New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-28
ATTACKS SING SING
AS HOUSE OF MIRTH
Magistrate COrrigan Star
ties Judicial Reform Meet
ing by Rap at Osborne.
WANTS PRISON TO BE
PLACE OF REPENTANCE
Sets Up Reform Test Without
Any Brass Bands or Film
Shows for Criminals.

Magistrate Joseph F.. CorriGan last
night turned Cooper Union meeting
called to consider a plan to consolidate
the courts Of the state into discus
sion of prison reform by an attack
upon the methods of Thomas. Mott Os-
borne in Sing Sing.
"Sing Sing" said he, SHOULD be the
house of repentance, not the house OF
mrth."
julius Henry Cohen, who followed
the magistrate with dn address on the
selection of judges, prefaced his re-
marks by saying that were the occasion
the proDer one he would take serious
objections to what Mr.. Corrigan had
said. In the heckling hour that fol-
lowed Mr. Cohen's remarks, most OF
the questions Rad to do with Sing Sing
and not with the plan of judicial re-
form scheduled for discussion. The
magistrate frankly admitted he "had
let his foot slip in referring to mat
ter not germane to the subject
Mr.. Corrigan's subject was Needed
Reforms in the Criminal Law" he
pleading for changes that would sim
plifv their execution. Then he took
up the matter Of Sing Sing.
"A number of well meaning and en-
thusiastic sentimentalists," said he,
"have done all In their power TO elm
mate punishment from our penal sys-
TEN. Where they have failed to do
this they have done all that could be
done to make punishment attractive.
In their sympathy for the individual
wrong doer they have lost sight OF the
fact that the true object of punishment
is to deter others by making crime un-
profitable.
"Our main penal institution, Sing
Sing. is no longer regarded as place
Of punishment, but rather as a psyche
logical sanatorium, where criminals may
tnioy a vacation at the expense of the
statc.
"A prominent police official said TO
me Saturday, after the police parade:
Judge. the way things are now, these
crooks don't mind going to Sing Sing
any more than they mind going TO a
chop suey joint"
Here Mr.. Corrigan told of an instance
where a fireman's widow was robbed Of
her insurance money by pickpocket
and asked:
"Now, gentlemen, who needed sym
pathv the more? The clever pickpocket
who took her money or the woman who
lost il? Think of what il meant TO her,
and of what il meant TO her young
children. 10 be left widowed and destl-
tute! The man who picked her pocket
tried. sentenced and condemned her.
Had he been caught, which he was not,
he would have received all the pro-
lection which our laws give to the in
nocent and guilty alike. But she had
no such measure of justice. She was
condemned, not TO a year or two years
in prison, but TO a lifetime of hard
labor. Her children were deprived Of
education and opportunities for which
their father sacrificed his life. They
we're thrown upon the world to sink or
swim, or survive or perish, as best they
might.
"Now, I ask you, would you rather
appropriate money for the relief of that
woman or for motion picture shows and
baseball games to while away the hours
Of seclusion of burglars, panderers and
murderers?'
"lf they tell you that these things
help reform criminals. let me answer
that when ! find a thief who claims to
have reformed living on pittance and
paying back the money he stole ! VIII
believe that he has indeed reformed.
But until he does that | will believe
that he is still faker, hypocrite and
a crook at heart.
Let these sentimentalists try that
test on their prison graduates; but they
will never bring them to meet that test
successfully with the aid of brass
bands, motion picture shows or base
ball games.
"Sing Sing should be the house of re-
pentance, not the house of mirth. The
ends of justice will be better served by
Furnishing crime, not by condoning II.
Henry W. Jessup also spoke. j..
Aspinwall Hodge presided.