The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-11
BEST WAY ID TREAT
 MAYNARD CHILDREN. Buffalo's Detention Home Run
 As a Refuge NOT AS A PRISON Plan Is Said to Have Proven Most
Plan Is Said to Have Proven Most Successful In Correcting the Evil Tendencies of the
 Youths

ItHetd CHllue LOTT 1n lne DeceInDer Hampton's Magazine describes what comes pretty near to being the ideal way of handling juvenile offenders against the law. She takes the city of Buffalo, N r., as an illustration.
 'In Buffalo a child under arrest is against the law to take him there, and a policeman who did such thing to A child would probably have his shield taken away from him." says Mrs. Dorr
 Children who commite offenses against the law, runaway children, yagrants. all children, in fact. who come within the list of dependents or delinquents, are far removed from the center of the city the detention home of the juvenile court of Buffalo. This home is in charge of a matron, woman who for 20 years was a philanthropic worker. In this home the delinquent child or the neg lected child is fed, lodged. and cared for until his case comes before the juve- nile court.
 His trial takes place before Judge Nash, in the pleasant dining room of the detention home. Not in court room in courthouse. It is the most informal kind of trial, with no one present ex- cept the child, his parents, the probation officer, and the witnesses, if there are witnesses. If, at any point in the trial tho judges wishes to talk confidentialiy with the child or his parents, he gets up from his chair and leads the way into the matrons private parlor. The judge can stop the trial at any minute that seems wise to him. All he wishes to establish Is the child's necessities; his misdcmeanors are of less consequence.
 Every child is given a chance under probation, at least once. Two paid pro- bation officers attend to the work of investigation, and there are over 50 vol unteers, clergymen, teachers, business men, club women, who deal. with 1n- diyidual children under the direction of the court. Of course when probation fails, as 1t sometimes does, or when the childs home conditions are too bad to correct, institutional care of some Krno has to be provided.
 "The detention home Is the only sym bol of the law which is shown to a de- linquent child In Buffalo. From start to finish. childrens cases are disposed of there. The probation officers have their desks in the front office. and children on probation report there.
 "The effect of the detention home on the community is good The number of children who used to suffer arrest every year was once very large. Many of these arrests were made on the most trivial charges. That sort of thing Is not done now because the detention &-a 4,,txr rsn1 t,.4= A child brought in for a simple act of mischief is sent to it's home and the case investigated by the probation of- ficer.
 ''The juvenile court in Buffalo exists to help children, not to punish them The detention home is a refuge, not a prison.
 "The quickest way to turn a mis- chevious, undisciplined boy into de- liberate law-breaker is to lock him in a cell" declares Mrs. Dorr.
 "One type of boy will have his respect for justice injured. and his confidence in his elders permanently weakened" says Mrs. Dorr. Another type acquires . contempt for punishment. His first ter TOT subsidies after a few hours of con finement, he begins to assure himself that jail is not such a bad place after all, and his play instinct begins to work. He imagines himself to be desperate character, terror to the community. Certainly he has become a person of He wonders whether peo- pie are talking about him, whether his case will get into the papers. He re- solves that he will do some boasting among the other boys when he gets out And he does. He swaggers and struts among his playfellows, like returned hero.
 'The delinquent child should never for 4 moment be permitted to think of him. self as a hero. He should not be al- lowed to regard himself as a romantic figure out of 5-cent novel. The only way to deal with him is to make him realize that he has done an unper- missible thing. He should be taken in hand in this spirit and, from the mo- ment of his arrest until his case is finally disposed of, this attitude of mind to- ward him should never change. From first to last the, delinquent should be treated, not as a criminal, but as a child.
 'aThe juvenile court will fail to realize its highest usefulness until we have elim- mated every vestige of Its original afatus as a criminal COurtn