New York Juvenile Court By E. FELLOWS JENKINS, Chief Probation Officer. Court and Probation work in England, are signs of progress calling forth more than ordinary notice here. Your Honors have received numerous visits at our Children's Court from representative foreign governments,—even Japan, the Chief Justice of whose Court of Appeals recently made a thorough examination of our mode of procedure,— and are aware of their recommendations that the New York method be adopted as the best fundamental working-out of the scheme of reformation of boys and girls. The high percentage of "reformations" (84 plus) shown by parole work among children in New York County is significant, and foreign judges and lawyers have not been slow to grasp it. By-play and buffoonery being absent from our court proceedings, the child is made to realize the seriousness of the proceedings and impressed alike with the penalty which he must pay, and the gravity of his offense against the State. The boy who, for some slight offense, is taken to court for the first time learns for the first time that he is quite an integral part of the government, and of his duty before others. The result is that, excepting in the cases of those considered "inherently bad" (and but few may be so classed), the child learns the lesson which is the object of the solemn court proceeding. The boy is awed by his experience and soon learns that the conditions of his release on parole must be complied with. And with the advantage of the Big Brothers' and other influences, when his case is formally closed in court, he cannot be said to be badly off. Foreign Juvenile Courts are being organized with the same idea of child-protection, and especially with a view to the importance of impressing upon the child the absolute seriousness of the whole proceeding. The "incidental" work of assistance at home and at work, done under the direction of the court, shows to the child that the stern sentence on parole carries with it a kindness and yet a responsibility both of which are worth while. While boys and girls continue to improve under the regulations of our Children's Court, it augurs well for a continued high percentage of reformations. Respectfully submitted. (Signed) E. FELLOWS JENKINS, Superintendent of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. New York, June 27th, 1908. Editor Juvenile Court Record: Dear Sir-I have read with much interest your article on Judge Tuthill and editorial on the "Relation of the Juvenile Court Law to Other Laws," in the Juvenile Court Record for June, 1908, and congratulate you that Judge Tuthill's ruling is in favor of your contention respecting the authority of committing Judges after commitment in children's cases. The courts should not interfere with institutions in their care of children. This Society has so held for thirty years and our State laws were drafted with that in view. The highest courts have decided that the magistrate's power ceases, ipso facto, upon signing a commitment which delegates the power and responsibility of guardianshp to another legally constituted authority, which, by accepting the commitment, accepts also the obligation of caring for the child for the State, until such time as conditions indicate that the child's interests require its discharge. This phase of the subject, however, refers more espe cially to criminal, delinquent and neglected children. "Dependent children," those placed in an institution at a parent's request because of destitution, should be returned to such parent on request. These cannot be said to have been "wards of the State" in the same sense as the other classes referred to. Of course, the Supreme Court, in the exercise of the general powers thereof, has authority arbitrarily to discharge any child from any institution, without explanation, but the judges of that high tribunal are always careful to inquire into the question of benefit to the child before so acting. Your editorial on "Probation" is excellent. Probation should not supersede parental control. It never was the intention of the framers of the first laws that it do So. In this State, Sec. 713, Penal Code, provides that a child be released in the custody of a person other than a parent, if, in the court's judgment, such disposition is for its best interests. It is the carrying of probation too far that will disrupt not only that system but the Juvenile Court in the future, and will result in our highest courts setting aside existing laws. The probation and parole of children should be at all times directly within the control of the courts and the justices and not within the control of any probation officer. It is my humble opinion that any probation order which destroys the custody of the parents without cause, will, on appeal, result in immediate release, and will strike a direct blow at the effectiveness of probation work and such laws. Such error has been carefully avoided in the Juvenile Court in this city. A child is not placed under the direct charge of a probation officer. It is paroled in the custody of its parents, who enforce the order of the court, until the date set for return to court, with the parole officer. The danger in carrying Juvenile Court and probation work to extremes lies rather in the sensational methods resorted to, than in the stern application of all of the laws on this subject. While probation officers and judges of Children's Courts attach buffoonery to all of their methods, the purposes sought by these very laws will be in vain, for even the child must be impressed with the fact that it has erred and must expiate its offense before it can resume its former stand in the community. Your remark that "the people will rise up in their might and demand the repeal of the law." unless it is properly enforced, is based on that common sense and wisdom which so characterized your own acts as the first chief probation officer of the Chicago Juvenile Court, as to have made you the authority to whom so many lawyers and judges, both here and abroad, properly turn for the exact interpretation of the Juvenile statutes. I congratulate you upon securing the ruling referred to, and am always, Very respectfully yours. E. FELLOWS JENKINS, Secretary and Superintendent of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. South Australia. South Australia, June 30th, 1908. Editor Juvenile Court Record. Dear Sir:-I enclose my year's subscription to "The Juvenile Court Record." Excuse delay-it is six weeks late-for I have just returned from a ten weeks' visiting about in the Eastern States, chiefly in Sydney and Melbourne. I find that the Children's Courts continue to be well administered; well in Sydney, but not well extended to the country towns. In Melbourne they are quite new, having been initiated this year in January, but to my mind they are too much extended. Instead of a Metropolitan Court, as in Adelaide and Sydney, with one permanent magistrate, there are 200 courts of petty sessions empowered to try children, city, suburban and rural, where any two justices of the peace can administer justice. And it is seldom that these know anything about the rationals of the treatment needed by the young delinquent. They only conceive of it as a means to keep youngsters out of the evil environment of the police court and police cell, but not that it should be the first step in the uplifting of the child; and very often of the child's home. To the demand for probation officers, there was a ready response; 123 are enrolled, with only one paid man, the chief probation officer at their head. But then there is one danger which probably is not unknown in the U. S. A., though here in South Australia, where we depend entirely on one paid probation and enquiring officers, we expect it. I think the heads of every child saving institution in Victoria volunteered their services as probation officers, and I could see on the occasion on which I saw the president these were eager to have the child committed to the particular institution they were working for. Now the main object of probation is to keep the child in the home; and our Miss Cooke says that the 32 children she visits, who have never been in any institution at all, and are not likely to be, are to her the most satisfactory of the hundred or so who have been in her care. The Children's Courts are not in Victoria connected with the Neglected Children's Department, as in New South Wales and in South Australia, which, I think, is a pity, for we have greater elasticity than can be found in courts, unless there is a Judge Lindsay at their head. I was asked to speak to the 123 probation officers, or as many as could attend, on May 27th, on "Our Experiences and Our Ideals in South Australia," but I made the largest use of the life and work of Judge Lindsey, which I had gathered from Lincoln Stebbins' series of articles, and I never had a more appreciative audience. I have the highest opinion of their Chief Probation Officer, Mr. A. E. Clarke, who has written an excellent pamphlet explaining the law as it stands, with worded reports, as examples of what is needed. I also enquired about the protection of infant life, which now in Victoria is taken out of the hands of the policemen and given to lady inspectresses. The conditions were exceedingly bad up to January this year, but I can see that there is a great improvement. I am wondering if the English bill which is going through Parliament will carry the provision that every single child placed out for payment shall be officially inspected, which is now the law in South Australia, in Victoria and in New South Wales. In England hitherto it is only homes where two or more infants are placed which are inspected; but the evidence of the Royal Commission which was sent to us proves that far more infants are close to death quietly in one-child homes, than in baby farms, especially since these have been inspected. This, I know, does not interest you so much as the Children's Courts, but it is equally important to me, as a member of the State Children's Council. I visited the Epileptic Farm Colony, 12 miles from Melbourne, the first instituted in Australia, and I was much pleased with it. The American Boy. What He Has Before Him and What He Ought to Try to Accomplish. One time when I was in the Philippine Islands a little Filipino boy was asked in my presence which he would rather be a Filipino or an American. He replied: "If I were not a Filipino, I would rather be an American." This boy displayed two excellent characteristics in his remarks, little as he knew of the great world to the west, which had come into his own life as a governing power of his country. In the first place he showed that he loved his own native land. We call this patriotism, and every boy should be patriotic. In the second place he showed respect for that we consider the most progressive nation in the world today -the United States. Respectfulness is a quality every boy should cultivate. Patriotism in a boy's heart does not mean merely that he wishes to wear a uniform, to go to war, or to be a sailor boy and fire big guns. Patriotism has never meant that a boy should grow up with a bloodthirsty desire to kill every human being. The first important principle of patriotism is to try to do our duty to the best of our ability; the second principle of patriotism is the laws of our government and to obey them; and the third principle of patriotism is to be ready to defend our country when its honor of homes and property are attacked. Join to this patriotism in a boy's heart respect for the worthy things of life, and you have a boy who ought to make a very good man and useful citizen. He will come in the class of those who do things rightly. The worthy things of life are the agents that enable one to practically round out life's work with honor to father and mother and honor to one's own self. The rulers of the nation who are trying to do their duty, honest men and women of all classes who, though they live humbly, nevertheless strive to serve their country and their God honestly; these a boy should respect just as much, if not more, than he respects the name of a great war or naval hero. The boy who learns to do this knows that just as great achievements are attained by humble men in the world of work as on the battle-fields of patriotic war. The men who are constructing railways all over this continent, the men who are building the Panama Canal, the men who are trying to give a good government to Cuba and the Philippines, are patriots, even though they do not wear swords and uniforms. The American boy has about him any number of heroes in the world of work whom he is very certain to admire and respect if he will only look them up and learn what they are striving to do. The Filipino boy to whom I referred had a great respect for the United States, but that respect would not have been manifested if the rulers of the United States were brutal and bad people. When a nation is unjust, when a nation is not Christian, then other people cannot respect it. One of the great works before the boys of the present generation in the United States is to so develop themselves and live that, when they grow up to be men, they will create a new respect in the minds of strangers for this government. There is nothing that commands so much respect for one nation from another nation as honesty on the part of that nation. The same rule applies to individuals. If the United States is to maintain the respect which other nations now feel for it, the boys of today, who are to be the rulers of the United States tomorrow, must be honest in all their beliefs and their practices. Then we shall not only maintain the present respect for the United States, but will gain new honor in the eyes of other powers. It is wholly wrong for a boy to think that he has less duty to perform than his father or mother or other people. He can figure it out every boy has just as many duties of an important nature to look after as grown people. The trouble is, many boys do not think that this is the case, and they miss a lot of duties that, if they did perform, would be helpful to them for all future time. A boy cannot put himself in the position of the lad I heard of who was caught one Sunday on the banks of a stream fishing. He was asked: "Why do you go fishing on Sunday, when you ought to be in church?" He replier: "Why, papa goes to church." This boy had a very mistaken notion. His father's going to church could not atone for his not going to church and breaking the Sabbath. That a boy's father is a good man, and is respected in the community, does not provide an excuse for that boy being bad and not being respected, nor can he cover up his wrong doing by pleading his father's good reputation. A boy must be good within himself and in what he outwardly does in order to win public respect and public confidence. He will be responsible for all his acts, and he cannot shirk that responsibility and throw it on the shoulders of other people. I would like to see every boy throw his shoulders back and say determinedly: "I am a man, and always shall be a man." Be a man in all that you do. Avoid doing the little mean things, and avoid thinking about them. When you can get yourself to say that you won't act or think unmanly things, then you will be honoring your parents, honoring your nation, and honoring yourself. I do not mean this for preaching. It is just a plain statement of facts that every boy ought to understand. I think American boys have a number of other duties aside from love to their parents and their homes. I have not time to enumerate all of these, but I will name a few which I believe ought to enter into the moral and mental education of every boy. He ought to read the Constitution of the United States and understand it, just as he should read the Declaration of Independence and understand it. When he reads these two important documents, they will not be very plain to him, but his parents and his school teachers can make them plain, and when he does understand them, he will know the spirit of this government. He will be in touch with his own government, and when the occasion arises be able to act intelligently for it. I think he should do a great deal of reading of the history of the thirteen colonies. He should know the story of the forming of the New England States, of the struggle in Virginia and of the vast movement which finally opened up the Middle West and the far West to the Pacific Ocean. When he is through studying this history of the thirteen colonies, he ought not to miss getting all the information he can on the history of England, Germany and Scandinavia. The peoples of these three countries have had a remark Continued on page 15. JUVENILE COURT RECORD T. D. HURLEY, Editor. 79 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Ill. ASSOCIATE EDITORS. Hon. B. B. Lindsey, Judge Juvenile Court, Denver, Colorado. Thomas D. Walsh, Asst. Secretary, New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 297 4th Ave., New York. J. L. Clark, Business Manager, 79 Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill. Eastern Office, 53 W. 24th Street, New York City. Boston Office, 71 Kilby Street, Boston, Mass. The Juvenile Court Record is published monthly except in the month of July. Single copies, 10 cents. Subscription price, $1 per year. Entered at Postoffice, Chicago, as secondclass matter. New Subscriptions can commence with current number. Change of Address.-Always give both your old and your new address when you ask us to change. Payments for the Paper, when sent by mail, should be made in a postoffice money order, bank check or draft, or an express money order. When neither of these can be procured, send 2-cent United States postage stamps; only this kind can be received. Letters should be addressed and checks and drafts made payable to Juvenile Court Record, 79 Dearborn St., Chicago. Advertising Rates made known on application. EDITORIAL. CHICAGO JUVENILE COURT JUDGE. Charities and The Commons, in its issue of July 11, 1908, commenting on the recent change of judges in the Chicago Juvenile Court, refers to the stand taken by the JUVENILE COURT RECORD as unjust and misleading. Referring to the article appearing in the JUVENILE Court RECORD, the editor of Charities and The Commons uses the following language: "For reasons of its own, the privately owned and managed "JUVENILE COURT RECORD' was the single exception in gratuitously committing all the other people and agencies co-operating with the court to an invidous comparison of its successive administrations, which was as uncalled for as it was unjust and misleading." We were surprised that our efforts to assist the Juvenile Court should be so misunderstood by the editor of the above paper, and that our position should be so distorted as to lead persons not acquainted with the situation in Chicago to form a wrong impression. The JUVE NILE COURT RECORD is not owned by private parties; it is the property of the Visitation and Aid Society. A few friends of the Society have subscribed for shares of the stock of the paper. Not to aid the paper financially, as it does not need such assistance, but to show their appreciation of the work. The editor of the paper does not own one share of its stock. The control of the paper does and always will rest in the officers of the Society. It has never been necessary to ask financial assistance of its friends. The article referred to in the JUVENILE COURT RECORD said, in part that "Judge Tuthill has always worked in harmony and to the entire satisfaction of the various churches, institutions, and societies associated and connected with the Juvenile Court. The parents and children love him as do his own children and grandchildren. * * * Dur ing his absence from the court no change, no new thought, no new ideas, no new or original plan had been added to the court. The only noticeable change was increased work and an increased pay-roll." This statement was absolutely true and we felt justified in informing the public. The object of the JUVENILE COURT RECORD is to assist in not only establishing Juvenile Courts, but aid in their management and in perfecting the entire system. We rendered valuable assistance to the editor of Charities and The Commons when he was working for the Juvenile Court law in New York. We aided materially the efforts put forth by Juvenile Court workers in Buffalo, Maryland, Washington, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and other states. It was the JUVENILE COURT RECORD that first attracted the attention of Judge Ben. B. Lindsey to the work. . We are sorry that Charities and The Commons should be so disappointed at not having their friend reassigned to the Chicago Juvenile Court. We disclaim, however, the credit for the change that the judges saw fit to make. The assignment of Judge Pickney to the court has received the endorsement of the real friends of the court. His appointment was made by the judges after a careful and conscientious study of the situation. We predict that Judge Pickney will so conduct the court that he will bring back to it that confidence, that harmony, that co-operation among the workers of the court that is so lacking at the present time, and that the court was Selfish interests, so noted for during its early years. secret conferences, star chamber meetings, etc., will have no standing in the future in the Chicago Juvenile Court. The court will be conducted as it should be, in the open court room. An Act Respecting Juvenile Delinquents. The final passage by the Dominion Parliament of the Act respecting Juvenile Delinquents is apt to be a little misleading to those not acquainted with the legal procedure in Canada. Children's Courts have been in existence in Ontario, one of Canada's provinces, for over fourteen years past, having been provided for in the excellent legislation known as the Ontario Children's Protection Act of 1893. But in the neighboring province of Quebec there has been no Children's Protection Act or Children's Court system. Each province has power to pass laws for the protection of children, but the criminal law of the country is a matter for Dominion or federal legislation, and, therefore, any provincial legislation must. necessarily be more or less imperfect. Special Dominion legislation was given to Ontario on request, but in the other provinces nothing was done.. The present juvenile delinquent law, therefore, unifies the work. throughout Canada, and provides the necessary machinery for the best kind of work. The law, however is not mandatory, but must be put into operation in each province by special proclamation, issued, of course, on petition of the persons interested in the movement. This Dominion law is founded on the Ontario Children's Act with various features taken from Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania, with, of course, such slight changes as commended themselves. to members of Parliament in Committee. It will not make any very material difference in Ontario except that in the larger cities' special children's judges will probably be appointed instead of having the work done by the magistrates after the usual police court. The aim will be to have the Children's Court recognized as an educational rather than a punitive agency. In Montreal and other Canadian cities this act will mean a considerable advance over present methods. J. J. KELSO. Toronto, July 1, 1908 BILL AS PASSED JUNE 16, 1908. An Act Respecting Juvenile Delinquents. Whereas it is inexpedient that youthful offenders should be classed or dealt with as ordinary criminals, the welfare of the community demanding that they should on the contrary be guarded against association with crime and criminals, and should be subjected to such wise care, treatment and control as will tend to check their evil tendencies and to strengthen their better instincts; Therefore His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as The Juvenile Delinquents Act, 1908. 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires(a) "child" means a boy or girl apparently or actually under the age of sixteen years. (b) "guardian" includes any person who has in law or in fact the custody or control of any child. (c) "juvenile delinquent" means any child who violates any provision of The Criminal Code, chapter 146 of The Revised Statutes, 1906, or of any Dominion or provincial. statute, or of any by-law or ordinance of any municipality, for which violation punishment by fine or imprisonment may be awarded; or, who is liable by reason of any other act to be committed to an Industrial School or Juvenile Reformatory under the provisions of any Dominion or provincial statute. (d) "probation officer" means any probation officer for juvenile delinquents duly appointed under the provisions of any provincial statute or of this Act. (e) "justice" has the same meaning as it has in the Criminal Code. (f) "the court" or "the Juvenile Court" means any court duly established under any provincial statute for the purpose of dealing with juvenile delinquents; or specially authorized by provincial statute, the Governor in Council, or the Lieutenant Governor in Council, to deal with juvenile delinquents. (g) "the judge" means the judge of a Juvenile Court seized of the case, or the justice, specially authorized by Dominion or provincial authority to deal with juvenile delinquents, seized of the case. (h) "industrial school" means any industrial school or juvenile reformatory or other reformative institution or refuge for children duly approved by provincial statute or by the Lieutenant Governor in Council in any province. 3. The commission by a child of any of the acts enumerated in paragraph (c) of section 2 of this Act, shall constitute an offense to be known as a delinquency and shall be dealt with as hereinafter provided. 4. The Juvenile Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction in cases of delinquency except as provided in section 7 of this Act. 5. Except as hereinafter provided, prosecutions and trials under this Act shall be summary and shall, mutatis mutandis, be governed by the provisions of Part XV of The Criminal Code, in so far as such provisions are applicable, whether or not the act constituting the offence charged would be in the case of an adult triable summarily; provided that whenever in such provisions the expression "justice" occurs, it shall be taken in the application of such provisions to proceedings under this Act to mean "judge of the Juvenile Court, or justice specially authorized by Dominion or provincial authority to deal with juvenile delinquents." 6. When any child is arrested, with or without warrant, such child shall, instead of being taken before a justice, be taken before the Juvenile Court; and, if a child is taken before a justice, upon a summons or under a warrant or for any other reason, it shall be the duty of the justice to transfer the case to the Juvenile Court, and of the officer having the child in charge to take the child before that court, and in any such case the Juvenile Court shall hear and dispose of the case in the same manner as if such child had been brought before it upon information originally laid therein. 2. The provisions of the foregoing subsection shall not apply to any justice who is a judge of the Juvenile Court or who has power to act as such, under the provisions of any Act in force in the province. 7. Where the act complained of is, under the provisions of The Criminal Code or otherwise, an indictable offence. |