The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-02-08
JUDGE SHERWOOD
HAS NEW REFORM
BILL DRAWN BY HIM WILL BE
CONSIDERED BY LEGlSLA.
TURE THIS SESSION
NEW REF0RMATORY IDEA FOR THE STATE
Would Have Place Between Reform
School and P~enitentiary for Cor.
recting Certain Crimes

Within the next few days there will
be introduced into the Legislature a
bill drawn by Judge Carl G.. Sherwood
of this circuit, entitled a bill for an
act entitled an act to establish an in
stitution between the penitentiary and
reform school to be known as the
South Dakota industrial farm" having
for its purpose, "the detention, dis.
cipline, training and reformation of
men and women who have been con-
victed of crime or misdemeanor in the
circuit court, or who have been con-
victed of two or more minor offenses
before a municipal court or magis-
trate and certified to the circuit Judge,
or who are delinquent or defective,
and cannot be admitted to any insti-
tuition in the state, and who for the
protection of society and their own
reformation, need compulsory labor,
detention and training"
The provisions of the bill embcdy
the conclusion of the Judge after con-
siderable study and personal observa-
ton of the problem of handling men.
tai and moral detectives convicted of
crimes and misdemeanors. 1t is the
judges opinion that such an institu-
ton should be located near an insane
asylum in order that such institution
may receive, without additional ex-
pense, the benefit of the services of
alienists employed at the insane asy-
lum.
The bill contemplates the ultimate
forming of "A board of experts consist
ing of at least one medical expert, one
a~lienist expert, and n legal expert
or a person expert in c~riminology,
who is neither an alienist or attorney,
with a view Of forming a board having
something the powers of the Board of
Insanity, who may s%egregate persons
who are diseased, /. e.: Sexual dis
eases which are dangerous to society,
PoDpVoooio VI "hoIl u i, vi
who are detectives or deficient and
are not subject to admission to other
institutions in the state, but who are
dangerous to society, and who will be-
come county charges, and who may
be confined by such board without the
Intervention of a jury under the same
| vi,1nC nc nnur nnv1xy IN Tho Recommendation
Of the insane persons without the in
%tervention of a jury. This can be ulti-
mately grated on to this procedure,
but does not at the present time. TO
illustrate the Judge uses the case of
an epileptic, whom the feeble minded
institution will not take and who was
sent to the penitentiary for a year for
an assault with a dangerous weapon
upon a woman, and who is liable at
any time to become dangerous. and
who is simply a wandering mendicant.
In his normal condition he is not dar-
~gerous-simply worthless and a NUS
ance. SHOULD not society be protect
ed in some way from such as he? /
have in mind also from actual court
observations a who is spread
ing disease. not only among young
men but among married men, the mar
ried men in turn communicating it to
their wives, the results of it appear
ing in deformed children. The woman
has been repeatedly arrested. Should
there no be some way as a business
proposition to ~segregate such women,
after examination by an expert board,
until such time as they are fully re-
covered in health or reformed even if
it takes a life time? | have in mind
also a case coming from actual court
experience of a man who is a good
workman, and able to earn large
wages as a stone mason, who works
just long enough to get sufficient
liquor to have a big drunk. He has
been in Jail probably. a dozen times,
who has at one time, when on a spree,
fallen out of a window and broken a
limb, and has cost the county of Clark
within a few years over eight hundred
4 dollars. He has absolutely no means.
Never pays a fine. but lays it out at
the expense Of the people, and will
shortly become a pauper. This is by
no means an isolated q . have
} had several come under my notice.
both men and women. The expense
/ Of these people to the state u enorn-
Gus. Should thsy not be segregated