New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
By Arthur Woods,
Former Police Commissioner of New
York City

Former Police Commissioner of Ne1U
York City
Taking as a basis the results we have
got with the psychopathc laboratory
at Police Headquarters we figure that
there are on the average twenty five
persons a day arrested in New York
who are mentally defective. Many of
these probably would never have COM
mtted crime except for this abnormal
ity The problem is what to do with
those unfortunate underdevcloped indi-
viduals who have fallen into crime. 1t
seems clear that we should not rest
simply with Furnishing them: punish
ment is Of doubtful value, anyway, eX-
cept as it may persuade TO better
things. Furnishing a criminal of this
type cannot lead to anything better.
1t leads to nothing but the life of
lessening whatever chance a person
may have of wrenching himself loose
from his bad habits and turning over
new leaf. In Jail the whole atmos-
phere, the associations, every one with
whom he comes in contact, savOrs of
crime and criminality and Of following
the wrong path. The weak mind of
the defective is subje to exactly
the wrong kind of influence. He can't
help coming to regard crime as the
normal order of things. 1t is all he
hears about Even if he had normal
mental powers ana trained judgment
it would be something of task to
withstand these vicious influences; one
l., 4 o,,,+ ,pt do
much but yield
Should BE Restrained
Although it is clear that the present
practice of committing the defective
criminal to prison is wrong, it is
equally clear that he should not be
simply turned loose on the public.
Plainly the proper course of action
is to segregate him in some sort of
institution.
Instead of putting him in an ordinary
jail, however, this institution should
be rather of the hospital type, which
would receive such an inmate to keep
until cured. He has shown that he is
dangerous to the community; has
demonstrated it by performing a
criminal act. Examination has shown
that he is mentally subnormal, so that
although we can't at all say that die
was not responsible for the crime he
committed, yet we must recognize the
fact that he is not to be classed in
the same category as a normal, deliber-
ate criminal. There is a good chance,
in other words, in the case of defec-
tive, that if he could be mentally cured
he would be rid of his criminal
tendency.
Radical Method Needed
Society has no wish to punish for the
sake of Furnishing. Its real object in
committing offenders to institutions is,
although it does not always recognize
this, to put them where they can do no
harm, in the vague, optimistically ire
sponsible hope that they may learn
better by the time they come out, and
in sublime indifference to the fact
that most of them, instead of learning
better, learn worse. Society's greatest
task with reference to criminals is to
protect itself. 1t should treat the
criminal in the way best calculated to
protect itself. The defective, therefore,
should be given chance by being
placed IN an institution where expert
effort will be made to cure him and
return him to the life of the world
again with normal mind in a normal
BODY. II expert treatment cannot &C
compllsh this the patient should be
kept IN the institution for the rest of
his natural life, segregated so that he
cannot war on the law abiding and
cannot beget defective children.
The crop of detectives is steadily in