.228 THE TREATMENT OF JLVEMLE DEFENDERS. 



.^waiting- trial, who may by the way be found to be perfectly 

 innocent, a monstrous state of affairs, which is a disgrace to the 

 Province ; our young prisoner is not burdened with much work 

 .during his month's detention, but he has every opportunity of 

 getting thoroughly corrupted and of imbibing a profound con- 

 tempt for the law. At the end of his month he is released, and 

 probably promptly steals again, and gets three months under 

 similar conditions ; for the third offence he will most likely be sent 

 to Tokai for five years, but, mark, he has been corrupted before 

 being sent there at all. Nothing whatever is done for the boy 

 after his first discharge from gaol, and the State having success- 

 fully corrupted him, turns him loose on society to engage in the 

 fascinating pursuit of crime ; it is only for serious offences that 

 juvenile criminals are sent to Tokai, or after one or two convic- 

 tions. At Tokai, everything possible seems to be done with, 

 however, two exceptions. The white and coloured, though sleep- 

 ing in separate dormitories, are in the same reformatory ; I think 

 they should be entirely and absolutely separated. The other mis- 

 take is that Tokai is a convict station, and the reformatory is 

 surrounded with convict buildings, and the boys at work are in 

 the same tainted atmosphere and neighbourhood, and in fiill view 

 of hardened criminals in convict garb, not a very helpful environ- 

 jiient for boys that the State is supposed to be trying to cure of 

 .criminal tendencies. 



With regard to female juvenile criminals, at present the Sal- 

 vation Army take into separate institutions European and coloured, 

 both those awaiting trial and those convicted who are considered 

 suitable for such form of detention ; others are sent to the House 

 of Correction, where they are associated with short sentence 

 prisoners, but during working hours the hardened long-sentenced 

 convict, the short-sentenced female prisoner and the juvenile are 

 all together in the laundry, wash-houses, drying-yards, etc. It is 

 impossible to write too strongly about such a state of affairs, 

 which reflect the greatest possible discredit on those responsible. 

 It simply means, as I said before, that the Cape Colony has been 

 carefully creating criminals for years. I am happy to be able to 

 state that the present Minister for Justice is fully alive to the state 

 of affairs, and that as the Transvaal has always embarked on pre- 

 ventive work the Cape under Union is bound to follow. Under 

 the Cape Juvenile and Woman's Imprisonment Act of 1904, juve- 

 nile prisoners of both sexes awaiting trial are supposed to be kept 

 in some suitable place, away from the gaols, and for some time 

 the Salvation Army Metropole was used for boys, but it was found 

 unsuitable and discarded. 



There has been some talk of the Social Farm at Rondebosch 

 accommodating juvenile males awaiting trial, and also short- 

 sentenced female prisoners, but I understand that not very much 

 has yet been done in this direction, and I am of opinion that the 

 Government should have its own institutions for these purposes 

 under proper supervision. 



The question of the proper treatment of criminals, of modern 

 ^nethods of prevention, of indeterminate sentences, etc., etc., are 



