COURTS OF JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7923, 30 January 1904, Page 4

COURTS OF JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN.

The Court for Juvenile Offenders in New York has just completed its first year's Work, and the report upon its operations js highly interesting. It has, it appears, proved to be of the greatest value, if <bnly because the little prisoners brought before •it are kept from contact witb hardened criWinals. ' The whole atmosphere is made 'es little gaol-like as possible, and the courtLoom itself is kept bright and cheerful, 'whilst the detention cells in no way resemble the dismal apartments common to the (ordinary prison. In the first twelve months Lf the new Court's existence 7447 children [were arraigned, of whom 4368 were convicted. Of these only 1527 were committed [on criminal charges or because of improper (guardianship. The rest were placed' on parole or hadl th^ir sentence, suspended. C_he most difficult problem, of course, conterns the ohildren who have just got started on the criminal path. Here a greait Meal depends on the probation officer. That 'official reports that* 15 per cent of the 639 (children released on probation between 'September 1, 1902, and July 1, 1903, bad to be committed to institutions because they violated the provisions of their parole. Of those committed in this way the majority were under twelve years of age. It Is also interesting to notice that of the 639 probationary offender*, only twentythree wer,e girls. Of the boys 285 came / Into Court because of larceny and 125 for disorderly conduct. Where a child is reparoled more than three times it is generally found necessary to send him to a reJbrmatory. But the Judges seek, wherever possible, to avoid, commitments. Children on parole are required to report to the probation officer once a week, and tothe Court at stated) intervals.* Each tim. the delinquent reports, his record in full is placed before the Judge. The Manhattan Magis-

trates believe in changing the Judges, because they find the work too great a strain on the sympathies of one man, who would, they believe, soon become either too tenderhearted or too callous. But tbis has not been the case in Chicago, where Judge Tuthill continues to preside over what is believed to be the first children's Court ever organised in the world. This separate treatment seems as if it were dfestined to do a good deal in the direction of prison reform, and it might well be given a much wider application.