Improving Success in Treating Juvenile Delinquents, March 2, 1924

Social Conference Session Is Closed. . . Judge Hoffman of Cincinnati Court Delivered Principal Address

By the Associated Press

Asheville, N.C.—“Science will finally succeed in the treatment of delinquents, both juvenile and adult,” declared Judge Charles W. Hoffman of the domestic relations court, Cincinnati, Ohio, in an address at the closing sessions of the western North Carolina conference for social service at noon today. The two day session ended with a luncheon at a local hotel at which Mayor J.H. Cathey, presiding, announced that he would call a joint meeting of the city and county commissioners to consider consolidation of the city and county juvenile courts and appointing a full time judge.

Judge Hoffman congratulated Mrs. Kate Burr Johnson, commissioner of public welfare of North Carolina, stating that in the opinion of an outsider the work of her department is excellently done. Children are not wicked, he said, stating that the laws should be liberally construed to have the state give the same treatment to children that would be given by good parents. Judge Hoffman would no consider allowing a girl to appear before a man to tell her mistakes, he said, saying that she needs the guidance of a good mother or motherly person at the critical periods of life.

Giving figures on a survey of prisons, Wiley B. Sanders, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, advocated district jails to take the place of county jails, making possible hospital wards. He recommended a colony for women on the state prison farm, abolition of county convict camps, convict lease system and extension of the honor system. More important, he said, public opinion toward convicts must change.

Outside work for women, for reducing nervousness and making them healthier and more contented, was advocated by Mrs. Martin P. Falconer, of the American social hygiene association, recommending that the girls in the Lindley home here be give n occasional wood pile work. Mrs. Falconer has made a survey of conditions in this section, congratulating this community and state on its institutions for women and children.

From the front page, Durham Morning Herald, March 2, 1924