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 JUVENILE

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JUVENILE

of any court, and especially a judge of a juvenile court, should be willinf? at all times, not only to re- spect, but tomaintain and preserve, the legal and nat- ural rights of men and children alike."

The juvenilecourt must not commit to the jail orthe workhouse or the penitentiary the children who must be confined. It may send them to so-called reform schools, institutions that sprang into existence some seventy-five years ago, or to some other place pro- vided for their kindly but custodial care. In the case of Mill V. Brown, supra, we read: "Before the State can be substituted to the right of the parent, it must affirmatively be made to appear that the parent has forfeited his natural and legal right to the custody and control of the child by reason of his failure, inability, neglect, or incompetency to discharge the duty and thus to enjoy the right. Unless, therefore, both the delinquency of the child and the incompetency, for any reason, of the parent concur, and are so found, the court exceeds its power when committing a child to any of the institutions contemplated by the act." _ In- stead of so committing the child, the court may either impose a fine or, what is done in a large percentage of the cases, place the child upon probation. Probation is a new system of custodial care that is rapidly grow- ing in favour as the best method to handle or disci- pline, not only children wdio violate the law, but adults as well. Probation means that, with confidence in the promises of the offender to offend no more, the court suspends sentence and enlarges him under the care of the probation officers attached to the court, with a view to releasing him in the future, when his conduct antl progress justifies it, from the jurisdiction of the court. The management of penal institutions release prisoners from time to time in a similar manner, but in such cases the release is more accurately and more properly termed parole. The nomenclature employed in the method is, however, far from settled.

On probation, the child remains in its home, in its natural environment, where the expense, too, of its nurture and education should properly be borne. This has resulted in a substantial saving, even from a pecuniary point of view, to the communities where it has been tried, often amounting to as much as sixty thousand dollars per annum, it is estimated, in cities of two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. It has been demonstrated that " it is wiser and less expensive to save children than to punish criminals." To do this, probation imposes certain positive duties upon both i^robation officer and judge, especially where the function of the judge is confined to the juvenile court. In such a case the best results are obtained when the judge becomes in practice his own chief probation offi- cer, carefully supervising the system himself. The judge and the probation officers must labour to develop good character in the child. The aim of probation is charac- ter-building. Hereby is brought about the saving of the child, the "citizen of to-morrow", to himself and to his country. Probation is of such importance that it has been termed the keystone of the juvenile court system. By the patient, painstaking efforts of the probation officers, much ignorance is dispelled, and all the helpful agencies in a community are drawn upon to serve the legitimate needs of the child, mentally, morally, and physically. An account of the juvenile court would be incomplete without at least a passing reference to Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, Colo- ra<lo, who, through his numerous magazine articles and ijublic addresses throughout the United States upon the juvenile court, is so intimately associated with the institution in the public mind. His excellent service to the children of Denver, his many speeches, addresses, and published articles, have been potent in the speedy spread of the movement for juvenile courts.

As above mentioned, to Chicago belongs the honour of having established the first jiivenile court, on 1

July, 1899. The pressing need was generally felt, the country was ripe for the movement, and there quickly followed the inauguration of juvenile courts in Denver, Indianapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Wash- ington, until some thirty cities have them, and almost all cities are considering their adoption. This Ameri- can movement fias appealed to Europe, where it has been adopted in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and England. Canada and Australia now have juvenile courts, also South Africa and India. The English law follows closely the legislation to pro- tect child life that has been enacted throughout the United States. By it, safeguards are thrown around the religious belief of the child, by having the court select, if pos.sible, a person of the same religious per- suasion or some person who will give an undertaking that the child or young person shall be brought up in accordance with its own religious persuasion. This act is to be cited as the Children's Act, 1908. It is technically 8 Edward VII, Chapter 67, and is popu- larly known as "the Children's Charter". Thus it is recognized as entering into the fabric of the British Constitution. By it child is defined to mean a person under the age of fourteen years, while the expression young person means one between fourteen and sixteen years of age. With the necessary modifications, the act is applied to Scotland and to "Ireland. When the court is satisfied of the guilt of the child, it may, in its discretion, deal with the case by dismissing the charge; by placing the ofl'ender under the care of a probation officer; by committing the offender to the care of a relative or of some institution; by ordering the offen- der to be whipped; by ordering the offender to pay a fine, damages, and costs; by ordering the parent or guardian of the offender to make payment of a fine, damages, or costs; and, wdiere the offender is over fourteen years of age, fiy sending him to prison.

Thus has grown and spread the most remarkable development in jurisprudence of the past decade, a development that is carried on the wings of mercy, kindness, and love, in whose scales of justice are balanced the inexperience of the child and its environ- ment with the responsibility of the parent and the adult, now, for the first time, recognized and enforced by the law of the land. The juvenile court has its origin in the needs of the time. These needs are largely the result of the industrial revolution conse- quent upon the use of steam and the establishment of the factory system. The old order is changed. Practi- cally, there are no industries in the home. The con- gregation of workers in factories has promoted the growth of communities and cities. The trend is from the country, with its peace and simple life, to the cities, with their turmoil and dissipations. The conditions in the cities growing out of congestion of jiopulation, the use as habitations of flats and tenement houses, have all weakened family life and forced the nervous and mental development of the children into precocity. There is some truth in the saying that there are no children nowadays, and this is a prolific source of the need for juvenile courts. But, as demanded by con- ditions, the work of these courts is remedial rather than vindictive and punitory. They aim to conserve child-life. All this is in harmony with the spirit of the Catholic Clmrch, whose Divine Founder said: "Suffer little children to come unto me, ami forbid them not." In the spiritof the Master, she early set herface again.st the exposure and destruction of infants under jiagan- ism. Creches and infant asylums have in all Christian ages been offered as an alternative to child-nnirder. Devoted sisterhoods and brotherhoods have always maintained orphan asylums, refuges, and ho.spitals for the protection, safeguarding and training of the orphaned, abandoned and abused little broth- ers of Christ. The spirit that created the juvenile court is closely akin to the spirit of the Catholic Church, which, in its canonie:il punishments, has