Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-14
FATE 0F CRIMINALS,
Judge Whitman Favors Life Im-
 prisonment For HabituaIs.
TOO MUCH SYMPATHY WASTED
Reform of FeIons Over Thirty Is im- possible, Claims New York Jurist. Urges Removing Crimes Causes and Less Reformation.

Urges Removing Crimes Causes ane
 Less Reformation.
 Judges, lawyers and students ol
 criminology have been commenting
 upon the stand taken by Charles S
 Whitman, recently judge of the court
 of general sessions in New York, who
 not only says that either death or life
 imprisonment should be the sentence
 for habitual criminals, but also de
 clares that too much sympathy is
 wasted upon criminals of both sexes
 Judge Whitman, who is generally re
 garded as the deepest student of crim
 inology in New York city, in discussing
 his views with a reporter of the New
 York Herald asserted that the cases of
 criminals reforming after having reach.
 ed the age of thirty are practically un.
 heard of things.
 State prison should not be confound-
 ed with reformatories, he says, and,
 while the latter do good and have some
 effect in reforming young prisoners,
 criminals who are sent to penitentiaries
 come out far more vicious and danger
 ous than when they were sentenced.
 They have gained shrewdness, and a
 man who has prison record is of far
 more danger to the community than
 xx,t, hoc
 bars.
 The way to eliminate crime, Judge
 Whitman says, is to eliminate crimi- nals. The laws should be made more drastic, for every year it is getting harder and harder to punish prisoners guilty of the crimes for which they were arrested.
 In speaking of the causes of crime and the making of criminals the jurist declares that the low pay of women in the shops in New York city has had much to do with their downfall. Bet ter wages would take away many of their temptations. In summing up the situation he said:
 'It is getting harder and harder ev- cry day to bring the criminal to proper punishment. I do not believe this to be the fault of the jury system, for that seems about as satisfactory an arrange ment as we can get. It is the fault of the people themselves. We are too lenient, too good natured, too prone to look lightly, not to say with some amusement, on the offender, and of course this is the charitable view, and the man who holds 1t lays the flatter- ing unction to his soul that he is a good fellow sympathizer with the frailties of fellow humans. The man who so argues makes the mistake of his life.
 Let the burglar or the murderer or offender of any sort who has commit ted a crime of any moment be sent to the Tombs, and it's only few days before he comes to feel he's a hero and perfectly entitled to the sympathy and the flowers and tho tokens that begin to flow in from the sentimental as soon as the facts become public and he has gained his little newspaper notoriety. Maudlin sentimentality Is aroused. The criminal gets his picture in the pa pers. He is celebrity. His cause is furthered by the popular ideas that find expressions in the newspapers. the magazines and the theaters. There is a romanticism clinging about him which is absent from the life of the well ordered
 "The tardiness of trying prisoners is responsible for a great many of the acquittals. for the misplaced sympathy of the public has had a chance to grow to proportions sufficient to offset the terrifying aspects of crime. This must always be so under the present system of delay in trials, for which the district | attorney of this county is in no way re- sponsible.
 "Our highly technical practice is re- sponsible for much delay. I believe if 1 we had a revision of the code, longer | prison terms, quicker trials and only one appeal we'd be protecting society | in the most practical way under the law.
 But the primary obstacle to the bet torment of conditions is the foolish att titude of the people who glorify releas- ed criminals and ignore those who have not fallen. but still are fin need of the sympathy that is being wasted. Especially is this true of the woman Many love to hear eloquent discourses on the salvation of the girl of the streets. I know the view I hold Is not the popular one, but neverthe- less am firmly of the belief that the woman of the streets does not reform any more than does her brother of the burglar kit and dark lantern. And she Is a most dangerous factor in the spread of crime. Most of her class are thieves. and most of them support thieves of the opposite sex. and there fore their influence for evil is most extensive.
 Instead of wasting so much sym pathy on the girls who have fallen. why not expend some practical con- on the young woman who may be in danger of falling? This. it seems to me. would be the better plan. The ounce of prevention outweighs the pound of cure many fold.
 Tt is well nigh impossible. in my opinion. for the shopgiri getting s4 or 5 week to live fin New York in self respecting manner. i If there were less sympathy and ,ommiseratiOn for the criminal and he unfortunate creatures of the Itreets and more first aid to the needy. here might be less transgressiOa ia