Eleven Years Old, and Out of Promises
A Tacoma police sergeant's stepson confesses to a string of robberies. A Seattle judge sends him to the Chehalis reformatory — after Tacoma courts had twice taken the boy's word that he would be good.
SEATTLE, Feb. 16. — Eugene Alter, an 11-year-old Tacoma boy who confessed in court to numerous robberies, was sentenced to the Chehalis home for defective youths by Judge Frater.
The lad, who is a stepson of a former Tacoma police sergeant, was arrested last week charged with complicity in the theft of a valuable diamond pin from the safe of a First Avenue jewelry store.
In court it was brought out that young Alter had on several occasions been implicated in crimes in Tacoma for which he had been excused by judges in that city on his promise to be "a good boy."
“Young Alter had on several occasions been implicated in crimes in Tacoma for which he had been excused by judges in that city on his promise to be "a good boy."”
The "home for defective youths" at Chehalis is today's Green Hill School, still the state's secure juvenile facility — the same institution, a very different vocabulary. The story is an early draft of an argument Washington is still having: whether a child is a small offender to be corrected or a child to be kept out of a cell. An 11-year-old who had already exhausted three courts' worth of second chances is the case that argument always comes down to.
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