(seq. 2)

Box 100, Charlestown, Mass.
January 7, 1930

My dear Miss Holzschuh:

Here very briefly are a few remarks on the
subject we have been discussing, I hope they may be of some use to you.

As I recall now, I was twice before the juvenile
court. In each instance I was committed to an institution for
juvenile delinquents. Other men whom I know, were similarly by
juvenile courts. All of us agree that this is the worst possible
solution of the problem. In my own case, and it is typical in many ways,
here is what happened: associations formed at Lyman school led directly
to my being sent to Concord; associations formed at Concord led directly
to my being sent to State Prison. Those with whom I have discussed the
matter agree that the rule, the ideal in the minds of juvenile court
judges should be: never commit delinquents to institutions except as a
last resort.

Institutions for juvenile delinquents are simply
training schools for criminals, as my own experience proves, and as
statistics, I believe, also prove. And the reason why they fail of their
purpose is this ( and I have never heard this point made before ) :
the inamtes of reformatories are too much of the same mind. This is a
very important thing. What I mean is, if juvenile delinquents could be
sent to schools where, say 80% of the inmates were decent, well-bred
honest boys, who had been taught to frown on dishonesty and anticocial
conduct, the "bad" boys who were sent there would straighten themselves
out as a matter of course, for all normal boys like to be on even terms
with their fellows. But in a reformatory at least 80% are of the opposite
type, so that the mere weight of numbers is against the boy whose normal
instincts are sound. He now strives to outdo his fellows in dishonest
ways - still in an effort to be on even terms with them.

What, then, is the solution of problems ( since
institutions are ruled out of the discussion)? At the present time, boys
are paroled to farmers, merchants, and the like, after a term in an
institution. I make the suggestion that boys be paroled to these
people before a term at Lyman or some such institution has taught them all
the crookedness and perversion with which these places are saturated.
This with a qualification I shall now make, would be ideal treatment, since
it would prove to the boy that mere punishment is not the chief motive of
the courts in commiting him, and that the idea is to give him a chance
to improve himself.

But, and here is my qualification - make it a real
chance. I mean don t send the boy to a family who want him merely as
a cheap substitute for a hired man, as a good many of them.do. Send
him to a family with a real social conscience; a family whose purpose
is to help the boy make a man of himself and who will treat him like one
of themselves, instead of patronizing him and making him feel that he is an
outcast. The reason so many state wards are unsatisfied with their
guardians and run away from them is exactly this; they are made to feel
too keenly that they don't matter very much. If social workers would
spend most of their time interesting decent, intelligent, socially-