The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-05
THE BOY AND THE LAW

STATE IS BECOMING PROTEC. $ OR OF THE DELINQUENT
 CHILD-PREVENTIO OF CRIME RATHER THAN PUNISHMENT
 OF WRONGDOING THE NEW
 WATCHWORD.
 l Before a pretentious bar of justice
 and a begowned and frowning judge
 stands ten year old "criminap' charged with crap shooting. A burly
 policeman is at his side and behind i; him with attentive ears, sits court i room half filled with listeners eager l to see what ''the kid will get An other half dozen frightened boys are
 waiting their turn on the docket. The
 prisoner pleads mot guilty ana after {! every small detail of the child's~ story
 is told to the listening idlers, sentence l is suspended on the ground Of lnsuf- :, ficient evidence. Next time the court
 may not be so lenient.
 Through the courtroom the boy IS I led and outside he met the rest of the gang. Most of them have been through the mill before and ali have learned to hate and fear the judge and the court aas much as they hate and fear
 the policeman on the beat. This is a udIly SCGIF Ill ll4e Clillol C1i o SOAA - VI Manhattan, New York City.
 Across the bridge in Brooklyn, ar- other boy is being tried for similar 1 offence. Tn a plainly furnished room
 sit the judge and the boy. plea of guilty Or mot guilty is not entered
 and there are no spectators, exceptlng perhaps a probation officer and the child's parents The judge talks over
 the case with the boy, tries to show him that it will be much better to tell the whole truth, convinces him if pos
 sible that he is his friend and adviser
 and then when the prisoner is disc
 charged without an overhanging sen- tence, places him in the care Of probation officer who visits the home and endeavors to get the boys regard | and confidence-to start "a process or education by constructive friendship,
 as one probation officer puts it.
 | These are two examples Of two Ju- venile Courts that have developed III this country within the past ten years,
 the former still clinging to the old idea of punishment, and the latter go- l ing little further and becoming 1 counselor instead of inquisitor. | A special number of The Survey, l first time the work of shis "kid's
 court Judge Lindsey of Denver,
 Judge Mack of Chicago, Judge Baker of Boston, Bernard Flexner of Louis | vile. Henry w Thurston of Chicago, l Homer Folks of New York and Victor Won Borosini of Berlin tell what this 1 new court is doing for the delinquent | child.
 1 Ten years of life has by no means l made the Juvenile Court in the United l States perfect institution, but i'll l good many states it has changed the l entire procedure against the boy. The l State has stepped in as a guardian be- I of r in a l of natural parents to assume the re- I sponsibility and is applying the judi l cial slipper mixed with wholesome
 advice that means lot more to a boy than trip in ''the wagon along I side a clever crook.
 i Before the time of thes Juvenile Court the criminal law did not differ entiate between the adult and the min Tor who had reached the age of "crim- Fl inal responsibility''-se at common
 law in some states and ten in others
 with a possible chance of escape uE
 to twelve if the child were lacking 1T mentality. The whole idea Of the ole
 method was to punish wrongdoing The child was arrested, clapped into jail, indicted by a grand jury, trieo by a petit jury and if found guilty sentenced to prison with adult offen' ders from whom advanced lessons IT crime were easily learned, 1f the boy
  boys are.
 Since the first court was establish. ed in Chicago in 1899 about 80 percent Of the boys put on probation in tha1 city have not returned to the court Of the delinquent girls only 55 pei cent have not shown up again in court a. pretty plain evidence that the socia agencies of the cities are not filling the girls wants. But taking the sit uation as whole the evidence 1: strong, not only in Chicago, but 1T every city where juvenile court legis lation has been introduced, that neg lected, dependent and delinquent chil dren are better and more rationall. cared for under the new method. Just what sort of procedure is it tha I the youngster goes through in mod ern juvenile court? Take the case O a truant, whose hard working mother has lost hold on her boy who has, beer running wild for weeks and finally i:
 broueht to the juvenile court by truant officer. The judge sends th' boy to the detention home' where h. is kept until the time for the hearing In this home, preferably apart iron the court house or jail, the boy IS pu at some congenial work with oppor tunity for some recreation, or perhap sent to scholl, if the dentention hom' is run on the right principles. In Chi cago's detention home not only ar school faClllt1GS QrON1Ueu, UuC NOCo tional training is also given, all O which raises the questions of the ex tent to which vocational training Il the public schools would present de linquency.
 Tn Chicago the average period of de tention is six days, in Cleveland flV days and less in other cities In Nev York all children taken into custod.
 within the boroughs of Manhattan ant . Bronx are held in the building of tn
 Society for Prevention of Cruelty t
 Children for periods varying from
 day to several months before they ar
 brought to the children's court. An
 notwithstanding this large period of de
 tention no real effort is made to pro
 vide rational occupation for the lelsur - time. Pittsburg has the distinctlon O
 holding it's children in the county 1a1 2 where they are fed on jail fare serv } ed by trusties.
 i. In connection with the court, tn \ clinic or child study department ha z l justified itself Here the boy or gl1 \ is given medical examination, 10 1. experience has shown that juvenile de linouency and physical defect ar }. closely related. The examination ha \ been limited except in unusual ceases to certain measurements and weigh \ that may throw light on the condition ! Of the child, and to the eyes, ears nose throat teeth and skin.