Arizona republican., 1910-12-07
HANDLING MAYNARD KIDS"

Children who commit offenses
 against the law, runaway children.
 vasrants. all children. in fact. who
 come within the list Of dependents or
 delinquents. are taken to large old
 fashioned residence. far removed from
 the center of the city-the detention
 home of the juvenile court of Buffa-
 lo, says Rheta Child Dorr in the No- Nembor Ilampton's. This home is in charge of a matron. a woman who Tor twenty years was al phlanthrO-
 phic worker. In this home the de- linquent child or the neglected child is fed. lodged. and cared for until his case comes before the juvenile court
 His trial takes place before Judge Nash. in the pleasant dining room Of the detention home Not in a court-room in a court house IL is the most informal kind of a trial with no one present except the child. his parents. the probation officer. and the witnesses, if there are witnesses. If. at any point in the trial the judge wishes tO talk cOnfidentially 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 childs necessities: his misdemeanors are of less conse- quence.
 Every child is given a chance m- der probation. at least once Two paid probation officers attend to the work of investigation. and there are over fifty volunteers. clereymen. teachers. business men. club women. who deal with individual children un- der the direction of the court. Of course when probation fails. as it sometimes does, or when the child's home conditions are too bad 10 cor rect. institutional care of some kind has tO he provided.
 The detention home is the only symbol of the law which is shown to a delinquent child in Buffalo. From start to finish children's cases are disposed Of there. The probation of ficers have their desks in the front office and the children on probation report there
 The effect of the detention home on the community is good. The num- her 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 home refuses tO accept trivial complaints child brought in for a simple act of mis- chief is sent to it's home and the case investigated by the probation officer
 The juvenile court in Buffalo ex- ists to help children. not to punish them. The detention home is q ref uge. not q prison.
 The quickest way to urn a mis- cheviOus. undisciplined boy into a deliberate lawbreaker is to lock him in a cell.
 One type of boy will have his re- spect for justice injured. and his con fidence in his elders permanently weakened. Another type acquires a contempt for punishment His first terror subsidies after a few hours Of he begins to assure him self that jail is not such n bad place after all, and his play instinct begins to work. He imagines himself to be a desperate character. terror n the community. Certainly he has be- come a person Of consequence. He wonders whether his case will get into the papers. He resolves that he will do some boasting among the other boys when he gets out. And he docs. He swaggers and struts among his play fellows. like re- turned hero.
 The delinquent child should never ! for a moment he permitted to think | of himself as a hero. He should not ! be allowed to regard himself as q | figure out of five-cent i novel. The only way to deal with | him is to make him realize that he ] has done an unpermissible thing. He l should be taken in hand in this spir ! it and, from the moment of his ar 1 rest until his case is finally disposed | Of this attitude of mind toward him | should never change. From first to last the delinquent should be treated. | not as a criminal. but as a child.
 The juvenile court will fail to re- aliZe its highest usefulness until we | have eliminated every vestige of its 1 original status as a criminal court. CONDITIONS OF OCEAN