Evening Star Newspaper, September 16, 1926, Page 4

neg ™ WEAK IDENTIFICATION METHODS AN AID TO CONF IRMED CRIMINAL Many Get Light Sentences as First Offend- ers Because O‘E Inadequate Records—Case Histories Scattered Article IX. . | BY LOUIS SEIBOLD. the dikes of crime Searchers for leaks in through which a flood pouring on the country are turn to the question of facilities for identi fying offende It is recognized that police officers, prosecutors and jud are under a great handicap in noth ing proper information regarding : cused men brought before them To meet this situation in New Y & central bureau of criminal ide cation is to be established at Albany | under an act ed by the Leg 1l be at the dis-| police in New | ful to other | courts and at-| ),000 records h ] | ng York. It may als States and to Fede torneys. Already. been turned over reau. At the present time records in New York City are scattered among 13 dif- | ferent official agencies. Several v ago Acting Mayor Hulbert appointed | a committee to consider a proposal for | a central bureau of criminal records | for this city. Supreme Court Justice McGoldrick” w chairman_of that | committee and Chief Justice Frederic Kernochan of the Special -Session Court was secretary. The latter dr up a plan for establishing such a bu reau. No action was ever taken on this plan until Mayor Walker reas sembled the committee recent Favored by Offi Robert Appleton, chairman of the prison committee of the Association of Grand Jurors; Justice Kernochan, | Police Commissioner lLZ!nH_).‘ members of courts in this| city, District Banton and others wected with the - | tion of criminal law are known to fa vor th hment was urged ¢ because of the new pre-bail fingerprinting compul Conside! "l(i (Inhh.! slaced by students of the crime :lln‘npuu he fact that :-Ion_wvu (h‘j‘ signed to apply_to first offenders is} extended to confirmed and dangerous riminals. g 8o judges may restrict the benefits emency to genuine first offende must have before them when | passing sentence the criminal hl:vhvl'_\’ the nceused. The eseablishment of State, municipal and even a Federa! bureau of identification and the free interchange of information vaM\ fl[‘\‘ cuch bureaus will enable the judges to B isions with much more re gard for the true history of the man about to be With_fing sory befor s hope ‘ ge:{»«vr:n‘.x offenders who will as likely S hot jump thelr bail, or at least tend the time before trial | rongh money to pay for a high-priced | Jawyer who can extract them from their difficulties. Tt will also assure the proper sentencing of confirmed criminals. Rearrested While on Bail. Gew York County during the | first s months of last year 42 men were rearrested while out on bail, three of them for homicide. g An example of what the criminal es while out on bail is supplied in of Thomas J. McCarthy, now in Sing Sing for forsery. McCarthy was arrested in 1900 while engaged in the badger game. In 1901 he was arrested In New York for grand la \ceny and sentenced to 10 years at Elmira. Four later he was ar- rested in Jersey Cify for grand lurceny and sentenced to six months in the Hudson County Penitentiar In 1906 he was ar e in New York again. Judge Greenbaum sent him to Sing Sing for nin In 1914 he was sentenced to a year for petit larceny. In 1916 he was arrest- ed for tampering with post office money orde two years for playing but was released on appeal. In 1923 he w quitted of forgery Two month: Miller to the Albany bu- als. plan. doubly State been | itua- | of they sentenced. rinting de compul ntencing bailing of m In ¥ | sent aw | pened only | for robbery. | tigation. | ficials to be a step in the Among 13 Agencies. of Queens dischal | ed extortion. In 1924 he was arr 1in Philadelphia for blackmail. | months later he was convicted of cen- =pi in Boston and released on a “writ of app ‘[ Big Bond Haits Release. | On June 2 last year he v rrested lin New York again for forgery. The | charge was dismissed, but when the | grand jury found an | was rearrested. He as released on $15,000 bail. While out on bail he continued his favorite practice of cash- ing forged checks and was again ap- prehended. Judge Talley set bail this time at $40,000 and McCarthy was unable to raise the sum. His lawyer eventually effected a re duction of ball to §10,000 by appealing to another jud McCarthy set to work again. Within 48 hours he was presenting checks at a prominent Broadway bank, where he was once ain arrested. This time he was clapped into jail without bail, and when he finally came up for trial he received eight s in these cases had had 1 proper records of Mc- past offenses against ty almost certainly have been long term before this, As it W fingerprints were un ailable, and when they finally were | taken in New York they were of little | use, since there existed no central | office to which they could be sent for comparison with the records of known offenders. . A drug peddler was caught in thej meshes of the law in January last. e received a short sentence as a first offender. Following his sentence, his back trail was scrutinized. Record Found Too Late. Put together, the record of his of- fenses, all having to do with the smug- gling and sale of drugs, showed that he had been convicted 30 times in va- rious parts of the country. If thi information had been ble to the district attorney of New York Coun- ty when he was last convicted, this habitual eriminal could have been sent au 'or a long time and society pro- tected from his aggressions. There is another c which hap- few weeks ago: Joseph Bravata arraigned be- fore County Judge Taylor in Brooklyn “The record submitted by the district attorney showed that Bra- vata had never been in trouble before. The court was not satisfied with the evidence and ordered a_further inves- This disclosed that Bravata had heen previously convicted. There- upon Judge Taylor changed the origi- nal sentence from 20 to 40 vears. In doing so, he said: You lied to the court. T am going to send you where only the governor can disturb you, and I hope he nev does.” The establishing of a central bureau of criminal identification at Albany is admitted by police and prosecuting of- ight dires tion. Criminal Trail Buried. A study of 171 cases taken from of- ficial records by the writer provides antial proof of the necessity for rd. Of these 137 police authorities prosecuting off did not know of the previous activities of professional crimi caught by the law and sentenced as first offend- ers. The use of aliases, substitution of wrong addresses, withholding of infor- mation by lawyers representing the criminals and general lack of police cfficiency were clearly revealed in each of these situations. In a great many of them, the police and prosecuting of- ficlals, presumably for lack of finan- cial means and other facilities, made no attempt to go back over the trafl of the criminals. Competent authorities believe that it would be comparatively easy to f low up the record of a professi minal hetween the time of hi: ind the ultimate ¢ ed him for attempt- | indictment he | THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTOM !me, Except "in rare instances of lerimes of major importance, consider- able time elapses hetween the sum- mons, arrest, arraignment, indictment, | jtrial and sentence of . the criminal, | who, until finally sent away, is admit. | ted to bail pending the exigencies of appeal and other obstructive methods of procedure. Like Ships in Fog. In his last annual report covering | the work of the city magistrate’s courts, Chief Magistrate McAdoo paid particular attention to the confusion resulting from inadequate records. He said that many cases “after they have passed from us are Jike ships that dis- appear in the fog. Wisconsin has now provided that { fingerprints may be taken before sen- tence for the purpose of checking up on past offepses. North Carolina, Oklahoma, Vermont and Michigan now have State hureaus with files of fingerprints, record cards, photo- igraphs and other identifying mate- rial concerning felons. The records of men convicted outside the States are included in these files when ob- tainabl The California Bureau of Criminal Identification reported at one time that of the 48,672 fingerprint records received over a two-year period, were those of second offende: tenced as first offendars. vear more than 26 per cent of the 1 delinquents who were finger- printed were identified as old offen- Welfare Workers' Views. s Perl- | man, direct sh Board of | Guardians, have Contributed their | views to the Evening Post symposium on criminal conditions. These three social workers were in almost com- plete agreement regarding reforms needed. Mr. Cooley said: “There is a star- tling nced for the study of crime and for the reorganization of a criminal | code which has become not only an- | tiquated but ineffective. g “In_its present state the criminal code gives too ample opportunity for the destructive rantings not only of the sentimentalist but also of the in- dividual who believes that all crime will be eradicated by making our pun- ishments more barbarous and our prisons more terrible. There is need for the rational, scientific compre- hension of the criminal character and | a4 common sense disposition of the delinquent, based not so much on the character of the offense as on the haracter of the offender No real solution of the crime prob- lem can be found. until offictats eon cerned with the administration of the | law and the treatment of criminals take a new attitude toward the causes of crime. The inefliciency of the police, the unwieldiness of the courts, the perfunctory and dilatory attitude | of public prosecutors, and the cod- dling of some prisoners may play a | part in the spread of crime, but they are secondary causes only. i Many Cases Analyzed. _“To explain by the economic tion or the legal the main point. To attribute the con- duct of a defective repeated offender to a lax administration of the present criminal law is no less ridiculous. Thé Catholic Charities Probation Bu. | reau has examined about 2,000 in- of serious delinquency. The of all these crimes had, resultant of their varied experi- ences, formulated heliefs which per- mitted them to lead an anti-social life. “Some through their entire lives had come in contact with little other than the destructive influence which civilization may provide, and had found in poverty, evil associates and lack of education—secular, moral and religious—powe than them- tua- stem is to miss show | mation, should be segregate connected with mental clinic: |and then treated. selves, which somehow guided them tc the point where to commit crime was not difficult. Others, reared in sim- ilar adverse conditions, were handl- capped with mental defects which brought them under the dothiRation of ideas of lawlessness. “Others weighed carefully the pos- sibility of detection and punishment against the rewards they expected to win Dy their crimes. They ' finally committed the criminal act coldly, deliberately and with full apprecia- tion of its moral aspects. But what- {ever the genesis of their criminal ca- reers, they had all arrived at conclu- | sions’ in respect to the relative values of lawfulness and lawlessness which had influenced them to elect evil. Segregation Needed. ““Segregation of the non-reformable criminal is necessary Jor’socfal pro- tection. To incarceraté the habitual offender for a certain period and then to release him to prey en society cain is a social crime. A continuous cycle of offenses and imprisonments is indefensible. Present jail methods are useless so far as improvement in the crim- inal's character goes. Reformatories fail to reform and penitentiaries make nobody penitent. Recidivism, the re- turn to criminal life, may be reduced by the application of individualized treatment in jails. Segregation is necessary, but should be scientific. Only such men as exhaustive study to be hopelessly beyond refor- nd they should be kept from society as long |as they remain dangerous. For the benefit of the reformable | eriminal, however, much can be done. By proper use of probation bureaus the re- diagnosed Confinement should be curative, not punitive, and should end not by the calendar, but when the cure is complete.” Possibilities in Schools. Mr. Perlman said: *“‘Any attempt to solve the crime situation through a formable criminal can be | strong-handed administration of jus- tice in the courts, or even through a | wise and well organized parole s; tem, is by the very nature of things bound to be superficial, because those we have to deal with are men and women steeped in habits formed and fixed over a long period of life. The placs to begin is with the children. ““While it may be true that the home is a good deal at fault, no way has been discovered, or is likely to be discovered, to make home atmosphere what it ought to be if it is not that already. The school, however, if it could relinquish its formal attitude ind the sacredness of its cu and if it would undertake t children, might easily preventive Social agenc ng to do thi v cannot all the children, and even those ach can be dealt with only suh the limitations of funds pri athered. present system of prison ad tion mak the after care of 1a very precarious task. Wrong Basis for Laws. “So long as the courts consider the offense and not the offender, the whole philosophy of our prison system must remain fal is given one kind of sentence, whereas he steals §55 he is given quite a rent kind of sentence. ‘Yet it stands to rea man who steals $: done it under the stress of a sudden situation, whereas the man who stole 5 might easily be a conmfirmed If the offender ‘instead of se were treated, the prison ave to devote itself to the in problem cf each individual study its e d there he would dividual would be no such idiotic ef- we now make to ‘cure’ crimi nals by wholesale. The idea that we '2.50 will Lv. Washington, Union Station . ncing. When cold cosily warm, and when warm on lightfully cool. BELECTRICALLY fruitful and compensating. For tickets and additional info H Street N.W., Unlon Station or 7 S. E. Burgess, Div. P: Special train, consisting of first-cla EXCURSION TO NEW MARKET, VA. (For Endless Caverns) Sunday, September 19th, 1926 coaches and parlor car, 1 on the outside th the outside these LIGHTED. A re de- it is always ormation, see Ticket Agents, 1510 th Street Station S.W. SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM . Agent Washington, D. C. SUG inority atyla.” It shown in array tones pari favored t son, at SIDNEY of The Dunlap label in the “METRO- POLITAN” is au- for its is being a wide color ticularly his sea- $8.00. WEST D. C. THURSDAY, 0 | can rectify a man life by ai ing him en masse is too obviousl | scientific to bear mention. Further- more, the idea of making the length of a man’s stay in prison depend on his_conduct in the prison instead of on his ability to adjust himself to life | outside of the prison means that we {are constantly turning out criminals { Who are shrewd enough to behave { themselves inside the prison walls and { who are no more entitled to be free men in the community than a vio- lently insane patient. Not Coddling Criminal “The charge that is made against social workers that they are attempt- ing to coddle the criminal is ridicu- lous. Social workers are proposing that criminals who are unadjustable to normal community life be detained in prison, if need be, for the rest of their [ive “It is the criminal court judge who coddles the criminal when in an at- tempt to be severe he imposes a 10- year sentence on a thief who is almost certain to continue his thieving the moment his sentence has finished. “In the attempt to do proper after- care work with men who have left prison it is hopeless to expect that any work of lasting effegt will be done when private agencies, hampered by lack of funds, have to carry on as they are now. It'is not an unusual thing for one man to be attempting to ad- just the lives of 150 former prisoners because the funds to pay adequate salaries to properly trained men are not at hand.” Three Causes Listed. Capt. Sheppard said: “In my opinion the basic causes for the recent unprecedented spread of crime are three in number. First, there appears to be a complete loss of parental recognition of their responsf bility for the moral and ethical train- {ing of their children. “Secondly, the loss of respect personal religion and the laws has led to loss of respect for the laws of men. And thirdly, the former tors have resulted in a growing des to live without hard work and to pos- sess the means to secure ev of luxury. “Life in America has almost com- pletely changed its character since our civil and criminal codes were adopted. The overloading of the tem and of so with a lot of e~ less and unworkable has made the work of criminal courts nearly impossible to handle. “Evidence is not wanting ti of our public servants duty it is to uphold bribes for the protection of crime and criminals, and when money once has polluted the police or the court spect for law is difficult to maint: Underpaid public servants are alway: open v severe temptatton, and if we wish them to resist we must pay them enough to live decently. Anti-Gun Law’s Failure. “The pistol and the gun are two of the practical difficultics which must be dealt with. Our anti-gun law has failed completely in doing what w: expected of it. Only the lawabiding citizen_respects it. The automobile s afforded 2 new means of unli- ensed_adventure to the youth of to day. Its part in crime is known to ny one who reads the newspavers Take a the gun and the automo- bile and you cut crime to half. “The present generation seems to e beyond change. But in the future fathers and mothers must have a last ing vision of their responsibilit their children. The school and the church also have important parts to The juvenile courf and the must be reorganized to meet present- day conditions, he ref - FOR L W | 1416 FOR SALE 55-ft. Lot, K St., west of Conn. Ave.. . $18,500 35-ft. Lot, K St., near Wash. Circle, $2.50 sq. ft. 99.ft. Lot, Cal. St., near Mass. Ave. . . . $3 sq. ft. 60-acre Farm, near Burnt Mills. 53-acre Farm, near' White Oak . Small Lot, 18th St., near K . . . Near 9th and H N.E., 18-ft. Lot. . GROOMES SEPTEMBER 16, 1926. ————— e ——————— | lin VETERAN IS HELD oner. Hle was arrested tn JAPANESE VISITORS RECEIVED BY WILBUR Nine Business and Professional Men Are Spending Several Days in Study Here. Nine Japanese, representing three different businesses and as many pro- fessions and the Y. M. C. A., were re- ceived at the Navy Department today by Seécretary Wilbur, later at the United States Chamber of Commerce Hy Elliott H. Goodwin, executive vice president, and then made a general sightseeing tour of _Washington. They were accompanied by Willjam Knowles Cooper, general secretary of the local Y. M. C. A.; Leonard W. De Gast, associate general secretai and other representatives of the Asso- ciation. The visitors arrived here at am. today. The trip to the United States has been made to enable the members of the party to exchange ideas and opin- fons with leaders in the religious and business world of this countr; Those in the party include: Tora- taro Suzuki, lumber merchant; Yoshio Shimoide, coal merchant; Kiyoshi Ito and Koji Irie, engineers; Rikichi Yamada and Zenpei Yoshida, cotton and textile manufacturers; Saburo Kitamu pharmacist; Yoshitaro Miyagawa, photographer, and Kenzo Masuda, general secretary of the Nagoya Y. M. C. A, Mr. Suzuki is accompanied by his daughter. Besides the visits to the Navy De- partment and the Chamber of Com- merce the day’s program fncludes visits to the Pan-American Union, the National Academy of Sciences, Lin- coln Memorial, Washington Monu- ment, a reception at the Japanese Em- bassy, a visit to the central branch of the Y. M. C. A. and dinner at the Lee House. Tomorrow the visitors will see the Bureau of Standards, Smithsor stitution, National ~Museum, Gallery, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Engraviig and Printing, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldie and Arlington. In the afternoon they will be taken to Mount Vernon. They will remain in Washington until Sat- urday 1 Paid for Knowledge. From the Outlook Magazine. A hine of the Maine Central Railroad broke down. The operator, the foreman, and the plant engineer could not start it. The expert took one quick look at the machine, tapped it several times with a hammer and told the operator to start it His bill was for § ‘When the supe tendent asked for an itemized statement he got this: Tapping with a hammer Knowing where to tap . 8 249 Total.. ini- ns. serving as ‘prep’ schools for our versities of crime, the State pr Loose or unscientific classification mixes first offenders, who might be saved, with hardened and habitual felons, A complete reorganization is needed, including thé further recogni- tion and use of the new developments in the mental sciences. When this is achieved we will have gone a long way toward providing means for clear- ing up the crime situation. 6.1 .. $17,500 ..$20,000 ...$8,500 .. $12,500 F St New Address—612 13th St. | (Bet. F and G Sts.—West Side) ‘ Store Hours, 8:15 A.M. to 6 P.M. 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