NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY.

Topic No. 22. Assuming that the publication in newspapers of the names, addresses or other descriptive identification of children arrested or brought before juvenile courts, is as a rule undesirable, how can local newspapers be induced not to publish such facts?

President Folks: A child arrested becomes in some eyes a hero, and in others an irreclaimable incorrigible. Is it practicable, and how far is it practicable, to try to persuade the press not to publish the names and residences of children brought before courts? In Boston no accounts of the proceedings in the Juvenile Court are published in newspapers. In New York we have gone to the other extreme. The Herald for a long time even ran pictures of children brought before the New York Children's Court. We no longer have the picture, but we still have accounts of children's cases.

Judge Gill of Elmira: I was a newspaper man for about eighteen years before becoming a magistrate, and I have always found that the newspaper men as a rule wish to do what is right. I do not favor a mandate curbing the press. The judiciary law provides that courts shall be open to the public, except in certain instances, and those are largely in the discretion of the presiding judge. The newspapers in Elmira have co-operated with the courts in suppressing matter which would tend to put a man, woman or child down. I do not remember a case where the papers of Elmira have declined to co-operate with the courts. It has been customary to publish accounts of proceedings where juveniles are involved, unless the accounts are published without using names. If the judges use discretion and diplomacy and treat the newspapers right, the newspapers will respect their wishes and the best interests of the unfortunates.

Judge Hartzell of Buffalo: In the Buffalo Juvenile Court it has worked out very successfully along the lines outlined in your remarks and by Recorder Gill. The plan of Judge Nash of the Buffalo Juvenile Court has been to request the newspaper men to refrain from publicity concerning the doings of the Juvenile Court, and it has worked out very finely. We have a large city, but the press is practically free from reference to this topic. The newspapers recognize the duty they owe to society in co-operating with the magistrates in preventing injury from publicity of that sort.

Judge Piper of Niagara Falls: I have always found newspapers all right. Once in a while when a young lad is charged with burglary or shooting or stabbing somebody, they like to publish

the case. In our Juvenile Court everybody is excluded except the parents and persons interested and entitled to be present. The papers are fair, and if the magistrates request newspapers not to publish these things they will not do it.

Judge Merrill of Glens Falls: I usually hear juvenile cases in private chambers. In juvenile cases and in some other cases in which I did not want the story published, the papers have, with rare exceptions, acceded to my request not to publish. If the reporters are treated right, they will comply with the magistrate's requests.

CARD INDEX RECORDS AND SEPARATE TRIALS

FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

Topic No. 23. Is a card index (as kept in certain courts in this State) of the names, aliases, records and other descriptive information about all defendants, desirable for readily identifying persons who in the future reappear in court on new charges?

Topic No. 21. In cases of women or juvenile defendants where the presence in court of persons having no direct connection with the cases is likely to cause the defendants notoriety or harm, what means of securing privacy are practicable?

President Folks: I want to ask Judge Chadsey about two features of his court of which we have thought very well indeed. Go into a police court in New York City and we see a defendant whose name is So and So. The magistrate asks, "Has he ever been here before? Do you remember him officer?" There is no one place where, without a long search, if at all, he can find out the man's previous record. The records are not kept alphabetically. In Judge Chadsey's court, on the other hand, all cases are indexed. If a defendant's name is " John Smith," turn to "S" in the card index; no guesswork is necessary. They have also in Rochester a salaried man who does nothing but investigate cases concerning the previous record and environment of defendants, and write up the card index.

Judge Chadsey of Rochester: We have a clerk, a deputy clerk, a stenographer and the services of another when needed, and two paid probation officers. We also have an investigator who keeps a court record, and a card index. The card index has been kept about five or six years.

We have six precinct stations and the prisoners are all brought in the morning to the general station. The report comes from the captain of the precinct what each man was arrested for. If the

man is arrested without a warrant an information is drawn and signed, because you cannot hold a man in any court without a complaint. My investigator goes down-stairs in the police station. early each morning, and finds out about the men. He takes their name, address, age, and the offense. Then he goes up-stairs and looks over his card index and finds all about that man; if he has been in before, whether he has been discharged or committed, and other record of the man. When court opens I have on my desk a statement showing the record of each defendant.

Frequently when a drunk or vagrant is arraigned I ask, "Have you been here before?" He will say, I look down on the "You werə

"No."

I say,

paper and see how many times he has been in. in here on July 27th on such a charge, weren't you?" He drops his head and says, "Yes." I tell them there is no use of lying to

me.

A young girl just over sixteen was brought in and was discharged. When she got out on the streets she was accosted by one of the loafers who had been watching the proceedings in the police court. I made up my mind then to have a women's court. We have a small room up-stairs on the second floor which we use for a women's court. We have a paid woman probation officer, Mrs. Armstrong, and she inquires into the cases and gives me the women's records. We have but a few persons in the room besides the officers and the witnesses.

Our juvenile court is entirely separate in another building. Mr. Killip, the paid probation officer of the Juvenile Court, has his office there. We have probably from forty to fifty volunteer probation officers. They report to the chief probation officer. We have a separate card index system there for children. We have got a record of every child and the disposition that has been made in each case.

A great many of our cases are for non-support. If the party is unable to give a bond we often parole them to Mr. Masters, the paid probation officer of the adult court, and so save the expense of the man in the penitentiary and of maintaining his family. This year up to the first of December Mr. Masters has received from these men and paid their wives, under that rule, over $5,000.

Judge Merrill of Glens Falls: I have a large square book made on the principle of the loose-leaf ledger, and have four different divisions of loose leaf blanks: one for tramps, one for vagrancy, one for intoxication and one for general cases. As the pages are filled in by the clerk, we insert, index and fasten them into the covered

book. At the end of the year I have them taken out and bound. I find it a very satisfactory way of keeping criminal docket books. President Folks: I want to urge the judges to give very careful attention to the ventilation and cleanliness of court-rooms. I think every person who goes into a court-room ought to learn something about cleanliness, order and sanitation. The cleaning of court-rooms sometimes appears to be either a negative quantity or the old-fashioned kind of sweeping up the dust, dry, only to let it settle down elsewhere. I want to suggest the importance of sanitation in the court-room: The judge is often the only man to see that it is attended to in a proper way.

Judge Belanger of Cohoes: There was one question that I wanted to bring before the magistrates and that was the punishment of foreigners who do not understand our language and do not know our laws. The question always comes up to me as to whether these fellows should be punished severely or not.

Judge Chadsey of Rochester: I suppose I have got the reputation of fining people for carrying concealed arms, more than any other magistrate here. We have to deal with about twenty or twenty-five thousand Italian citizens in Rochester, and many carried guns and knives and dirks. I have imposed fines as high as $100 and $125 each, and sometimes sent them up for three months besides. I want to say, if you go through Rochester now you won't find one Italian in five hundred carrying a gun.

ACTIONS TAKEN.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

Judge Connor of Oneida: I move that the chairman appoint a committee to formulate an expression of opinion of this conference concerning a plan to be recommended to the people and the Legislature for the better treatment of misdemeanants between sixteen and twenty-one years of age.

Motion seconded and carried. President Folks appointed Judges Connor of Oneida, Chadsey of Rochester and Gill of Elmira as the committee.

FRIDAY EVENING.

Judge Connor of Oneida: The committee appointed this afternoon has prepared these resolutions which each member endorses. Whereas, In the absence of institutions exclusively for the care, correction and training of male misdemeanants between 16 and 21 years of age, such misdemeanants, if placed in an institution, must be committed to a jail or penitentiary; and

Whereas, A large number of young men between the ages of 16 and 21 years are committed each year to jails and penitentiaries in New York State (outside the city of New York), the number of such commitments during the year ending September 30, 1908, being over 4,400; and

Whereas, Such misdemeanants while confined in such jails and penitentiaries are compelled to associate with older, hardened and habitual criminals, and the influence of such association is not educational or reformatory, but on the contrary frequently injurious;

Therefore Be It Resolved, That the city magistrates representing a majority of the cities of the State, in conference assembled, place themselves on record as favoring the establishment by the State of New York of a reformatory for male misdemeanants between the ages of 16 and 21 years, and