onsidered a crime, that person could not be held liable for that act. Between the ages of seven and 14, criminal intent had to be proved. Between 14-16, the Juvenile Offenders Act took over, and allowed for summary jurisdiction. According to Conley: ôThe sentences for persons under the age of sixteen usually reflect some special consideration, but there were cases in which children as young as eight were held in adult prisons for extended periods of timeö (123).
This was taking place while reformers, social scientists, and like-minded progressive politicians were having growing concerns about the effects of adult prison conditions (and contact with already-hardened criminals) was bound to have on adolescents. While there was an element of humanitarianism to all this, the main concern for most was the fact that the prisons were becoming overcrowded and the expenses needed to feed all these prisoners. The idea was that the way to keep the prisons from filling up was to nip the problem in the bud: make sure th
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