The Cordova daily times., 1922-12-19
BOY CRIMINALS PUZZLE TO
 JURISTS


 be done with the boy criminal-the youth who seems too young to bc put behind prison bars, yet actually Is ia menace to the community"
 Judge Burt J. Humphreys, of the Queens County Court, has answered the question in the only manner that seems feasible to him-he has sent a 1G-year-old boy to prison for term of not less than 30 nor more than, a9 years. Albert Kruger, alias Albert Johnson, the convict" is guilty Of robbery, assault and grand larceny. Judge Humphreys, shocked at the enormity of the boys crimes, on sen tencing him, declared Judge Shocked
 ''You are a very young boy, so young that it shocks me to think that boy of your age could commit crimes so brutal in their nature. You have had every opportunity to live decent life, yet you have always shown that you preferred life of crime.
 q find there are some people to whom month in jail is as good as lifetime, while there are others who never should have their libefty, and I think you are one of those.
 "No house is safe with you at large, and people in Jamaica were actually afraid to remain alone in their homes, fearing that you. might enter and do them bodily harm. I am afraid you will never change, therefore l must send you away for the protection of the public"
 Efforts were made to prove that the boy was insane, for his depredations were marked not only by shrewd crim- inel talent, but by acts of fiendish cruelty. The law decided he was sane, but criminal.
 Dangerous Type
 Asked to comment on the Kruger case. Justice Franklin c. Hoyt, Who has studied many similar cases while presiding over the Children's Court, declared that this particular type or criminality is most dangerous of ail' because, being high-grade defectlVeS' they often escape interception which is sure to apprehend those of lesser intelligence.
 sIt is easy enough to take care of idiots and imbeciles-such cases solve themselves usually" Justice Hoyt be- gan.
 "The higher grade defectives are not recognized at first glance, and yet they are always the ones liable to commit the most serious crimes at the slightest suggestion.
 "The insane can be recognized and dealt with as the idiots and imbeciles are the most dangerous.
 "It is these borderland cases that can.
 "We need smaller homes and small CT schools in which to study these more difficult types, the higher grade defectives."
 In answer to the expected sympathy so generally called forth by the spec tacle of boy in prison, Justice Hoyt makes answer:
 Menaces Community
 "The community is not sale with such a boy at large.
 "Until some change is effected i'll his moral balance it is likewise un- safe to return him to the community. "This type, which we meet ocassion- ly. is the moral imbecile, sane and ap- normally intelligent rather than de- deficient mentally, But he has no sense of moral values of any inhibl- tions to restrain him.
 with many cases we know lm- mediately that we are dealing with detectives. With insanity it is diff ferent too; that is, comparatively cared for, and the subnormal can De easy to establish. The insane can De trained.
 Long sentences are necessary ln some of the custodian cases. on the other hand, number of the higher grade types, after training, can return os selAsunporting members Of tho community
 Most of us feel sorry that lo- year-old must go to jail for any reason at all, but what else is there to oo : We can scarcely wait till these law less youngsters add more notches to their weapons by increasing thelr numbers of prey.
 WOMAN CATCHES GIANT
 HAWK WITH HER HANDS