The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-21
GIVE CONv|CT'S CHANCE ID REFORM Experiments of Captain Lar
 kins Is Watched BUSINESS MEN BACK HIM Plan Inaueurated by Jersey City De- tectives Reclaims Wayward Youths
 and Girls by Obtaining Elm
 pIoyment for Them.
BUSINESS MEN BACK HIM
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald.
 People all over the country are watch ing with interest an experiment which is being made by Capt. James F. Lar lsins, chief of the Jersey City detective bureau. He is trying to find out whether 1t is possible to conduct an employment agency for ex-convicts.
 Since an account of this subject ap- peared a short time ago Captain Lar kins has received letters from Pttsburg, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, and mrny other cities in the middle west from bus- Aness men as well as police officials ask ing for more information about it and wishing him successs in his undertaking.
 The plan has been in operation only about a month. In that time the detec- tive chief has been able to secure em- ployment for six men with prison rec ords.
 The employers who have given these men jobs know all about them, and are willing to give them another start n life. The men themselves know that their bosses have their records, they realize that they are having another chance and every one of them seems to be eager to prove that he can make good.
 Work in Factories.
 Most of them are working in factories, doing manual labor where they receive on an average from $S to s10 a week. All that the detective bureau asks of the em- ployers is that the other employees shall be kept iI ignorance of the fact that the newcomers are ex-conVicts.
 The i2ca originated when Captain Lar leins and some other officers were sitting at police headquarters one night discus sing the best means of dealing with the great number of petty criminals in ter sey City. There were a great many boys between the ages IS and ? who had lost their jobs had fallen into ba dhabits, and were giving the police trouble. Many of them had been arrested for trivial offenses, and when they were found loi- terng about the streets late at night of- ten they were locked up just on suspi- ei1o
 "Nine times out of ten they would be discharged the next morning." said Cap tain LarlSins in discussing such cases, but anyway we knew that they couldn t get into any trouble that night. If the police passed such men up and then il they committed any crime we would be up against it.''
 When a boy had been convicted and had served a term in the state reforma- tory or the state prison his chances of avoiding arrest were even less. Usually the boys had been convicted of burgla- ries in which small sums were involved, but when they came out of jail they were watched carefully by the police
 Little to Be Gained.
 Even if they had made up their minds to keep out of trouble, after having had taste of prison life, these continual ar rests which the police were forced to make for their own protection tended to make the boys think that there was very little to be gained by keeping straight, and the result was that they would soon fail back into their old habits and com pany.
 Captain Larkins goes on the assump- tion that very few of these young crim- inals are really bad at heart, and that most of them would be glad to start over again if they saw their way clear. He declared that there was very little chance for an ex-convict to hold a job unless he had some recommendation. Al