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Teen Sent to Jail for a Month Because His Father Wouldn’t Give Him a Court-Ordered Beating
A 16-year-old who broke the law had his punishment changed after the original sentence couldn’t be completed
Examining every day news stories from our past immediately gives examples as to how much things have changed in our not too distant past. Prominent in this regard is the evolution of the criminal justice system. Less than a century ago, a 16-year-old boy was put in jail for a month because his father was unable to give him a beating that had been ordered by a judge as punishment for the boy violating the liquor law.
It was reported in 1931 that 16-year-old Harl Goin of Muskogee, Oklahoma got into big trouble. The young boy had been nabbed by police for being in violation of the Volstad act; specifically bootlegging and making his own hooch.
Hauled before Judge R.L. Williams, an arrangement was worked out where the teen’s father, H.F. Goin, promised he would whip his son if a jail sentence could at all be avoided. After all, he acknowledged that he had routinely beat the boy in the past with switches and bridle straps for various indiscretions. Perhaps seeing an opportunity to return disciplinary power back to the parent, the judge agreed to the violent…
