Juvenile Court System Analysis

If the juvenile court failed to garner a lot of attention after 1920, it’s not that it stopped developing. It just wasn’t much in the public’s eye. Actually, between the years of 1920 and 1940, some states and major cities constructed reformatories and youth homes for juveniles who needed to be removed from their homes (Foote, 1976). Granted that most of them were built for custody and punishment, still among the best of them there was an emphasis on recreation, education, and casework – both during incarceration and after release. Gradually, throughout the 20th century, counseling, psychological testing, vocational training, and foster family services all found their way into juvenile courts and into the reform schools and youth homes (Foote, 1976).
One of those nationwide programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which began in 1933 as an alternative to unemployment and rootlessness for young men between the ages of 17 and 23. But there were other programs as well that were developed to deal with the special problems of youth. Some of these programs included the National Youth Administration in the 1930s, the Congressional Interdepartmental Committee on Children and Youth in 1948, and the Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1950 (Foote,