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Show FOR CRIME LAW ON YOUTH BASIS Proposals for a complete change in the administration : of criminal law in the United States, putting all the courts on a basis exactly like that of the present juvenile courts, . w;ll be urged on the next Conference of Governors by .-Judge .-Judge Joseph Siegler of New Jersey. Judge Siegler's recommendations are based up a per- sonal contact with 11,000 juvenile cases and 18,000 domestic relations cases. He wants a broad extension of the principle prin-ciple of probation, and initial hearings of all criminal cases in a far more informal and scientific way than at present. "This plan," he says, "represents the greatest advance in criminal jurisprudence in 500 years. As far as the courts are concerned we are still in the middle ages in our methods of dealing with crime. If we continue our present system we shall just go on building more and more jails and prisons, at enormous expense, and filling them with prisoners who are merely students in crime, going there for post-graduate courses. "The success of probation in dealing with offenders up to the age of 16 leads to the conclusion that the same methods meth-ods could be extended first to offenders up to the "age of 21, and later to all ages. The number of persons committed to prison wcild decrease by a large percentage. "I am suggesting the immediate application of this plan to offenders up to 21 years. At present the juvenile court procedure in most states deals with delinquents only up to the age of 16. A boy who commits an offense just after his 10th birthday is publicly arraigned and humiliated, humiliat-ed, and his name becomes public property, just as that of a criminal. As a result, his readjustment to lawful society becomes almost impossible. He is shoved straight into the criminal class, and reclamation is automatically blocked. My experience on the bench shows me that 90 per cent of these offenders could be restored to useful citizenship under a more humane and scientific procedure." |