishing criminals, or by trying to
reform them after they have become
familiar to criminal paths.
Little has been done in the way
of prevention to avoid the recruiting
Of the criminal classes from among the
children of the state. Character build
ing is done in the home and the pub
lie school. But it is a lamentable fact
that some homes, instead of giving to
their children the moral uplift which
good citizenship demands, contain in
huenceS for the development of every
evil tendency in child nature. More
than half our criminals enter upon
courses of wrong doing in their teens.
THE purpose of the juvenile court
is to prevent children becoming Grim
inals. Wherever tried, this new way
been an unQuestioned success 1t has
been demonstrated over and over again
that a boy can be saved to a useful
citizenship at much less cost than he
can be prosecuted and punished for
crime, this, too, without stopping to
ask what is the difference in value
between a boy saved from criminal
ways and one confirmed in them.
Samuel J. Barrowss commissioner
for the United States on the Interna-
tonal Prison commission, speaks
knowingly of the Juvenile court work.
Among other things he says:
" If the question be asked, what
is the most notable development in
judicial methods and machinery in the
United States within the last five years,
the answer may unhesitatingly be- the
juvenile courts. Never perhaps has
any judicial reform made such rapid
progress. Legislation is sometimes
slow but in this case it put on its
has Travelled with gigantic strides from
city to city and state to state, until
now it is established in eight states
and eleven large cities. Heretofore
in nearly all our states, the method
Of dealing with children when arraign-
ed before the bar of Justice for in
fractions of the law has been a some
what milder application of the same
repressive machinery and spirit which
have been traditionally applied to older
offenders. Children have been sent to
the same JaiIs and have often been
confined in the same tiers, or even in
the same cells, with hardened Grim
inals; they have been judged by the
same laws and in the same spirit.
The attitude of the juvenile court
on the other hand, is benignant pater-
nal salvatory and for these very reas-
ons is more efficiently corrective. In
the juvenile court the child is cor
rected, but he is not corrected as
criminal. Above all, he is not correct
& a h-l
court does not turn over in any other
institution the work that it can do
and should do for itself. When we
ask now what are the results of the
Juvenile system, it is still too soon
to present a great array of statistics
and percentages. But it has been es-
tablished in the last five years that
more than half of those who are
placed in the hands of qualified proba-
ton officers do not need to be brought
again into court In Indianapolis the |
of those charged with serious
OnenSeS IS less than ten per cent. In /
Denver, out of 554 children placed in |
probation, 80 of whom were girls, in |
the first two years of the court but
81, all OF them boys, were returned |
to the court, because of the hopeless
lack of home surroundings. Out Of |
715 brought into court it became nee |
eSSary to commit but ten per cent of |
them to the state industrial school. |
Before the eStab lishment of the child |
ren's court, at least rs per cent of /
those tried were committed to institu- |
tons.
The economic gain has been great. |
The cost of saving boys through pro-
baton is small compared with the cost
Of sending them to Institutions The
governor of Colorado declared that in |
eighteen months, the juvenile court |
in Denver had saved the state and
county $SS.OGO.'
Commissioner Barrows in speaking
these words. only voices the sentiments |
Of all who have tried or studied the
of Juvenile courts. Should /
not the benefits of such a system be
for the children of Kansas
who need the states paternal care %
nHIceaUnI UrRrn rnom