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‘tVThere Are Schools -for. Crime/’. Professor Blackmar TellsWomen Voters* **HE SCORES LAWRENCE JAILMrs. Elizabeth Nitcher Discussed Juvenile Court Work in the County“Jails, are schools for crime andare worse breeding places for evil_among'young people than the dance or pool hall, the movie or even the penitentiary.” said Professor F. W. Blackmar yesterdayin his talk before the League, of.Women Voters on the subject ofjails.*Our jails are antiquated institutions, he added, and if society ^ad-developed along this line as it hasin the field of airplanes and movies, we would have no heed for jails. Society would have taken such care of its individuals that there wodld have been no need for such places.Most people feed that when a person -has committed a crime he should be punished.. Punishment is all right, he thinks, but it is ,no avail unless it is followed up with some sort o.f 'remedial agency. Even in child life, he feels that punishment alone does no good and, in his ^opinion,. when a child has to be punished there is something wrong somewhere, with the parents, the family life, the school, or perhaps the church and Sqndav school. Society should exercise a guardianship over criminals instead of .merely punishing them. %Around the law a great deal of I machinery has grown up and when ! a boy is thrust into jail for. a misdemeanor, he often finds that he is al-ono against the officer who arrested him, the lawyers, sometimes tlie judge and many persons .who want to see him punished. Here he comes up against hardened criminals and human derelicts so that at the end of his jail sentence he is much worse than he was previously.Professor Blackmar scored the city jail in Lawrence in scathing terms and asked the women to do ail in their power to see that it was cleaned up. Why people should consider it necessary to have beautiful churches, nicely decorated, and yet think that to reform criminals they must he thrown into dirty, filthy and vermin filled jails, he is unable, to understand.Following Professor Blackmar’s talk, Mrs. Elizabeth Nitcher, a fellow in the sociology department, spoke on the juvenile courts In Douglas couty, she said, children under 16 are not placed in jail but a room at the county jail is. provided for them where they may be taken care, of until after their trial. The probate judge, in Kansas, is the one who decides what shall bo done with delinquent children.She stated that there had been very splendid cooperation between the officials working with these children, but mentioned, a few things that might be remedied,'The luncheon was held yesterday .noon-, in the Wicdeniannr grill room and was attended by thirty women. The next luncheon will♦ 9be held at the same place the last Monday in December,
Newspaper Details
Lawrence Journal World
Lawrence, Kansas, US
Tue, Nov 27, 1923
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Lawrence P.
KS, USA 24 Jun 2021
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