Missouri Juvenile Justice –
and Why High School
Students Care
Prof. Douglas E. Abrams
University of Missouri School of Law
abramsd@missouri.edu
June 22, 2015
“No coach has ever
won a game by what
he knows. It’s what
his players know that
counts.”
– Paul (“Bear”) Bryant
Today’s Purposes
I.
Juvenile and Family Court System
II.
The Four Categories of Juvenile and
Family Court Cases
Juvenile Court Jurisdiction
 Abuse and neglect (“maltreatment”)
 Adoption
 “Status offenses” (incorrigibility, running
away from home, truancy)
 Delinquency
Juvenile Protective Legislation
 General age of majority – and exceptions
 Child Labor
 Compulsory education
 Alcohol and tobacco
 Juvenile curfews
 Contracts
 Health and safety (gambling, fireworks,
tattooing, tanning salons, explosives, etc.)
I. The Juvenile and
Family Courts
History
“History is who we
are, and why we are
the way we are.”
-- David McCullough
https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/9895
Nineteenth Century
 Children were quasi-property of their parents.
 No national tradition of state intervention in family affairs.
 No abuse or neglect laws till 1870s (Mary Ellen Wilson’s case).
What to do with orphaned or offending children? (Vagrancy)
 Slavery
 Boarding out
 Prisons (e.g., Missouri Penitentiary)
 Almshouses – “poorhouses”
 Asylums (e.g., St. Louis House of Refuge)
 Separation of children from parents – because
authorities blamed parents for their poverty.
 No distinct criminal law system for children.

Child Labor
Breaker boys. Pittston Mines, Pa. (1910)
A young driver in the Brown, W. Va. mine. Has been
driving one year. Works 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.
“Doffer in a Lincolnton, (N.C.) mill” (1918)
“Young Bessemer City, N.C. cotton mill worker Giles
Newsom (probably 12 years old). Machine fell on his
foot mashing his toe. This caused him to fall on to a
spinning machine and his hand went into the
unprotected gearing, crushing and tearing out two
fingers.” (1912)
Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to
the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back
the empty bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Ga.
“The Mill”
A moment’s glimpse of the outer world. Said she was 11
years old. Been working over a year.
Rhodes Mfg. Co. Lincolnton, N.C.
“A little spinner in Globe Cotton Mill. Augusta, Ga. The
overseer admitted she was regularly employed.” (1909)
“Josie, six year old,
Bertha, six years old,
Sophie, 10 years old,
all shuck regularly.
Maggioni Canning
Co., Port Royal,
South Carolina.”
(1911)
Johnnie, a nine-year-old oyster shucker. Man with pipe
behind him is a boss who has brought these people from
Baltimore for four years. (1911)
“13-year old boy picking tomatoes on W.T.
Hill’s farm, Cabool, Missouri” (1916)
“Vera Hill, 5 years old picks 25 pounds a day in
Comanche County, Oklahoma” (1916)
“Rural Accident. Twelve-year old Clinton Stewart and
his mowing machine which cut off his hand.” (1915)
“Four weeks after the accident, Clinton was using his
remaining hand to help in the farm work as best he
could. His mother said: ‘Now we will have to educate
him.’” (1915)
“Fred Hill, 3 years old, sometimes picks 20 pounds of
cotton a day in Comanche County, Oklahoma.” (1916)
“Newsies”
“Small newsie in downtown St. Louis,
Saturday P.M. May 7th, 1910.”
“Francis Lance, 5 years old, 41 inches high. Sells regularly
on Grand Ave. He jumps on and off moving trolley cars at
the risk of his life. St. Louis, Mo.” (1910)
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor,
The Majesty of the Law 156 (2003)
“In the words of the English poet Alfred, Lord
Tennyson [1809-1892], a wife stood in legal
relation to her spouse as something just ‘better
than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.’”
Bradley v. State (Miss. 1824)
“[T]he husband may exercise the right of
moderate chastisement, in cases of great
emergency, and use salutary restraints in every
case of misbehaviour, without being subject to
vexatious prosecutions, resulting in the mutual
discredit and shame of all parties concerned.”
Mary Ellen Wilson
(1864-1956)
“Momma has been in the habit of
whipping and beating me almost
every day. . . . I do not know for
what I was whipped—mamma
never said anything to me when
she whipped me. I do not want
to go back to live with mamma,
because she beats me so.”
Criminal Law
Missouri State Penitentiary – 1850s
A “loathsome stone purgatory” rife with disease
and death – with cells that were “little more than
kennels,” and guards that included “all manners
of men from sadists to drunkards.”
Missouri State Penitentiary -- 1895
“. . . almost inhuman, and a
disgrace to our civilization.”
-- Governor William J. Stone
St. Louis House of Refuge -- 1893
“We have 100 boys sleeping in one room 40
by 80 feet, low ceiling and the beds are ‘two
story’; there are no bathroom privileges of
any kind in the building . . . . Can we not
prevail upon this assembly to give us relief?
In the name of humanity!”
-- St. Louis House of Refuge
superintendent to the city council
“Juvenile Court. Small boy who is habitual truant.
A street boy. May 5, 1910 (St. Louis).”
“Juvenile Court. An 8 year old boy charged with
stealing a bicycle. May 5, 1910. (St. Louis).”
“Parens Patriae”
(“parent of the country”)
“[N]atural parents, when unequal to the
task of education, or unworthy of it,
[may] be superseded by the parens
patriae, or common guardian of the
community.”
-- Ex parte Crouse (Pa. S.Ct. 1839)
U.S. Supreme Court (1976)
“The Court . . . long has recognized that
the State has somewhat broader authority
to regulate the activities of children than of
adults.”
Planned Parenthood v. Danforth (1976)
Juvenile Court Cases
 Abuse and neglect (“maltreatment”)
 Adoption
 “Status offenses” (incorrigibility, running
away from home, truancy)
 Delinquency
Abuse and Neglect (“Maltreatment”)
(Section 210.110, R.S.Mo)
(1) "Abuse", any physical injury, sexual abuse, or emotional
abuse inflicted on a child other than by accidental means
by those responsible for the child's care, custody, and
control, except that discipline including spanking,
administered in a reasonable manner, shall not be
construed to be abuse.
(12) "Neglect", failure to provide, by those responsible for
the care, custody, and control of the child, the proper or
necessary support, education as required by law, nutrition
or medical, surgical, or any other care necessary for the
child's well-being.
Abuse and Neglect (“Maltreatment”)
Corporal Punishment -- Schools
§ 160.261, R.S.Mo
“The local board of education of each school
district shall clearly establish a written policy of
discipline, including the district's determination
on the use of corporal punishment and the
procedures in which punishment will be
applied.”
Physical Child Abuse
Sexual Child Abuse
Emotional Child Abuse
Neglect
Abuse and Neglect
-- Major Controversies - Does the child protective system sometimes move





too quickly?
Does the child protective system sometimes wait
too long?
Value judgments and morality? Poverty
Emotional maltreatment
Discretion
Low-threshold test
Maltreatment
-- Low-threshold Test -Difficulty of Removal
 Parents’ constitutional right
 “Non-intervention impulse”
 Lack of staffing; insufficient funding
 Shortage of foster homes
 Child’s desire to remain at home
(“puppy syndrome”)
Functions of Reporting System
 Receive mandatory and non-mandatory
reports on the Hotline.
 Investigate the reports received, and
 Maintain a registry of persons previously
found to be abusive or neglectful.
Mandatory Reporters
(Sec. 210.115.1, RSMo)
“When any physician, medical examiner, coroner, dentist,
chiropractor, optometrist, podiatrist, resident, intern, nurse,
hospital or clinic personnel that are engaged in the
examination, care, treatment or research of persons, and
any other health practitioner, psychologist, mental health
professional, social worker, day care center worker or
other child-care worker, juvenile officer, probation or
parole officer, jail or detention center personnel, teacher,
principal or other school official, minister . . ., peace officer
or law enforcement official, or other person with
responsibility for the care of children has reasonable
cause to suspect that a child has been or may be
subjected to abuse or neglect. . . .”
Foster Care -- History
The “Orphan Trains” (1854-1929)
Jacob Riis, Children Sleeping on the
New York Street (1888)
Riis – NYC Kids Sleeping
in the Gutter
Riis – Immigrant Kids Sleeping in
the Gutter
NYC Slum Tenement
(Riis --1890)
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831-1878)
The “Orphan Trains” (1854-1929)
Orphan Train riders with their agents
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT0FCoOQPIo
Orphan Train Riders
Waiting to be Chosen in Missouri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT0FCoOQPIo (song)
Missouri Rev. Stat. (1901)
 prohibited persons from bringing into the state
a child “having any contagious or incurable
disease or being of feeble mind or vicious
character.”
 emergency clause: “[T]he New York children’s
aid society is pouring car loads of children into
the state without properly supervising them,
thereby burdening our commonwealth.”
2007 Orphan Train Reunion (Minnesota)
Rise in Foster Care Population
 Maltreatment (recession)
 Unwanted children not adopted at birth
 Maternal drug abuse during pregnancy
 High incarceration rates
 Economic distress
 Over-representation of minorities in foster care
 Shortcomings of foster care
Adoption
 “Best interests of the child”
 Agency vs. private adoptions (Baby-selling)
http://dss.mo.gov/cd/adopt.htm
 Open vs. closed adoptions (the “right to learn
one’s roots”)
 Trans-racial adoption; ICWA
 International adoption
 “Foster care limbo” – Transitional care
 Subsidies for special-needs children

http://dss.mo.gov/cd/adopt/masp.htm
Status Offenses
Incorrigibility, Running Away, Truancy
 Judicial authority over non-criminal behavior
 Limits of judicial capacity (offense as the “tip
of the iceberg”)
 Status offense allegation as a shield for
maltreatment by parents
Delinquency
– Traditional Characteristics - Individualized Rehabilitation and Treatment
 Informal Procedure
 Confidentiality
 Incapacitation of Children Separate From
Adults
Delinquency
-- Major Controversies - Tension between rehabilitative and punitive models
 Confidentiality – proceedings and records
 “Get tough” legislation – 1980s, 1990s
 “Boot camps”
 Transfer to adult court
 Placing children in adult prisons
 Race and gender
 Disproportionate minority contact (“affluenza”)
 Mental illness
Juvenile Justice (Delinquency)
Objectives Today
 Rehabilitation
 Personal accountability
 Public Safety
“Boot camp” (Maryland)

Youth trainer at a juvenile facility: "If I
can't make a kid puke or piss in his
pants on his first day, I'm not doing
my job."
(Maryland)
“Boot Camp”
(Pasadena, Calif.)
“Boot camp”
(Tampa, Florida)
Missouri Division of
Youth Services (DYS)
“Juvenile justice facilities across the nation
are in a dangerously advanced state of
disarray, with violence an almost everyday
occurrence and rehabilitation the exception
rather than the rule. Abuse of juvenile
inmates by staff is routine.”
-- Juvenile Injustice: Overcrowding,
Violence, and Abuse, Aug. 9, 2004
Missouri Training School for Boys
(Boonville)
http://cooper.mogenweb.org/Photos/SC.htm
State Industrial Home for Girls (Chillicothe)
State Industrial Home for Negro Girls
Tipton, Missouri (ca. 1930s)
St. Louis Municipal Commission -- 1911
Boonville had “slumped from its previously high
standards to a juvenile prison similar to a penitentiary.”

 “not in spirit or in fact an institution with an
educational program.”
 The institution was “physically in a bad condition,
and suffer[ing] from lack of funds for the proper care of
its inmates.”
Boonville During the Depression
Boonville has “outlived its usefulness and
should be abandoned” before it hurts more
boys.
-- State Commission report (1929)
“The whole institution needed a complete
scrubbing and the services of a competent
vermin exterminator.”
-- Boonville superintendent (1934)
Boonville During the Depression
Boonville’s boys “carr[ied] themselves with an
air of the oppressed and the hopeless” because
of “overcrowding, poor food, unsanitary
conditions, fear of physical punishment, and an
inadequate system of recreation.”
-- Visiting Minnesota prison warden (1934)
Boonville During the Depression
“It is not my policy to coddle criminals, but
Boonville warehouses many children who are
not responsible for their condition and who
should be treated as children and not as
dangerous criminals. The state of Missouri has
sadly neglected its delinquent youngsters and
under the present system there is no hope for
their improvement.”
-- Visiting Minnesota prison warden (1934)
Boonville During the Depression
Boonville “stood alone in the extent to
which it followed the pattern of the oldtime prison. . . . Modern principles and
methods of dealing with delinquents did
not receive even lip service.”
-- Osborne Association (a national corrections
organization) (1937)
Boonville in the 1940s
“[I]f 300 model boys from even the best families in
Missouri were placed in this institution [Boonville],
within a reasonable time they would deteriorate
and become juvenile menaces.”
Boonville’s “cattle are treated better than the
boys.”
-- State Board of Training Schools (1948)
Boonville in the 1940s
“I saw black eyes, battered faces, broken noses
among the boys. . . . The usual corrective
procedure among the guards was to knock a boy
down with their fists, then kick him in the groin . . . .
Many of the men were sadists.”
-- Boonville’s former superintendent, to the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1949)
Boonville in the 1950s
“[T]error-stricken and desperate boys had been
escaping from the institution in great numbers”
because it was a “hellhole” with a “longstanding tradition of sadistic maltreatment and a
grossly inadequate budget.”
-- Sociologist Albert Deutsch (1950)
Boonville in the 1960s
Boonville could not attract quality staff because
“the reputation of the treatment program and
the professional climate within the institution are
so poor” that juvenile justice professionals did
not want their resumes to include service there.
-- Northern Missouri Juvenile Officers Association
(1969)
Boonville -- 1976
Boonville
guards
were
“having sexual relations
with the children, beating
them, throwing them into
solitary confinement for no
substantial reason, pushing
drugs, etc.”
Missouri Division of Youth Services
(DYS)
“Missouri is a model that we would all love to
replicate.”
-- Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition
(2004)
“I could talk for half a day and not convey
how important it is that we have a place like
Missouri that we can look to.”
-- Louisiana Juvenile Justice Project (2003)
“Maryland needs to follow the highly successful
Missouri model for juvenile justice, in which
intensive community services are paired with small
detention centers that foster strong links with family
and a therapeutic atmosphere. . . . Couldn't we just
hire somebody from Missouri this time?”
-- Nov. 21, 2010 (editorial)
“Missouri has become a model for
juvenile justice reformers around the
country, and it has earned its reputation.”
A Model for Juvenile Justice, New Orleans
Times-Picayune, Oct. 7, 2004 (editorial)
“Missouri . . . has turned its juvenile justice system
into a nationally recognized model of how to deal
effectively with troubled children. . . . A law-andorder state, Missouri was working against its own
nature when it embarked on this project about 25
years ago. But with favorable data piling up, and
thousands of young lives saved, the state is now
showing the way out of the juvenile justice crisis.”
-- The Right Model for Juvenile Justice, Oct. 28,
2007 (editorial)
Missouri –
a “guiding light
for reform”
-- American
Youth Policy
Forum (2001)
www.missouriapproach.org