To our forefathers, it apparently did not occur that conditions would ever get to the point where women and children could be locked up without warrant.

The sixth amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads:

In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall. have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have) the assistance of counsel for his defense.

[Continues reading:]

At best, the kindliest sort of questioning of a child by a policewoman in the house of detention, in the absence of its parents, is in my opinion what is popularly known as third-degree work. In the inquiry as to the child, its parents and surroundings, all sorts of pressure is brought to bear upon the child in answering the questions.

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I have in mind a colored girl who was arrested for shoplifting, and, after the hearing, I was about to release her in the custody of her parents. A conscientious policewoman, and one in whom I had every confidence, said, 'Judge, this girl is no good; she will run away if you let her go home. She is not honest; she won't tell the truth. Three policewomen tried to break her, and it could not be done." Upon my inquiry as to what she meant by "tried to break her," she replied, "We tried to make her talk, but we could not break her."

In another case, a case in which I found the girl not guilty of indecent exposure, as a matter of fact she was accused of undressing without lowering the shades of her windows, and she was brought to the court from the house of detention by two policewomen, and before filing information charging her with this offense it developed upon the second hearing of the case that in full view of the court as a matter of fact, within 75 feet of the desk where I was sitting hearing cases-one of these policewomen wrote with a lead pencil a confession claimed to be based upon facts extracted from the girl the night before-as filthy, a confession, if you please, as I have ever read-and the girl was a 15-year-old school girl. The girl was induced to sign this confession and her signature was witnessed by two policewomen.

I sat on one side of the room and these two policewomen over on the other side had the girl, and the girl was sitting at a desk, and the terror-stricken girl signed the confession. [Reading:]

It may be stated that at the second hearing of the case the parents produced a doctor's certificate which showed the girl to be a virgin.

Attention is called to the fact that practically all so-called third-degree work in police service occurs while the victim is in custody and before a charge has been placed against his or her name. As a matter of fact, no person should be taken into custody unless there is sufficient evidence to take that person before a committing magistrate and ask that the person be remanded.

Mr. BLANTON. Will you pardon an interruption?

I tried a case once where three of the most prominent and most reliable physicians in my district testified to that very point that you have mentioned there, and within three months a child was born. Miss SELLERS. I have nothing to say to that.

Mr. BLANTON. So it shows you that you can not always rely on the evidence of physicians and on expert testimony.

Miss SELLERS. This girl was not accused of being immoral. Mr. BLANTON. I judged so from the testimony of the physician. Miss SELLERS. But in this confession she had made a most obscene confession of immorality, which could not have been written by a woman who had not had sexual relations with a man.

Mr. BLANTON. That is why you can not depend on that expert testimony. I found out I could not.

Miss SELLERS. The confession was thrown out and the girl was found not guilty.

Mr. BLANTON. The defendant in my court was acquitted on the testimony of her doctors, and I noticed what transpired within three months.

Miss SELLERS. I have nothing to say on that. [Reading:]

Right here I desire to call attention to the case of a 16-year-old white boy arrested by the police on February 12 and sent to the house of detention to be held for investigation.

This happens to be new. [Reading:]

This boy was held in the house of detention from February 12 to February 22, when he was transferred to Gallinger Hospital, where he is now detained. An inquiry was made at the police station relative to reasons for holding this boy, and the officer whose name is carried as the arresting officer states that he knows nothing about the case and that he has no recollection of arresting this boy.

But the boy is in Gallinger Hospital, where they are holding him. I say that somebody ought to be responsible for sending these children to court, so that they could have a hearing. [Reading:]

The house of detention for children should be under the juvenile court. The reply to the request for a separate house of detention has always been met with a refusal on the score of economy, it being always said that it was impossible to consider maintaining two places of detention, one for women and one for children. That reply is no longer possible, due to the enormous amounts of money which Congress has given each year for the house of detention.

Washington is the only city where the house of detention for children is under the police department.

That is, according to the Children's Bureau records. [Reading:]

The children of Washington are no different from the children of any other city. The claim is made that the children are not injured by being sent to the house of detention by the police. I know of a case of a feeble-minded colored boy 15 years old who while on probation to the juvenile court was arrested, charged with attempting to rape a small colored girl, and held for the action of the grand jury. This was, if I remember rightly, in August, just after Major Gordon was first appointed district attorney. This boy, whom we knew to be degenerate

And this is not the fault of Mrs. Van Winkle. This is no criticism of her. It is only telling what happens to children who are kept there. [Reading:]

was kept in the house of detention from August until some time in December, although the chief probation officer made every possible effort to persuade the district attorney's office to permit us to bring the boy back into the juvenile court on a motion to revoke his probation and commit him to the National Training School for Boys.

Mr. BLANTON. Will you permit a question there?

Do you commit boys to the National Training. Schools for Boys? Miss SELLERS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. Do you commit girls to the National Training School for Girls?

Miss SELLERS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. What is the maximum age you have jurisdiction of? Miss SELLERS. Up to 17.

Mr. BLANTON. What is the longest commitment that you remember having made? Do you commit them until they are 21?

Miss SELLERS. During minority.

Mr. BLANTON. Until they are 21 years old?

Miss SELLERS. The law reads, " during minority."

Mr. BLANTON. Then you do commit girls under 17 to the National Training School for Girls until they are 21?

Miss SELLERS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. So that is four years' incarceration behind bars. Miss SELLERS. No; they are entitled to be paroled, and are paroled. Mr. BLANTON. And unless they are paroled, that is four years? Miss SELLERS. Yes.

Mr. BLANTON. Confinement behind bars.

Miss SELLERS. Under a court order, which can be tested in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and often is.

Mr. BLANTON. Now, if a juvenile court can send a girl behind bars for four years when the court is not a court of record and where it does not even have a stenographer and does not even have a right to issue writs of habeas corpus, do you think there is anything more unreasonable about the house of detention keeping a girl three months?

Miss SELLERS. Absolutely; and I believe you do.

Mr. BLANTON. No; under this law that we passed I do not, because it is the law of the land.

Miss SELLERS. I really feel that the committee has probably made up its mind, but I am going to finish my talk. I may be a judge, but a woman also. [Reading:]

Numerous complaints were made to me by the probation officers as to the bad habits of this boy and the contamination which he brought to other little boys shut in the house of detention for the first time. In December a particularly revolting story was told Mr. Charles Marshall, a probation officer in the juvenile court. Mr. Marshall was so concerned that he came to me and suggested that he might be able to have Senator Ball interest himself in having the menace of this child's presence removed from the house of detention. Having failed in every effort that I made myself, I told Mr. Marshall to take any means that he thought would be successful to interest anybody he felt would be interested in the case. I can not say whether Senator Ball ever did interest himself, but I do know that within three days the boy was released to us and after hearing was committed to the National Training School during minority. That boy was in the house of detention all that time contaminating all these other little boys in the most revolting way.

Mr. BLANTON. And you know all that by hearsay?
Miss SELLERS. I knew it was true.

Mr. BLANTON. You did not know it of your own knowledge?

Miss SELLERS. There are some things which I am told which I have to believe. I believe that the children are treated well. That is only hearsay, but I am willing to believe that hearsay. I believe that Mrs. Van Winkle has all those people properly fed, and that is only hearsay.

Mr. BLANTON. Just to show you what I am driving at, there came to the members of the committee, Judge Sellers, information that your dead sister's son, whom you have been taking care of, stayed out of school 31 days.

Miss SELLERS. No; that is the one thing he does not do.

Mr. BLANTON. That is what they claim, and that when they came to you to see you about it you said that it was not any of their business. We do not believe that about you. Did he stay out of school?

Miss SELLERS. No; he never was truant.

Mr. BLANTON. He never was out of school a day?

Miss SELLERS. Never without my knowledge. We never had any trouble about school attendance.

Mr. BLANTON. Did anybody come to see you about his coming to school?

Miss SELLERS. No. Mr. Blanton, I am going to report this matter to the Board of Education. It is an unfair case, and it is-

Mr. BLANTON (interposing). Was there any complaint made to you about the boy not coming to school?

Miss SELLERS. I am going to answer the question in my own way.. You are a gentleman, Mr. Blanton.

This boy is making a terrific struggle to get out of the 8-B grade. He loves to go to school; he does not mind it at all. He is a little bit ashamed that all the boys have gone on, but he does go to school. He is not very prompt in getting there. We lived in the country last year, and if we made the half past 7 train he was sure to arrive on time at school, but if we were a little late and did not make the right connection with the W. B. & A. and the Eleventh Street line, he would be late, and he was charged a good many times with being late after we went to the country. I wrote excuses for all that tardiness, and he was never absent except for the four or five days on account of sickness.

He was not absent 31 days, and anyone who told you that is a liar. Mr. BLANTON. Did you ever tell them that it was none of their business?

Miss SELLERS. No. If Mrs. Van Winkle

Mr. BLANTON (interposing). Mrs. Van Winkle had nothing to do with the information that came to us.

Miss SELLERS. Whenever this boy was late, I wrote an excuse for him. Many times I wrote the excuses when he did not need them. I would write, "We failed to get the half past seven train, and I am afraid Howard will be late this morning." It seems that after a while those excuses were not satisfactory, and when I wanted him to go to the summer school Miss La Salle refused him permission to go to the summer school because the summer school appropriated for is not run for backward pupils. It is not run to help the parent who is making an awful struggle to keep his child up in its studies.

I am glad to have a chance to say this publicly. I could not have done so for personal reasons, but you have removed them. The summer schools are not run for the children who need extra work. They are run for the child who gets on well and who has done well, but a boy who is behind and wants to catch up, as my nephew is, because he is an overgrown boy, is not taken care of. Miss La Salle refused to admit him to the summer school, at the Dennison School. This necessitated my paying $25 to Mr. Johnson, who was principal of one of the schools, for tutoring him in the summer.

I have had in mind the thought of calling attention to this state of affairs for some time, and I take this occasion to call your attention to it. I am not speaking so much for myself, because I can still pay another $25 for him and shall be glad to do it, but I am appealing to you now for the group of parents in this city who are not able to get their children coached at their own expense.

Mr. BLANTON. None of us who heard that paid any attention to it, because it was hearsay. I was asking you that to get your version of it. I do not hold those things against you.

Miss SELLERS. It was not fair for you to drag it into this hearing.

Mr. BLANTON. Some one not connected with the police bureau at all brought this information to me. You would be surprised if I told you from whom I got it. They claimed that you were ignoring the law by telling them it was none of their business.

Miss SELLERS. Well, now, if you will give me the name of that person I will sue that person for damages if they have any money. I do not have to prove damages. I hold a public office, and I do not have to prove damages, and if you will give me the name I will sue the person.

Now, I will take up my memorandum again, if you will be kind enough to permit me to do it, but I shall require from Miss La Salle and Miss Lackey, of the Dennison School, a plain statement of this whole case.

Mr. BLANTON. I was trying to impress upon you the importance of not putting in hearsay against somebody to whom it may do an injustice.

Miss SELLERS. I have not put in any hearsay.

Mr. BLANTON. Your talk with Mr. Marshall

Miss SELLERS (interposing). That is not hearsay; that is an official report made to me.

Mr. BLANTON. What I mean is that Mr. Marshall should testify under oath of these things. It is hearsay to us.

Miss SELLERS. You are unfair to me.

Mr. BLANTON. Well, I am trying to be fair to everybody. I want to be so fair to everybody that I do not want you to do an injustice to anyone else, nor do I want anyone to do you an injustice.

Miss SELLERS. I will stand by this. I may also take recourse to the courts.

I was about to say something nice about the house of detention when you interrupted me. [Reading:]

I acknowledge the house of detention has no terrors for the children of Washington, because they are treated kindly, fed and lodged decently—

And I believe there is one cook, and I do not know but what there are two, at $75 a month, and they ought to get good food on that. [Reading:]

I have no complaint as to the management of the house of detention. I believe the children are treated well. In the eyes of the police, however, there is no such thing as a “first offender," the person or child who is caught for the first time.

As I said before, all the boys are kept in one place and the girls in another without regard to the charge or character of the child or the fact that the child has never before been in the house of detention. [Reading :]

Prior to Mrs. Van Winkle taking charge of the house of detention, all children held by the police in the house of detention, without court order, were sent to the juvenile court every morning, and their cases were handled by the probation department.