In the city police court, and in the other two justice courts, it 

 is customary for the judge to release adults convicted of minor 

 offenses on an informal probation. An investigation should be 

 made to determine the need for a paid probation officer's services 

 for adults in these courts. This investigation should show also 

 how far adult probation is employed in the county courts and 

 the need for supplementing the present work of the County Juv- 

 enile Court officers in this respect. Adult probation is quite as 

 much needed as juvenile probation if the criminal laws are to be 

 tempered with practical efforts at reforming the offenaer. 



County Detention Home 



The County Detention Home is by no means a credit to the 

 city and county. Thirty children have been crowded into accom- 

 modations for eighteen. At times two boys are obliged to sleep 

 in one small room. The girls must go to their rooms in the even- 

 ing as they have no common sitting room. Both girls and boys 

 have sleeping accomodations under the same roof. Its name is 

 misleading since not only are children kept here awaiting trial, 

 but for some length of time as in any home for children. It 

 does not "detain," as it has no provision for caring for the boys 

 or girls who are runaways and who must be kept safely while 

 awaiting trial. It is not surprising then that children under 

 sixteen are held occasionally for safe keeping in the city lock-up 

 and county jail. It is understood that they are kept from older 

 prisoners, it is true, in both places, but if the county jail is 

 crowded, this is difficult to accomplish. Quarters for a detention 

 home should be obtained in the neighborhood of the County Court 

 House, and not twenty-five minutes ride from the center of the 

 city as is the case with the present detention home. Provision 

 should be made for safely guarding children while awaiting trial. 

 To illustrate the present lack of method in providing for juveniles 

 and the need for public institutional care, the following instance 

 may be cited. A dependent child, a girl 15 years of age, was re- 

 ferred to the County Probation Office. Until this child could be 

 sent East to relatives she was kept successively at the Door of 

 Hope, a small private institution for young delinquent women, at 

 the Detention Home, at the County Hospital, and at the County 

 Jail. 



It is recommended that present institutional methods of caring 

 for juveniles in San Diego be examined to find out whether 

 there is not an immediate need for a training school for boys 

 and girls, preferably on the Farm 'Colony plan, such a home to 

 be located on the city's pueblo lands. The building by the county 

 of a new and larger home for children upon this plan would 

 seem the logical step to take. As already suggested, additional 

 probation officers are much needed, and there should be a de- 

 tention home for children awaiting trial, to be located in the 

 vicinity of the County Court House. 



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