" Likewise, in Harwood v. State, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672, the Supreme Court of that state upheld an administrative transfer of a juvenile from a reformatory for girls to the State Penitentiary. It stated that the statute was for the purpose of enabling control of the incorrigible and was to protect the institution and its inmates, not add punishment.
3. Section 218.91 Code of Iowa 1971 does not violate either the due process or equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment to United States Constitution. See e.g. Sonnenberg v. Markley, 289 F.2d 126 (7th Cir. 1961); Arkadiele v. Markley, 186 F. Supp. 586 (S.D.Ind. 1960); Clay v. Reid, 173 F. Supp. 667 (D.D.C. 1959) appeal dismissed 106 U.S.App.D.C. 298, 272 F.2d 527 (1959); Harwood v. State, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672 (1947); Wilson v. Coughlin, 259 Iowa 1163, 147 N.W.2d 175 (1966). Contra, Shone v. State of Maine, 406 F.2d 844 (1st Cir. 1969); United States ex rel. Stinnett v. Hegstrom, 178 F. Supp. 17 (D.Conn. 1959); White v. Reid, 125 F. Supp. 647 (D.D.C. 1954); Boone v. Danforth, 463 S.W.2d 825 (S.Ct.Mo. 1971).
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the Court must assume the Attorney General will follow this interpretation. The transfer of a youth committed by Juvenile Court to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, as in Riley v. Pescor, D.C.Mo. 1945, 63 F. Supp. 1, may be justified under this view if the Center provides necessary medical facilities not otherwise available and special provision is made for training and treatment of the youth, if not physically incapacitated, similar to facilities available at the Training School. Cases such as Harwood v. State ex rel. Pillars, 1947, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672, holding a person committed by Juvenile Court to a State Vocational School may be transferred to the State Penitentiary, can only be reconciled on the theory that Juvenile Court proceedings there are criminal and penal in nature, since the statute there in question provided for transfer of any incorrigible girl over fifteen years of age "who was regularly convicted of a felony." From what has been stated, the District of Columbia Jail is not a proper place for the continued detention of petitioner. His detention there from April 23 to October 13, 1954, was lawful, since it arose out of criminal charges preferred against him in this Court.
We think it was clearly within the police power of the State to make provision for the transfer of unruly inmates from one institution to another where such transfer is not arbitrary or capricious but in the enforcement of reasonable discipline.Harwood v. State ex rel. Pillars, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672, 674-75 (1947); see also Long v. Langlois, 93 R.I. 23, 170 A.2d 618, 620 (1961) ("This statute, far from defeating the purpose of the juvenile court which is to reform minors brought before it, is designed to aid by giving the right to the assistant director of social welfare to transfer from the school those who, by their actions, are failing to reform and are hurting the rest of the school."). Absent such flexibility, the staff and residents of juvenile institutions are condemned to spend their days under the continuous threat of people like Monroe.
It is under this doctrine of "parens patriae" that most authorities have adjudged similar statutes as our own transfer statute valid and constitutional against attacks such as raised herein that such legislation is a violation of the due process clauses of the state and federal constitutions and of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. Others have ruled transfers of unruly inmates from one institution to another to be an exercise of the State's police power. See Sheehan, supra; Long v. Langlois, 1961, 93 R.I. 23, 170 A.2d 618; Harwood v. State, 1947, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672; Sonnenberg v. Markley, 1961, 7th Cir., 289 F.2d 126; Wilson v. Coughlin, 1966, Iowa, 147 N.W.2d 175. Cf., In re Rich, 1966, 125 Vt. 373, 216 A.2d 266.
(Emphasis added.) In Harwood v. State ex rel. Pillars, 184 Tenn. 515, 521, 201 S.W.2d 672, 674, this Court held that the provision in the Juvenile Court statute for the transfer of incorrigibles to the penitentiary "was a matter of wise administration of an institution erected for the betterment of wayward young people, and not an added punishment for crime." It follows that Hyatt could no more legally be held in the penitentiary after he reached his 21st birthday, than he could have been so held in the vocational school.
On the other hand, as many or more cases do permit transfers of this type. Among cases so holding are Harwood v. State ex rel. Pillars, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672 (1947); Sonnenberg v. Markley, 289 F.2d 126 (C.A. 7, 1961); Suarez v. Wilkinson, 133 F.Supp. 38 (D.C.Penn., 1955); Arkadiele v. Markley, 186 F.Supp. 586 (D.C. Ind., 1960); Clay v. Reid, 173 F.Supp. 667 (D.C.Dist. of Col., 1959); Wilson v. Coughlin, 259 Iowa 1163, 147 N.W.2d 175 (1966); Long v. Langlois, 93 R.I. 23, 170 A.2d 618 (1961). The New York lower courts are divided on this subject, as set forth in the opinion of In re Garrett, 74 Misc.2d 961, 346 N.Y.S.2d 651 (1973).
The above stated rule has been applied also to proceedings involving the revocation of a minor's parole, change of custody and removal from one institution to another, such as from reform school to a penitentiary. Erwin v. Williams, Tex. Civ. App., 253 S.W.2d 303, 305 (1952); In re O'Day, 83 Cal.App.2d 339, 189 P.2d 525 (1948); In re Hoskins, Tex. Civ. App., 198 S.W.2d 460 (1946); Harwood v. State ex rel. Pillars, 184 Tenn. 515, 201 S.W.2d 672, 674 (1947). It likewise has been held that the constitutional guarantee of indictment by a Grand Jury does not apply to delinquency proceedings in a court which deals with the juvenile as a delinquent. Ex parte Januszewski, 6 Cir., 196 F. 123 (1911); State v. Goldberg, 124 N.J.L. 272, 11 A.2d 299 (1940); Childress v. State, 133 Tenn. 121, 179 S.W. 643 (1915); State ex rel. Roberts v. Johnson, 196 Iowa 300, 194 N.W. 202, 203 (1923).