The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-07-06
SAYS Criminals
CAN Be CURED
Present System Of DEALING
With Them Ridiculous. Saws
Physician

persons who are i'll OF a cura5.a
plant. with trial judges ac..-
physicians; that the jury
should be abolished, pardon In
eliminated n alcoholics sagra,s,|s
are a few OF the reforms IN -
nOlOgy earnestly advocated hv ~
Victor G.. Vaughan, dean OF n. ma.
ical school OF the University u Mich.
igan and president of the Ar.a~can
Medical Association.
did you e hear of \ doc,-
sending a sick man to a hospital VIII
instructions that he be kept there 80
months, or ten years, and then d.
charged as cured?" says DR.. Vaurtan
What would you think Of q dnc1o.
who would send a patient to a hosnitsl
for 1, 10 or Is years without medical
attention him or any other doc.
tor?
Then why should judges send mon
to prison for from one to fftv wears
and Immediately feel at liberty -
wash their hands of the whole thing,
The criminal is a sick man. the prison
is his hospital and the judge Who sent.
enced him is his physician. 4 Judge
las no more right to hold himself un.
accountable for a criminals recovery
than has a physician the right to send
a patient to a hospital for a certain
leHStn OI tlIle, anu men entirely neg
lect him.
when the criminal Judge Is of the
bench his place is in the prison
studying the sick man and the effect
upon that patient of the treatment he
has ordered. 1t should be within ths
province Of that judge-physician %
change the treatment when he consid.
ers a change advisable.
"In the trial of criminals, the jury
system las proved a failure. Instead
Of a jury, criminals should be tried
by a bench of three expert crimi.
nologists. There should be special in
situations where c~riminology is taught
and where all lawyers desiring TO fit
themselves for criminal iudgeships.
would be compelled to spend sufficient
time in study to become expert mod
ern criminologists. They must regard
the criminal as a sick man. He must
be studied p~sychologically.
II would have all Prison Pardon
Boards abolished. 1t is the man who
has sentenced the prisoner who IS the
best judge as to whether the prisoner
is sufficiently recovered 10 merit a
parole or a pardon. l would have
all prison sentence ndeterminate A
prisoner~should be kept IN the peni.
tertiary until the trained crlmlno'
logist says he is ready to be released.
I'm Great Britain there were 1867
900 human beings sentenced TO prison
: in 1910. Out of that number l04,oV4
were not first offenders, and some had
received as many as 20 previous prs
on sentences. In more than lO0.0Vt
cases that came before the criminat
! judges OF Great Britain in one gear.
prison sentences had not effected
cures in the criminally III.
!, "In this country when a man CONS
y mits a crime, we send him 70 ths
p~enitentiary. He behaves we'll, WINS
the confidence Of the warden ana
t other prison officials, some oods
2 pleads for him, and he IS paroleo "
: the Pardon Board. In a large pes.
centage of coming undet ny ~.
observation. his criminal record ~
i gins Immediately afterward ana no
may commit many crimes, before y
is caught again. He has been above.
$ to leave the hospital for criminals
r before a cure has been effected.
q DR.. Vaughan blames crlmIndhIS ~ ~
n heredity Or environment, or both. ~
contends that present those -
ested in prisons and prisoners conh"t
their attention principally to va
shall be done with the criminal y,
, stead Of how to prevent crime ana
criminals. Ii.
d "It is like the old days IN IT,
cine," he says, when the phys-ot@a-
. spent all his time discovering VIC
e treatment to use In curing o!ss"a -
Medicine made very little progress - -
q the profession turned its atteii--oA
!. the prevention of disease. !
'. ut is safe to say thai alc'il2i j,
the cause Of criminality IN z 49,
IT proportion Of cases. II that
then the alcoholic should II
~ gated before he commits crlinE ~
;. is a sick man, needing kiho.t I'D
- firm treatment. There are h.t1 i
. of thousands Of potential cT4fn-A LnIic
! the United States today, A-oasan
and feeble-minded. Under FIt
~ conditions, nothing can be l9lls
these people till they haEe s"rI
II ted some crime. But sometalLs sI,+i
o be DONE. h law shouIa I'M
~ for their segregation. SocttJf
- be protected from them.
. Natural enemies, such as .e1