New-York tribune., 1911-12-23
AID YOUNG DELINQUENTS
State Wide Movement to Segre-
gate Them from Criminals.
APPEAL TO. LEGISLATURE
Many Organizations Send Dele
gates to Conference Which
Discussed Feeble Minded.

4 conference Of statewide import az
tended by representatives of the varion"
state organizations which have 10 do WIN
tho confinement and care OF tho delinquent
and feeble minded classics. for the purpose
OF recommending remedial legislation on
the subject, was held yesterday in the
Charities Organization Society Building.
Resolutions were adopted recommending
certain additional Institutions and eXten-
slons in the work which will he sent TO
Governor Dix and presented to the Legis-
lature.
The conference was called at the suS-
gestion Of DR.. O. i. Lewis. secretary OF
the New York Prison Association. II was
behind closed doors. Dr. Lewis said after
ward that tine whole tone Of the confer
ence had been 10 suggest adequate meas
ures for protecting young dclnquents'
young men from sixteen 10 twenty-oht
years old convicted Of minor crimes. WHO
now were confined In large numbers in the
penitentiary and county jails and per
mitted 10 associate with hardened crimi-
nails.
The state now puts a premium on crime
by allowing men convicted of felony 10
go 70 Elmlra Reformatory," said Or.
Lewis. (which IS supposed 10 be a re-
formatory for young delinquents. There
is no chance outside of New York City Tor
boy delinquent above sixteen years Old
20 go anywhere but prison. These young
dellnquents are the wards Of tho state, and
the state is derect in its duty in not pro
vldlng an adequate reformatory where they
may be trained for decent citizenship. Last
year nearly five thousand boys between the
age OF sixteen and twenty-one were i'm
prisoncd'
a resolution was adopted recommending
that the Legislature make provision for
a state reformatory for male misdemean-
ants between the years of sixteen and
twenty-one. where they may be committed
on indeterminate sentences and properly
trained and educated. 4 similar resolu-
tion was adopted pertaining to girls OF
tender age which recommended that the
Legislature make the necessary appro-
priations for the completion of tho New
York State Training School for Girls at
Hudson, with a capacity Of five hundred
inmates. and for the erection of a similar
training school in the western section OF
the state.
criminal insane, II has no institution
where the feebe-minded who have COM
mitted n crime can he sent and properly
cared for il was said. From 10 TO 40 per
cent Of the inmates Of the various penal
institutions were found 20 be mentally
deficient, DR.. Lewis said A resolution
recommending that state custodial insti-
tutions be established, one for males and
one for females. for the treatment OF
feeble minded persons convicted Of crime,
was adopted.
The following committee on legislation
was appointed. For the state Board or
Charities. Or Stephen Smith; State Com
missioner Of Prisons, Henry Solomon:
state Superintendent of Prisons. Joseph
T.. Scott: State Probation Commissioner,
Frank Wade; Fiscal Supervisor of State
Charities, Dennis Mccarthy; State Confer
ence Of Magistrates. Judge Otto Kempner;
State Conference of Charities John A
Kingsbury: National Labor Commission
T.. Stagg Within; state Charities Aid AS
sociation, Professor Charles T.. Garfield,
and New York Prison Association, Or.
o. f. Lewis.