YOUTHFUL DELINQUENTS AND THE CHILDREN’S COURT
The dense population of the lower parts of the city, the narrow streets,
the ubiquitous gin mill and the dirty tenements all combine to make New
York the centre of the most accessible temptations—temptations that
swiftly carry ruin and demoralization to hundreds of boys and girls
every year.
Perhaps it is not generally known that some of the toughest and most
daring of our present-day criminals began their downward career at a
tender age. There is something blushingly heroic in crime—made so by the
dime novel, which the boy of the tenement reads and then emulates by
personal example.
It would be most difficult to assign a reason that would explain all the
conditions that have led young people into crime, but we are sure that
vicious and intemperate homes, biting poverty and the godless companions
of the streets have had much to do with the criminal records made by
this class during the past quarter of a century.
When we think of the multiplication of evil resorts, such as the
saloons, play houses, bawdy houses, gambling hells, policy shops and
other places that harbor young lads for drinking and carousing purposes,
my only wonder is that so few go astray.
These temptations to crime which are presented in every form to the
youth of a modern city are altogether unknown in rural settlements and
country villages.
[Illustration:
A Scene in the Children’s Court, corner of Eleventh Street and Third
Avenue.]
We are glad to say that only a very small number of the child criminals
are girls. And the reason for their downfall in almost every case is due
to bad homes and profligate parents.
One of the things that impress the visitor to the Tombs prison is the
large number of poverty struck faces he meets, the sallow complexions,
the sunken cheeks, hectic cough, the glassy eyes and stooping frames,
all indicating that the young manhood has been harshly dealt with. Some
of these boys are so diminutive, that they look as if they were only ten
or twelve years of age, when in reality they are sixteen or eighteen.
Here is a sample conversation with a small boy:
“Hello Johnny, how are you to-day?”
He replies, “I ain’t doing well.”
“What brought you here?” He hangs his head and gives no answer.
“How old are you?” “I ain’t only sixteen.”
“Are your parents living?” “Mother has been dead since I was six years
old. But pa, he is living. He gets drunk so often that me runs away from
home.” “But how did you get here?” “Oh, when I was hungry I stole money
to buy food.”
This will account in some measure for the boy’s fall. Think of it—a boy
without a mother in a large city like New York! After I had made an
investigation I found out that his father was an idler and dissipated
and took no interest in his family, and the boy has been under no
religious influence since his mother died. Poor boy! His only playground
was the street with the denizens of the tenements as his associates, and
most of them evil. He hated his home and was glad to get away from it,
because there he learned to drink, carouse and curse like his father.
That home to him was pandemonium! No wonder he was a thief and in
prison.
A great many children of the tenements learn to drink beer when very
young. They are sent by their parents to the saloon with the “growler”
and are sure to drink the beer out of the pail before they return home.
Although it is illegal to sell to children of this age, saloon keepers
take chances for the money. Thus the child forms an appetite for strong
drink and is preparing to be a drunkard or a prostitute.
One day I found a chubby, honest-faced German boy behind the bars. He
came alone from the Fatherland when he was twelve years of age. An
uncle, a farmer in a Western state, awaited his arrival and took him to
his new home. Here he made him work like a slave, giving him no
opportunity for either secular or religious education. Herman stood it a
few years, then ran away. He worked his way East by stealing rides on
freight trains. He would have died of starvation on the way had not the
train hands to whom he told his tale of adventure taken pity on him and
generously shared their food with him and smuggled him over the
different roads till he got to New York. Here he wandered around the
city looking for work, but found none. Unfortunately he was found one
night in company with two young thieves and was arrested on suspicion.
He lay in prison several weeks. After a thorough investigation we were
able to show that he was an honest boy. Before going out, I gave him a
note to a Y. M. C. A. worker, who gave him some clothing and food and
lodging for two weeks, and then secured for him a position. Some months
afterwards I found Herman in a mission settlement as one of the workers.
He was clean and neatly dressed. What a transformation from the dirty,
ragged condition he was in when in prison!
The large foreign population of New York and the dense ignorance of
those who come from some of the countries of Europe is constantly in
evidence in the criminal courts. As near as we can estimate, for we have
no accurate information on the subject, about one-half the number of
persons arrested in this city every year are either foreign by birth or
parentage.
The Children’s Court
The Children’s Court for the trial of juvenile offenders of both sexes
under sixteen years of age was opened for business in this city
September, 1902. The law organizing this branch of the judiciary was
passed by the Legislature the preceding winter. The building where this
Court is conducted is situated at the corner of Eleventh Street and
Third Avenue.
Five days in the week from 10 a. m. till 2 p. m., children of all
colors, creeds and nationalities are brought here in charge of the
officers of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children—better
known as the Gerry Society. They are the custodians of all children from
seven to sixteen years of age under arrest for crime. The Penal Code
declares that children under seven years of age are incapable of
committing a crime and are therefore exempt from the operation of this
law.
The Origin of the Children’s Court
For several years the Howard Association, of London, England, has been
advocating the establishment of Children’s Courts in that city for
youthful offenders, but for a long time nothing came of it, as the
English mind is slow to act on all such innovations, especially in a
case like this, where the law which has stood for hundreds of years has
to be changed. The same Association has also recommended the appointment
of special magistrates to deal with truant children and their parents.
But juvenile courts and probation officers have been in operation in
Massachusetts for nearly a dozen years, longer indeed than in any other
state in the Union, and with marked success. In Chicago the Children’s
Court has been in existence since 1901, Milwaukee 1901, Philadelphia
1901, St. Louis 1901, and Washington, D. C., 1901. There has also been a
Court for child offenders in Buffalo, N. Y., since 1901. By an agreement
between the magistrates and the Children’s Society Judge Murphy has
given two afternoons a week to the trial of juvenile offenders, making a
court house out of one of the Society rooms.
The following year the Children’s Court was opened in New York, and then
only as an experiment, as few persons were found ready to believe that
it had a future. Indeed, many members of the bar discouraged its advent
and thought it a foolish and expensive institution. At best, this Court
was only a venture in the line of trial experiences, but before many
months had passed everybody competent to judge pronounced it an
unqualified success.
During the first year of its existence no less than 7,447 youthful
offenders were before it, for nearly every crime on the calendar except
homicide. While this Court is in business, the visitor who is present,
is impressed with the quite orderly behaviour of all present and the
kind and humane treatment of the attendants toward the children.
The Special Sessions judges, who sit on the bench by rotation, take a
deep interest in the young offenders and as each case comes along tries
hard to straighten out the domestic “tangles” which are so common where
parents and children get mixed in their testimony. It is gratifying to
know that this city does not furnish a large number of the “Wild West”
boy toughs and fewer still of the Jesse Pomeroy class of criminals.
While it is true that a large number are untruthful, depraved and devoid
of moral sense, yet they are not beyond the reach of kindness and good
treatment.
Crime among the children of the poor is largely the result of social
conditions. Bad homes, negligent and intemperate parents, sickness and
poverty will account for most of it. And the fact that we have not ten
times more juvenile offenders than are on record is owing to missions,
chapels and Sunday Schools scattered all over the city.
Almost every session of the Court is full of pathetic scenes and
experiences where mothers and children shed many tears. The object of
the Judge is to find out the truth in each case, and in this he often
spends hours of patient labor.
After a thorough investigation we take it for granted that a child is
found guilty. The ruling motto of the Court is to deal leniently with a
first offender. If he has a good home and parents who will care for him
he is paroled, but if his home is of a vicious character he is sent to
an institution where he will be cared for and learn a trade. The main
object of the Court is to save the child from a degrading home influence
and put him in a place where he can work out his own salvation either on
a farm or in an institution.
Some of the cases brought before this Court are as follows. We refrain
from giving real names.
John Smith, who lives on Avenue A near Tenth Street, is said to be an
incorrigible; he is only twelve years old; he is the terror of the
neighborhood; he stays out late at night, commits petty depredations on
the small traders and otherwise annoys the people of the Avenue. After
the Judge inquired into the merits of the case he finds that the boy is
bad and that both parents are in the habit of getting drunk. The Judge
finally decides to send the boy either to the farm of the Children’s Aid
Society in Westchester County or to the Juvenile Asylum where he can
learn a trade.
Aside from the judicial interest manifested throughout the proceedings,
Mercy weeps tears of sorrow over the wayward boys and girls and nothing
but kind words are expressed regarding them and every one seeks to do
them good.
In former years the work done by this Court was carried on in the most
humane manner by the Children’s Aid Society under the direction of
Charles Loring Brace and, since his death, by Charles L. and Robert
Brace, his worthy sons. The Children’s Aid Society has done more toward
saving the children of the slums the past fifty years than all other
humanitarian organizations combined.
The following lines by Philo S. Child will in a measure express why
children commit crime in this great city:
“Alone in the dreary, pitiless street,
With my torn old clothes and my bare cold feet,
All day I have wandered to and fro,
Hungry and shivering and nowhere to go;
The night coming on, in darkness and dread,
And the chill blast beating upon my head;
Oh, why does the wind blow upon me so wild,
Is it because I am nobody’s child?”
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