11 N.Y. Crim. 346 | New York Court of General Session of the Peace | 1896
On the 12th of March, 1896, the defendant, Lucy Poly, a girl of the age of fifteen years, was committed "by Magistrate Robert C. -Cornell to the Protestant Episcopal House of Mercy, under a judgment of commitment, on the ground that said Lucy Poly had been found in a house of reputed prostitution, associating with vicious and dissolute persons. From this judgment of commitment the. present appeal is taken.
It appears that on the 11th day of March, 1896, the said
“Any -child, actually or apparently under the age of sixteen years, found frequenting or being in the company of reputed thieves or prostitutes, or in a reputed house of prostitution or assignation, or living in -such a house, either with or without its parents or guardian, must be arrested and brought before a proper court or magistrate, who may commit the child to any incorporated charitable, reformatory or other institution, and when practicable, to such as is governed by persons of the same
By the terms of section 1466 of the consolidation act, it is provided that:
“When it shall be proved to the satisfaction of a committing magistrate in the city of New York 'that any female over the age of twelve years is found in a reputed house of prostitution or assignation, or in company with or frequenting the company of thieves or prostitutes, or is found associating with vicious or dissolute persons, or is willfully disobedient to parent or guardian, such magistrate may adjudge that it is for the welfare of such female that she be placed in a reformatory, and may thereupon commit such female to one of the following reformatory institutions, namely: The Protestant Episcopal House nf Mercy, the Roman Catholic House of the Good Shepherd, or the Magdalen Female Benevolent Asylum and Home of Fallen Women, which said institutions are hereby severally authorized to receive and hold females committed under this act,”
Subdivision 2 of section 1466 of the consolidation act provides:
“Whenever any of such institutions is unable for any reason to receive females or any class of females committed under this act, it shall be the duty of such institutions to forthwith notify the committing magistrates in the city of New York as to what class or classes of females can be received by such institution and as to what class or classes cannot be received by such institution.”
Subdivision 3 of section 1466 provides that:
“Commitments made under this act shall state the name and age of the female so committed together with the cause of her commitment and shall designate the institution to which she is committed Which institution shall, when practicable, be one which is conducted by persons of the same religious faith as such female.”
The judgment appealed from must therefore be reversed, and an order entered directing the defendant to be committed to the House of the Good Shepherd. Ordered accordingly.,