Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/34

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

20 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

persons to receive no compensation from the public treasury. Any child found to be a dependent or a delinquent or a truant may be committed by the court to the care of some state insti- tution or training or industrial or truant school, or to the care of some reputable citizen, or to some child-saving association. Such child becomes the ward of the association or individual to whose care she or he is committed, and may be placed in a family with or without indenture, or he may be adopted by any responsible person who may desire to adopt him. Such guar- dianship, however, does not inclnde the guardianship of any estate of the child. In the case of a delinquent the court may continue the hearing from time to time, and may commit the child to the care of a probation officer, and may allow the child to remain in its own home, subject to the visitation of the pro- bation officer; such child to report to the probation officer as may be required, and subject to be returned to the court for further or other proceedings, whenever such action may appear to be necessary; or the court may cause the child to be placed in a family, subject to the friendly supervision of a probation officer and the further order of the court.

Whenever a delinquent or dependent child is arrested and taken before a justice of the peace or a police magistrate, it is the duty of such magistrate to turn such child over to the juvenile court, and in any case the juvenile court may proceed to hear and dispose of the case. The commitment of a child under twelve years of age to a jail or a police station is posi- tively forbidden. If the child is unable to give bail, the sheriff, police officer, or probation officer must keep such child in some suitable place provided by the city or county outside the jail or police station.

Acting under this law, the judges of the circuit court of Cook county designated Hon. Richard S. Tuthill as judge of the juvenile court, and a wiser selection could hardly have been made. A corps of probation officers, six of whom were paid salaries from private contributions, was appointed, and a number of good people donated their services, and thus enabled the court more effectively to enforce the law. During the first