Civic improvement; Urban women; Women in public life
Following the example set by Judge Lindsey in Denver, women have been
active in creating the public opinion which has brought about the
creation of juvenile courts in so many cities of the South, as well as
of the North. In Atlanta, the women acted immediately upon the
suggestion of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, in
session there. It is generally conceded in Pennsylvania that the five
bills passed in that state providing for juvenile courts owe their
passage to the agitation and pressure brought to bear by the
Pennsylvania Federation of Women’s Clubs and its enthusiastic president.
In at least eight states it is claimed that the juvenile court system
owes its inception largely to the work of women. Coupled with their
interest in the court has often gone their desire to accompany the court
work with model reform schools for boys and for girls. In Alabama and
other states these were secured by the insistence of women.
In Iowa the Congress of Mothers took the lead for the Juvenile Court
Law, and this congress has pushed steadily in other states for the same
legislation. The Ohio law, passed in 1904, was due in a large measure to
the fact that the juvenile court was a paramount issue of club work in
that state at that time.
Club women feel that they deserve credit also for the St. Louis and
Kansas City Courts. In Michigan, when the law was declared
unconstitutional, women pledged their effort to the securing of a new
bill.
The Civic Club of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, together with the
Civic Committee of the women’s clubs, secured the organization of the
juvenile court of that county. They then sent women and men speakers
into neighboring counties and thus extended the movement. The first
juvenile court was organized and supported entirely by the Club for
several years, until it was legally incorporated and became independent.
The Club also established an industrial and training school for boys, to
solve the question of the care of boys that came before the court.
Detention homes preceded as well as accompanied efforts for juvenile
courts. The Civic Club of Allegheny County secured the proper
enforcement of the Juvenile Court Law in its provision as to rooms of
detention for children under sixteen who are in custody and awaiting
hearing or placement. The same club hopes soon to secure a model
children’s court building along the lines adopted in a few other cities.
By the year 1906 detention homes and a juvenile court law had been
actively taken up by women’s clubs in California and other western
states. Since then many places have been catching up, and these two
issues form part of the propaganda of club women everywhere.
The Municipal League of Utica, composed of men and women, secured
recently an appropriation for a detention home and juvenile court. The
Women’s Civic League, of Meadsville, Pennsylvania, also established a
detention home for juvenile delinquents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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