The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-26
CRIME COSTS PEOPLE
 BILLION DOLLARS YEARLY
Crime Congress Members in Indianapolis Try to Devise
 Means Lessening the Number of Criminals

In New York States, no child under ] sixteen can be tried for a crime, un-
 ile delinquency. Judge Lindsay's name, and the names of many others 1 who have developed the children's courts in this country. are well known abroad
 The United States is also particular ly interesting to foreign guests be- cause we have exDerimented so much with probation work for children and for adults Probation means the sus- pension of sentence after conviction,
 thus making it possible for person prison. but to be restored to freedom being placed however in charge of a probation officer to which the person on probation has to report generally
 once week for long period. In this way fines may be paid off, and a man who has perha ps been arrested for a small crime is not obliged to lose hfs+ job, but may continue to support his family during the months that his probation lasts.
 On the other hand, the prison ad-' ninistrators and the socfologists of the United States recognize that European penologists and crirninologfstS have done an immense amount of valuable studying of crime problems and of criminal law The congress brings to this country some of the most i1 1ustr1ous men of the nations they rep resent
 Crime costs the people of the Unit ed States probably a, billion dollars year, directly and indirectly. It takes a heavy toll of human lives, not so much in the number of persons who are murdered but in the families that are broken up. in the degenerates that are bred by crime. in the populations of our prisons, many of whom are physically weakened by long terms of Imprisonment, and in general by the fact. that crime drives it's devotees in to bad, immoral and unhealthy condi- tions of life that in the end react up- on the body and frequently bring on disease and death.
 There are about one hundred thou sand prisoners in our American pris- ons today. About third of them are discharged each year, and another third take their places. A problem that costs the country a billion dollars It is as serious as the question of tu- berculosis. or of poverty itself, with which 1dt;a it is closely pa o eonneoted. fo +,a amount of crime, and to make fewer criminals? That's the question. The principal questions to be discussed by the congress are the fo1lowing:'
 Is the death penalty longer advisable for capital crimes?
 Is the indeterninate sentence feas- ible?
 ing penal sentences pronounced by courts of foreign lands. when the prisoner is again in his own coun- try?
 Is crime a more serious one when a group commits it than when a sin gle person commits it?
 What are the essential principles of Q modern reformatory system?
 What improvement can be made in systems of parole or conditional Hber- ation?
 What are the best means of work ing prisoners in small prisons?
 What are the effects of probatfon?
 How shall we deal best with the tramp and the vagrant?
 What can be done to assist prison ers' families?
 How can we deal best with in ebriety?
 should children be treated as crin- inals?
 What can be done about idle and vagrant children in large cities?