"D'you mind if I ask some questions?" he said.
"Go ahead, Your Grace. If I can't answer 'em, I'll say so."
"Thanks. First off, I'll tell you what I _do_ know--get my own
knowledge of the background straight, so to speak. Now, as I
understand it, the courts have agreed--temporarily, at least--that any
person convicted of certain types of crimes must undergo a psychiatric
examination before sentencing. Right?"
"That's right."
"Then, depending on the result of that examination, the magistrate of
the court may sentence the offender to undertake psychiatric therapy
instead of sending him to a penal institution, such time in therapy
not to exceed the maximum time of imprisonment originally provided for
the offense under the law.
"His sentence is suspended, in other words, if he will agree to the
therapy. If, after he is released by the psychiatrists, he behaves
himself, he is not imprisoned. If he misbehaves, he must serve out the
original sentence, plus any new sentence that may be imposed. Have I
got it straight so far?"
"Perfectly."
"As I understand it, you've had astounding success." He looked, in
spite of what he had said about skepticism, as though he thought the
reports he'd heard were exaggerated.
"So far," I said evenly, "not a single one of our 'patients' has
failed us."
He looked amazed, but he didn't doubt me. "And you've been in
operation for how long?"
"A little over a year since the first case. But I think the record
will stand the same way five, ten, fifty years from now.
"You see, Your Grace, we don't _dare_ lose a man. If one of our tame
zanies goes haywire again, the courts will stop this pilot project
_fast_. There's a lot of pressure against us.
"In the first place, we only work with repeaters. You know the type.
The world is full of them. The boys that are picked up over and over
again for the same kind of crime."
He nodded. "They're the ones we wait for. The ones we catch, convict,
and send to prison--and then wait until they get out, and then wait
some more until they commit their next crime, so that we can catch
them and start the whole cycle over again."
"That's them," I said. "When they're out, they're just between crimes,
that's all. And that puts the police in a hell of a position, doesn't
it? You _know_ they're going to fall again; you know that they're
going to rob, or hurt, or kill someone. But there's nothing you can
do about it. You're helpless. No police force has enough men to enable
a cop to be assigned to every known repeater and follow him night and
day.
"In this state, if a man is convicted of a felony for a fourth time, a
life sentence is mandatory. _But that means that at least four victims
have to be sacrificed before the dangerous man is removed from
society!_"