Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-01
JURIST URGES
THE RETURN OF
WHIPPING POST
Iashes Every 80 Days Would
Diminish Crime, Asserts
Supreme Justice.
PRISON TERMS USELESS

NEW YORK, June Lay the lash
upon the felons backl
Administer sharp physical pain and
thereby purge the criminal Of his de-
sire for evil deeds and protect innocent
citizenry against his depredationsi
A cure for crime-so old that It's new
suggested by Lewis L. Fawcett. Of the
Supreme Court of Brooklyn
The remedy-novel enough in these
days-wouId bring back the old institu-
ton of the whipping post, the cat-o-nine-
tails and perhaps the stocks.
"Stone walls do not prison make"
observed an Old poet, and likewise has
Judge Fawcett repeated the familiar
line in connection with his radical rec
onmendation.
And let it be known here that Judge
Fawcett has been widely extolled for
his cIemency, and often called the man
who wears "his heart upon his lapel"
Hence the startling aspect of his cure for
! crime.
Long prison terms do not deter or
prevent crime declares the justice, who,
several days ago, after passing sentence
upon a man convicted Of hold-up, an
nounced himself in favor of the whipping
post, combined with shorter period OF
punishment in Jail
"I would recommend the use of the
lash upon certain types of criminals"
the judge said today. For robbery,
burglary, blackhand and white slave
/ crimes, let the sheriff lash or hire huskies
to whip these especially grave offenders"
The personal opinions Of the judge
/
prompted by lack Of sympathy for
constitutes justice.
Nor does he go to the sentimental
extreme Of saying that to sentence a
feIon to a whipping would pain the court
more than it would the criminal.
Belief that nowadays we do not
properly punish crime or try to prevent
it, has prompted Justice Fawcett to ad-
vocate publicly the return to the lash as
a gmeans of promoting protection for
normal, peaceful people
1.-THE criminals state of mind" said
the judge, lis quite that of the child
caught at the jam jar If he is taken
early enough and given a punishment
he won't forget, he is apt to stay away
from the jar. If not, he will become
holder and more complacent over his
crimes.
Men go to Sing Sing and come out
time after time with a feeling, not that
they have paid for crime, but that they
have merely obtained asylum for a
while.
Bed and board at the expense Of the
taxpayers form the only risk that
confronts the hold-up man or white SLAYER
! in the pursit Of his career
IF he is caught he goes back again,
relieved of the strain Of work. enjoys
the comparatively pleasant existence IN
our modern penitentiary and suffers no
punishment.
THE number Of old offenders that
crops W continually proves prisons don't
reform. Then there is something wrong
in the method of punishment
Instead of giving a fourth offender
1ife'-always his fate-I would recon-
every thirty days, the first strokes to
fall previous to Incarceration.
Let him be stripped to the waist and
i given ten welts with the lash. His skin
may be broken, so let it be washed with
salt water solution to prevent iDfec-
! ton.
HE will suffer more or less agony.
The wounds will heal in twenty-five days,
normally and he will be free from pain
about the time he is ready for his rext
whipping.
''At the end of his six months i'm
prisonment, when he gets the last lash
ing, he will leave jail in pain. If he
wishes to continue as a wrong doer he
will very likely leave the State where
such severe penalties await him.
He will never come back for more.
''He will not blackjack any more in
nocent citizens to drive them incurably
insane from blows on the skull. He viii
not rob and injure any more victims and
make little children dependent upon in
stitutional care and force helpless women
untitled for work to go out into the
world of toll
1.-THE defective, of course should not
be whipped. But we must believe that
many bad people want to be bad"