In Re Carey

Betty Carey, in whose behalf this proceeding is instituted, was, by a judgment of the police court of the city and county of San Francisco, committed to the California Industrial Farm for Women in conformity with the provisions of section 8 of an act establishing said farm. (Stats. 1919, p. 246.) She will be referred to in this opinion as the petitioner.

An ordinance of said city and county provides as follows:

The petitioner was convicted of the offense denounced in said ordinance, and upon appearing for sentence the following judgment was entered:

The petitioner is detained at said farm under said judgment on a commitment that amounts, in effect, to an indeterminate sentence. She claims that the judgment in question is void, and she assigns in support of this contention a number of reasons, among which are that it is beyond the jurisdiction of the police court to sentence a defendant to the farm upon an indeterminate sentence, which might amount to a detention for the period of five years; that the punishment is cruel and unusual; that the act is discriminatory in that it applies only to women and that the legislature cannot, by general enactment, modify an ordinance of said…