In Re Black

CRAIG, J.

The petitioner, Anna Black, is detained in the Ventura County detention home. She seeks to be released upon

habeas corpus.

It appears that on August 1, 1928, a verified petition was filed by the probation officer of Ventura County, in the superior court, averring said Anna Black to be a person under the age of twenty-one years, and that she was then leading a dissolute and immoral life, and praying that she be adjudged a ward of the juvenile court; that on the second day of August, 1928, that court made an order committing her to the Ventura School for Girls. She was placed in that institution and remained there until October 5, 1928. On the third day of October she filed a verified application in the superior court for a writ of

[404]

habeas corpüs.

The writ was issued and made returnable October 5th, at which time she was ordered released and discharged. This order was made because it appeared that the proceedings up to that time had been defective in that no proper findings had been made by the court before ordering the minor committed and depriving her parents of her custody.

Immediately thereafter, and on October 5, 1928, the district attorney of Ventura County filed another petition to have Anna Black adjudged a ward of the juvenile court. She was thereupon committed to the detention home, where she still remains.

In the oral argument before this court, as well as in petitioner’s briefs, the principal reliance is placed upon section 1387 of the Penal Code.

The charge of delinquency is not a criminal charge.

{In re Brodie,

33 Cal. App. 751 [166 Pac. 605];

In re Tahbel,

46 Cal. App. 755 [189 Pac. 804].) Viewed as a matter within the scope of the act under which the proceeding here in question is prosecuted, it is neither a misdemeanor nor a felony. The effect of a discharge of one complained against under the Juvenile Court Act is provided for in the act itself. This indicates an intention upon the part of the legislature that the ordinary provisions of the Penal Code relating to such matters, among which are the sections cited by counsel for petitioner, should not govern.