JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT AND PAROLE BOARD

In 1946, Charlottesville's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Phil Grove,
assisted by a probation officer, held court in a room on 5th St. NE, next to
City Hall. The need for professionally trained social workers to help juvenile
offenders was recognized, but before the funding for their services was
available, the city used the staff of the Welfare Dept. to assist parolees and
probationers.

Public Health Nurse, Anna Decker, shown here consulting the wife of a parolee,
was noted for her advocacy of humane treatment of parolees and their families.
She and other local social workers believed that a parole board that advised,
protected and provided a nurturing environment could replace the unwholesome
influences from which most parolees suffered, and, thereby, rehabilitation could
be achieved. She and the City Welfare Board advocated some kind of boarding
houses where juvenile offenders could be cared for in small groups, to replace
the jails and their punitive treatment.


Phil Grove, judge of the Juvenile and Domestic Court, according to his eulogy,
"was hardly a judge at all in the commonly accepted meaning of the word, but
rather a partisan advocate of the men and women and especially of the boys and
girls whose troubles brought them before him. It was his job to help them if he
could find a way, and only to apply the penalties of the law when no alternative
could be found." Grove was a leader in the Lions Club, the city recreation
department, the Salvation Army, Workshop for the Blind, and the Albemarle
Council of Social Agencies.

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