The treatment of juveniles in the United States started to change during the nineteenth century. Special facilities were created for troubled juveniles especially in large cities. The Society for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency created the New York House of Refuge to house juvenile delinquents in 1825. In 1899, the first juvenile justice system was created in Cook County, Illinois, and it was a separate system from the adult one. This system took into consideration a youth’s intellectual, social, moral, and emotional development and worked to rehabilitate and treat more than punish offenders who are under the age of eighteen. Within twenty-five years, most states had set up juvenile court systems.
William Blackstone, one of the most …show more content…
Gerald was under 6-months’ probation when he was accused of making an independent phone call to a neighbor. Police arrived at this home and took him into custody when Gerald’s neighbor complained of the call. They left no notice for Gerald’s parents.
Neither Gerald nor his parents received notice of the specific charges against him before his hearing. There were no sworn witnesses and no record was made of the proceedings at the hearings. The neighbor who made the complaint wasn’t even present. The judge committed Gerald to Arizona’s State Industrial School until he turned 21, unless he was discharged earlier by “due process of law” meaning he might have to spend up to six years at the school. An adult convicted of the same crime would have received a maximum penalty of a $50 fine and imprisonment for no more two months.
Gerald’s parents petitioned for their son’s release. They argued that his constitutional rights to a fair trial had been violated and that he had been denied due process of the law. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Gerald in In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 …show more content…
Justice Stewart noted that the nineteenth century before juvenile courts were established, juveniles tried in criminal courts were given the same due process as adults. They were also given the harshest punishments for their crimes, including the death penalty. Justice Stewart agreed that juvenile courts were not perfect. But by blurring the distinctions between juvenile proceedings and criminal proceedings, the Supreme Court was “inviting a long step backwards into the nineteenth