private room, with an adjoining room for delinquents and wit- 

 nesses while awaiting their turn. Thus the idle public would be 

 excluded as spectators and the proceedings would be kept entirely 

 free from the atmosphere of the court room. It is not .necessary 

 for the judge to impress the boy or girl with the dignity of the 

 court so much as to put himself on immediate confidential terms 

 with his young charges. In the County Juvenile court, there 

 are three paid probation officers, two women and one man. The 

 time of one woman probation officer, however, is taken up en- 

 tirely by office work. There is no volunteer system of probation 

 officers, although a Big-Brother movement has been instituted 

 recently. In addition to caring for juvenile probationers, and 

 investigating cases at trial, the man probation officer and single 

 woman officer, available for probation work, also care for adults 

 released on probation. Each officer attempts to care for about 

 150 probationers, which is a task beyond reason. In the New 

 York City Juvenile Court only about 40 probationers are as- 

 signed to a single probation officer. In San Diego, if an office 

 clerk were engaged at a salary of $75.00 a month, the woman 

 probation officer now receiving $100.00 a month, and kept entire- 

 Iv at office work, could be transferred to do actual probation work. 

 The present situation is relieved to some extent, however, by 

 the work accompHshed through the recently informally estab- 

 lished Juvenile Bureau of the Police Department. This bureau 

 handles children's cases coming to the attention of the Depart- 

 ment and co-operates to some extent with the County Juvenile 

 Probation officers. The bureau is operated by a specially appoint- 

 ed woman police officer, and two policemen. It is fortunate per- 

 haps, that while the county probation officers are carrying too 

 heavy a burden of work, the city's police department is kindly 

 disposed toward juvenile offenders, that it gives them "another 

 chance" and places them under an informal probation through 

 its Children's Bureau. However, the police department of San 

 Diego, or of any other city, have too much of the odor of re- 

 pression and punishment to make such influence really beneficial. 

 Efficient juvenile probation w^ork for the whole city demands a 

 more unified system than this, if only for the purpose of keeping 

 accurate records of the city's child delinquents. Such divided 

 responsibility in handling juveniles can only result in confusion 

 and inefficiency and establishes a dangerous precedent. Both 

 the city and county probation work should be carried on under 

 a single head, the county probation office. In this way, the evi- 

 dent intent of the state juvenile court law would be carried out. 

 A word should be said regarding the sensational printing by the 

 newspapers of details regarding so-called juvenile crime, such 

 details including the names and pictures of the offenders. In 

 some cities the newspapers have agreed among themselves to 

 exclude such stories for the good of the children as well as the 

 community. San Diego's daily papers might well profit by this 

 example. 



29 



