Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-06-03
CRIMINALS SHOULD
Be TREATED As ILL
HEAD OF AMERICAN MEDICAL AS
ISOLATION WOULD ABOLISH
JURY SYSTEM AS FAILURE.
THE JUDGE A "CU|ME PHYSICIAN"
Calls Prisons "Hospitals" and Would
Abolish Pardon Boards and
Seareaate Alcoholics.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-Treatment of
like sick persons, with the trial
judges acting as physicians, aboli'
tion of the jury system, elimination
of pardon boards and segregation of
alcoholics, are some of the reforms
in criminology proposed by DR.. Vic
tor c. Vaughan, dean of the Medical
School of the University of Michigan
and president of the American medi-
cal Association.
DR.. Vaughn was one of the first to ad-
vance the idea that the criminal is
sick man and he has more ideas
along the same line. Among other
things he would make a trial judge
responsible in every case for the cure
and return to society of the man SEN
fenced to prison or reformatory.
Ibid you ever hear of doctor send
ing a sick man to a hospital with i'll
structions that he be kept there six
| months or ten years and then dis
charged as cured?" says DR.. Vaughan.
What would you think of a doctor
who would send a patient to hos
| pital for one, 10 or % years without
medical attention from him or any
other doctor?
Then why should judges send men
to prison for from one to so years and
Immediately feel at liberty to wash
their hands of the whole thing? The
| criminal is a sick man, the prison is
his hospital and the judge who SEN
fenced him is his physician. A Judge
has no more right to hold himself un-
accountable for a criminals recov-
cry than has a physician right to
send patient to hospital for Ger
tain length of time, and then com.
pletely neglect him.
When the criminal judge is off the
bench his place is in the prison study
ing the sick man and the effect upon
that patient of the treatment he has
ordered. 1t should be within the pro-
vince of that judge physician to
change the treatment when he COLI
siders a change advisable"
IN the trial of criminals the jury
system has proved a failure. Instead
of a jury criminals should be tried
by a bench nf three expert criminolo-
gists. There should be special institu.
tions where criminology is taught, and
where all lawyers, desiring to fit
themselves for criminal judgeships
would be compelled to spend suffi'
| al IN, or n hpnnr1n aYnprt
modern criminologists. They must
regard the criminal as sick man.
He must be studied psychologically.
II would have all prison pardon
has sentenced the prisoner who is the
best judge as to whether the prisoner
is sufficiently recovered to merit a
parole or a pardon, l would have all
prison sentences indeterminate. A
prisoner should be kept in the peni.
tentiary until the trained criminol'
ogist says he is ready to be released"
In Great Britain there were 165,000
human beings sentenced to prison in
1910. Out of that number 100000
were not first offenders, and some
had received as many as 20 previous
prison sentences. In more than 100
900 cases that came before the crini
nal judges of Great B.'itain in one
, year, prison sentences had not eff
fected cures in the criminally ill.
I'm this country when a man com
mits a crime we send him to the pen
: itentiary. He behaves well, wins the
confidence of the warden and othel
prison officials, somebody pleads fol
him, and he is paroled by the pardon
board. In large percentage of cases
l criminal record begins Immediately
afterwards and he may commit many
crimes before he is caught again. HI
has been allowed to leave the hospi
tai for criminals before cure hal
i, been effected"
"Dr. Vaughn blames criminality OF
hereditary or environment, or both
u "It is like the old days in medi
cine," he says when the physician
spent all his time discovering wha
treatment to use in curing disease
e Medicine made very little progress
d till the profession turned it's atten
: tion to the prevention of disease.
f "It is safe to say that alcohol is tn
II cause of criminality in large proper
: tion of cases. If that is true, the
II the alcoholic should be segregated be
@ fore he commits crime. He is sic
man, needing kindly but firm treat
* ment. There are hundreds of thous
j. ands of potential criminals in tn
United States today, alcoholics an
feeble-minded. Under present cond
y tions, nothing can be done with thes
people till they have committed som
q crime. But something should be don'
e The law should provide for their 81