Formal hearings were required in situations where youth faced transfer to adult court and or a period of long-term institutional confinement. In the 1960s, the Supreme Court made a series of decisions that formalized the juvenile courts and introduce more due process protections such as right to counsel. Similarly situated youths could receive vastly different sentences based on the mood, temperament, or personal philosophy of individual judges. Court hearings were informal and judges exercised broad discretion on how each case was handled.īy the 1950s and 1960s public concern grew about the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system, because of the disparities in treatment that resulted from the absolute discretion of juvenile court judges. The court was intended to be a place where the child would receive individualized attention from a concerned judge. The primary motive of the juvenile court was to provide rehabilitation and protective supervision for youth. First established in 1899 in Cook County, Illinois and then rapidly spread across the country, the juvenile court became the unifying entity that led to a juvenile justice system.įounded on the ancient legal of doctrine parens patriae (the State as Parent) which declared the King to be the guardian of all his subjects, the new court assumed the right to intervene on behalf of youth deemed to be in need of help based on their life circumstances or their delinquent acts. This collection of institutions and programs were finally brought together with the creation of the juvenile court. These new approaches were typically the result of enterprising social reformers who sought new and better ways to address the problem of wayward youth. The 16 th century educational reform movement in England that perceived youth to be different from adults, with less than fully developed moral and cognitive capacities, fueled the movement for juvenile justice reform in America.īy the middle 19 th century, following the creation of houses of refuge, new innovations such as cottage institutions, out-of-home placement, and probation were introduced.
Until the late 19 th century, criminal courts tried youth and adults. The average number of youth in a house of refuge was 200, but some, like the New York House of Refuge, housed over 1, 000 youth. Houses of Refuge were large fortress-like congregate style institution located in urban areas for youth designated as abandoned, delinquent or incorrigible. By the 1840s, approximately 25 more facilities were constructed throughout the country. With three years of its opening, similar institutions were opened in Boston and Philadelphia. The New York House of Refuge became the first movement in what was to later become the juvenile justice system. Their work led to the establishment of the New York House of Refuge in 1825, the first institution designed to house poor, destitute and vagrant youth who were deemed by authorities to be on the path towards delinquency.
In response, pioneering penal reformers Thomas Eddy and John Griscom, organized the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, to oppose housing youth in adult jails and prisons and urge the creation of a new type of institution. At the same time, American cities were confronting high rates of child poverty and neglect putting pressure on city leaders to fashion a solution to this emerging social issue. Many of these youth were confined for noncriminal behavior simply because there were no other options.
Since few other options existed, youth of all ages and genders were often indiscriminately confined with hardened adult criminals and the mentally ill in large overcrowded and decrepit penal institutions. In the late 18 th and early 19 th century, courts punished and confined youth in jails and penitentiaries.
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