Assistant Secretary Prison Association of New York.
_The Walled City._--Edward Huntington Williams, M. D., New York, 1913,
Frank & Wagnalls Company. Pp. 263. Price $1.00.
The general public looks upon a convict with a certain amount of fear.
The word criminal is awe-inspiring. But the idea of the insane criminal
is more than that; it is replete with the vague terror of the weird
and unknown. People have in recent years come to consider the criminal
with a little better understanding; but the “insane criminal” has
retained its full quota of terror. Perhaps there was good reason for
that. The older ways of handling both the insane and the criminal were
very well calculated to bring forth the worst there was in them. But
no one could probably read the “Walled City,” without experiencing a
complete change of attitude towards the inmates of institutions for
the criminal insane. They are primarily men, these unfortunates with
hopes and plans, with differences in personality, education, tastes,
relations, in all things that make for the differences among man and
man in the normal outside life. And yet, there is a “kink” in every
man; an innocent kink generally, yet a “kink” to be reckoned with. It
makes things interesting, yet delicate and difficult to handle. “Every
man in his kink” we might paraphrase Ben Jonson.
One gets from the book a feeling almost of old association. It is all
told in a pleasant, almost anecdotal form. The reader feels himself
introduced to citizen after citizen of the walled city and passes
through the book as if in a series of personal conversations with its
inmates. The author’s sympathy and understanding for his words speaks
from every line. And yet when we close the book, we are surprised at
how much we have learned. We have been given scientific, correct,
technical information without knowing it; the book had done what it was
evidently meant to do.
* * * * *
_Hell in Nebraska._--Walter Wilson, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1913. The
Bankers Publishing Company. Pp. 372. Price $1.00.
If individuality in a man means the possession of decided and highly
developed qualities, both good and evil, and if books also may be
said to have individualities on the same basis, then the present book
has a valid claim to the distinction of possessing a goodly amount of
individuality. From the title,--and from the illustrations on both
covers,--one would be justified in expecting a horrible revelation of
fiendish cruelties practiced in the Nebraska Penitentiary. But it is
simply another indication of the “yellow journal” style that pervades
the whole book. In fact, were it not for the thorough knowledge of
conditions, evidenced throughout, one might very easily take the
volume for a reporter’s paraphrase of a few selected annual reports
of the penitentiary. It is full of inside personal information, of
interest to nobody but the friends, relatives and enemies of the
persons concerned. But there is a good deal of real good common sense
and practical penology, that comes from a sympathetic yet rational
observation, and from continued activity in the field. If the language
is too strong at spots, and the emotions unrestricted, it may well be
excused as being the result of righteous indignation, coupled with a
sense for journalism and strong feeling for friend and foe--and also an
invincible belief in one’s own righteousness. Incidentally, however,
the book gives really valuable information of the conditions in the
Nebraska Penitentiary.
* * * * *
_Measures of Social Defence Against the Recidivist._--This was one of
the three questions discussed by the International Union of Criminal
Law at its congress in Copenhagen in August, 1913. A masterly report
on the subject was submitted by Prof. Nabokoff, and after a spirited
discussion by many of the leading authorities of Europe on criminal
law, the following resolutions were adopted by the congress:
1. That system of procedure which combines the requirements of an
objective scale of proof of recidivism with subjective judgment of the
particular case in question and thereupon adjudges the said criminal
a habitual recidivist, dangerous to the social order, should be
recognized as the most rational.
2. The exclusion of the political criminal seeming inevitableness,
they made the acsures of social security, applicable to habitual
recidivists, are directed is a just and necessary proviso.
3. The minimum term to be pronounced against such recidivist at the
time of his trial shall be at least as great as the term to which he
would be sentenced if he were not adjudged a habitual recidivist; but
it may be greater by not more than two years.
A special commission shall, at the expiration of such minimum, decide
whether such prisoner shall be liberated or further detained. In
the latter case the prisoner shall have the right to have his case
reconsidered at intervals of two years. (It is understood that the
judge sentences such recidivist to an indefinite period of which he
fixes the minimum, but not the maximum).
4. The Congress is not agreed as to whether the period of preventive
detention pronounced against the recidivist shall follow the period of
punishment or take its place.
* * * * *
_The IKV, Anniversary Number._--To celebrate the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the establishment of the “Internationale
Kriminalistische Vereinigung,” a special number was issued in
January of this year. It contains, in addition to the history of its
establishment, a symposium as to the effect that its activities
have had on the development of the problem of delinquency in its
various phases, and in the various countries. The contribution for the
United States is written by Prof. Charles R. Henderson of the Chicago
University. Most characteristic of the spirit of the IKV is perhaps the
paragraph in the introduction to the anniversary number, that reads as
follows: “This volume should be a milestone in this sense also, that
it shall define the program of the future activities of the Union. In
addition to such legal questions as the regulation of international
extradition, restitution instead of punishment, and the diminution of
the concept of the punishment by imprisonment as the ultima ratio in
the struggle against crime, the Union shall pay more attention to the
sociological aspect of crime.”
* * * * *
_The Four Gunmen._--Under this title Winthrop D. Lane writes in the
Survey of April 4th about the social history of the four unfortunate
young fellows who were executed at Sing Sing on April 13th. Mr. Lane
found on careful investigation that all four came from “decent”
families; that their career of crime started apparently from street
life and its temptations; that each of the four had a previous
correctional institution record; that they each started their
lawbreaking career early; that the early years of each seem to have
been normal and straightforward, giving no hint of the direction later
conduct was to take. “One by one, through disease, going to school, or
going to work, they came into contact with the abnormal street life
of a crowded and heterogeneous community. Their youth demanded play
and excitement, and they sought these where they were easiest to find.
Gradually, but with seeming inevitableness, they made the acquaintance
of older boys and men who had mastered the trick of turning an easy
dollar.... Their own entrances into crime were gradual, beginning in
all but one case with petty attempts while they were still in their
teens to get spending money easily.... Whatever help there may be in
probation and suspended sentence was not extended to them.”