The daily sentinel., 1913-10-14
NO JUDGE KNOWS PROPER PENALTY
FOR CRIME, SAYS PENOLOG|ST
ndeeInae Sentence is Palliative For Many Evils Under the
Present System Of Administering JUSTICE Says Member of
Iowa Board Of Parole.
Associated Press.


crime, in the opinion of W. II. Berry.
for six years a member OF the Iowa
Board OF Parole: and only 1.-The
judge of all the earth has a right to
say, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. -"
Nor should punishment be the OBJ
Ject OF enforcing penalties, according
to Mr.. Berry; rather, punishment
should be an indirect result with re-
formation the object. For one pris-
oner may have but moral whooping
cough and may soon be cured, while
another may be a moral leper and
may never be cured; yet both may be
discharged together under the pres
ent method of administering Justice
in many states.
The palliative for the long train
OF moral disorders that lie in the
trail of the fixed sentence, in Mr.
Berry's opinion. is the indeterminate
sentence. In his address today be-
fore the American Prison association,
Mr.. Berry so asserted, adding that it
would be better still for judges simp-
iy TO sentence criminals to impris-
onment and leave to another tribunal
inferentially the Board of Parole, the
task of determining how long the
sentences should be.
TO accomplish most successfully
the things desired in the enforcement
of the law, the indeterminate sem
tence in fact as well as in name, I
conceive to be a necessity" Mr.. Ber-
ry said. First, because judges can
not fix intelligently the amount of
penalty a law violator should pay;
second, because the penalty one man
should have to pay for an offense is
10 criterion from which to Judge
what another man should pay for a
similar offense unless all the condi-
tions are the same; third, because
there are some persons convicted of
crime who should by reason of the
nature of the crime they committed
or the impossibility of reformation,
and for the good of society be isolat-
ed indefinitely and possibly for life.
THE average criminal is an un-
known man to the grand jurors who
indicted him, to the county attorney
who prosecuted him, to the jurors by
whose verdict he was found guilty.
and the judge who pronounced the
sentence. AS a rule the only facts
revealed by the trial are those con-
nected with the commission of the
particular offense with which he IL
however just, can tell how long the
average man should be confined in
order to accomplish any one of the
objects of the infliction of the penal
ties of the law as stated.
"The man before the judge and
| jury is presumed to be innocent, is
entitled to that presumption until he
has exhausted all the means provided
| by law to prevent his final convic-
tion. No judge when he pronounces
sentence on the prisoner has a right
to demand of the prisoner that he
shall reveal himself and his history,
/ for the reason that there are steps
which may yet be taken that may
result in his acquittal; to compel the
prisoner to disclose his history and
thereby give evidence against him
self would be not only contrary to
law but great injustice. How can
the sentencing judge know or guess
whether three or thirty years is what
the prisoner before him for sentence
should receive in order to accomplish
his reformation or deter him from
repeating or deter others from COM
mitting crime? How can the SEN
fencing judge know whether the
prisoner before him is a repeater or
a first offender?
No man can determine how much
punishment should be visited on his
fellow man as punishment for his Of
fense. As said above, there is pun
lshment inflicted in the enforcing OF
penalties to prevent repetition, to de-
ter others and become willing OBJ
server of the law. Such punishment
inheres in the enforcing of these pen
alties for the accomplishment of the
other object. The Almighty alone
has right to punish for punishment
sake.
THE courts of the land should, af-
ter giving to an accused man all the
reasonable safeguards in the investi-
CATION of the charge of crime against
him, determine his guilt and then
sentence him to imprisonment, with
out limit as to time, and then leave
| 1t to another tribunal to determine
when he has been sufficiently pun
ished, when he has served long
enough to impress on others the SER
iousness of the offense and operate
to deter others, when it will probab-
ly be safe to society to release him,
to keep in custody Indefinitely such
as by their conduct have forefited all
right to associate with their fellows
and such others as do not give salts
factory evidence of repentance and
reformation. The keeping of man
in custody for life is not necessarily
punishment. 1t is the State protect
ing itself from the evil influence of
man who has proven himself a
menace to it, and in whom there is
no such hope of reformation as would
justify his release among his fellows.
There are men in all prisons who
have only moral whooping cough.
others the measles, scarlet fever, Dip
iberia, tuberculosis, leprosy and
neither patient nor society will be
benefited by paroling out the moral
leper. Those suffering from the
minor troubles should as soon as they
have given evidence of recovery and
been incarcerated long enough to i'm
press them with the seriousness of
their offense and to operate to deter
others from like offenses. be allowed
their liberty under safeguards which
will as best we can guard against