The Virginia enterprise., 1910-11-25
RANGE JUVENILE COURT
Detention Home and Parental School,.
Delinquent Child Not a Criminal
Range School Supeintendents Should
Frame Law De|inquent!casss Cited.
State Should Build Parental
School.
BY LAFAYETTE BLISS

SGn0OI,
BY LAFAYETTE BLISS
The child is an asset of the State,
not merely the property of his par
ents. There is a growing feeling
among those who have given the
subject thought, that the legisla-
ture this winter should provide for
the establishment of a Range Juve-
nile Court, including judge cloth
ed with proper authority, proba-
ton officer in each large town, and
detention home or parental school
centrally located.
The range will soon have a pop
ulation of one hundred thousand
people, of very complex national
tiles. The number of children is
unusually large. The people @ a
rule are very busy and the training
OF the children in many homes is
sadly neglected. The juvenile Of
tenders against law and order are,
alas, too numerous, in spite of all
that can be done under the present
legal restrictions, by school author
tiles, truant officers, and private in
dividuals who are philanthropically
inclined.
In all our dealings with the delin
quent children we should keep con-
stantly in mind that the criminal
court and Jail, and everything these
stand for should be elimated. There
are many things yet to be discover
ed and worked out in developing
the juvenile court system, but ex-
perts generally agree that these
juvenile cases should not be handl-
ed as police court, by municipal
Judges, and delinquent children
fshould never be kept in Jail or in
the common Jail environment while
awaiting trial. Every school super
intendent or teacher of experience
knows how quickly children of the
delinquent class respond to mental
suggestion. The quickest way to
make liar of boy or girl is to
constantly questisn their veracity.
The quickest way to make thief OF
a boy is to put him IN a jail cell
with boastful, experienced thief
The quickest way to change an
imaginative, sunny tempered, roll
licking boy into morose, i'll natur.
ed one, is to accuse him of being
s,,lky and bad tempered. A mis-
chievous, undisciplined boy can
quickly be turned into deliberate
lawbreaker by forcing HIM to as
sociate with lawbreakers and Grim
inals, as is done in many so.called
Juvenile courts in our large cities
These are facts that cannot be dis.
puted, since they have a perfectly
sound psychological basis. It has
been found that many delinquent
boys who have been handled in the
regular municipal courts have thei1
respect tor justice injured, and
their confidence in their elders
permanently weakened. Then agair
some of these boys acquire pee
= uliar contempt for punishment anc
take on bravado that is abnormal
They imagine themselves as des
perate characters, and as holy ter
rors to the community-or perhap:
heroes. They hope the people will
talk about them and that thei
names will get into the papers, q
they can do the usual amount O
boasting, staggering up and down
and strutting about among the 9th
er boys. when they get out. The
delinquent boy is not hero and ht
should not be permitted to thinl
of himself as hero. From first tt
last be should be treated not as {
CRIMINAL but as CHILD. In estab b
fishing juvenile court for the
Range we should start right by
separating the court from the usua
. criminal procedure, so that all the
7 way along, in the manner of arrest
| detention, trial aud punishment the
| old idea of dealing with the child
| as criminal shall be eliminated
and then the highest usefulness ot
this prospective court will be realiz
| ed from the start.
! The above facts outline the latest
| development in the treatment o1
juvenile offenders. The average
municipal court, with its crowd Of
loafers has long been considered
anything but elevating in it's tone
In the great volume of work among
the drunks and disorderly grown
ups, the judge could not, even if he
!. would, give proper attention tc
children's cases. There should be
a special judge for this class o1
cases. He should have wide option
in disposing of the children. HI
should have time for careful in
vestigation so that when a case
comes before him he already knows
the family history and former en-
vironmeut of the child. The priu
ciple underlying the most advanced
treatment of juvenile offenders il
that bad environment rather thar
innate tendencies to be criminal is
responsible for their delinquency