Evening star., 1933-05-21
BY FRANK HARREL.

u.
thing, and only listened. These guys
were only seven or eight years older
than me and had all pulled on JOBS
before. We all went to the butcher
shop. My brother got box and
stood on it and tried the transom. 1t
was too little for my brother to get
through. Then I was thrilled when
they said I'd have to crawl through
the transom. That was the kick OF
nv whole life. l was scared, but l
was too thrilled to say no.
Il got 81 and lot of cigarettes.
fe,t like a Zig shot after that nlgnt'
and the big guys said could go WIN
them every time they went rooplng'
they called me the Baby Bandit.
Every time 1 ran away from tne
reform schools I went back 10 tne
Gangs cid hangout. 1 never went TO
NV ow1, home because my father would
rerort me to the police. I was never
afraid of my pals. We were trusted pals
and never failed each other. l
faollv decided to quit robbing because
II didn't pay Besides, 1 got IN mop
OF stick-up guys who were making
For many years investigators in our
Federal ard State prisons nave nearu
etories like this, which was taken from
actual prison records They have heard
them told by mon in the death cell ana
bv those condemned to an indeflnte
neriod of labor. Always they are the
same-truancy or incorrigibility, minor
offenses. reform school. release, gang
associates, crime, prison.
Prison Investigators have coliecteo
other facts: .s
ONLY a few weeks ago the Commits
sion to Investigate Prison AdmlnlsIra-
tion and Construction. appointed In Ne"
York State in 1880, made its maj re,
port to the legislature. 1t had examined
3.415 men received at the state prisons
and at Elmira Reformatory during 1881
Among its conclusions were:
Nearly 80 per cent (of the inmates
had known criminal RECORDS averaging
four previous arrests to each man. II
is evident that previous contacts WIFI
the police. the courts and with correc-
tional institutions failed to deter tnese
men from committing new crimes. since
two-thirds of them had already served
sentences in city, county or state IN
stitutions.'
There are other facts: A study OF the
careers of 500 inmates of the Massa-
chusetts Reformatory showed n per
cent had experience in delinquency prior
to the age of II years: 90 per cent be-
fore the age of 19, and 90 per cent be-
for the age Of 81. In study OF delln-
ouents it was shown that the first step
was truancy. Boys and girls between
le and 81 commit nearly half the
felonies-major crimeS-n New YORK
City.
Enough of statistics-but there are
more! All proving the same thing
that the progress from truancy TO
prison is straight and uninterrupted, d,
conditions being favorable. and that
this progress is helped rather than
hindered by frequent incarcerations In
reformatories and other corrective in
stitutions In other words. the statistics
prove that in the case of the majority
of the inmates cf our penal institutions
the habitual offenders-there Is definite
criminal pattern This criminal pattern
begins to form early in childhood. The
first symptoms of the disease which
ushers its victims almost unerringly to
the state prison, or perhaps to the
death cell, are recognizable in the
youngster on the street, and they IN
crease in violence unless his environ
ment somehow Is changed.
Not so many years ago preventive
medicine was new thing. individuals
contracted smallpox. typhoid, yellow
fever, languished and died. Doctors
did their best, but their efforts were
confined to those already i'll. However,
preventive medicine had and is having
its day, and we no longer fear pesti-
lences and plaques.
Crime Preventives.
1r,l,+ about ,r;y,,a ,,reveptivec9 Can
the force of the crime waves which
sweep over our cities be mitigated by
preventive measures? Can individuals
forced by circumstances to dwell in
crime infested areas be inoculated
against infection from the sources Of
crime? The answer is in the afflrma-
tive. It comes from the officials OF
crime prevention bureaus which have
been established in twelve American
cities, ranging in size from Berkeley,
Calf. to New York City. The latter
has the Oldest and perhaps the most
effective of these agencies that are
fighting preventively, or represSively,
against crime.
Not until now has it been possible
to Judge accurately the effectiveness OF
carefully planned and efficiently exc
cuted crime prevention measures. But
perusal of the recently issued annual
report of the Crime Prevention Bureau
of the New York Police Department
will convince even the most skeptical
that crime prevention really works. The
bureau has been in operation for three
years. The first two of these, while
they we're not lacking in concrete re-
suits, were essentially formative years
when the parts Of the machine in the
making were not yet perfectly CO.
ordinated.
The bureau during 1882 handled ap-
proximately 1879 cases, an increase
of 1000 over the previous year.. These
cases involved offenSeS ranging in seri-
business from malicious mischief to
robbery and hold up. An outline of the
methods used shows that the bureaus
effort is one of common sense; to know
and meet the needs of each individual,
to make for his better DEVELOPMENT by
changing as far as possible the condi-
tions responsible for his delinquency. to
deve'op and maintain contacts with
children which will make for confidence
in the police and respect for the law.
The Crime Prevention Bureaus have
been established as the result of a
growing realization by police authori-
ties that they cannot be content with
just shooting down gansgsters. Crimi-
nails and their gangs do not spring up
overnight. nor can they be eradicated
by an application of hot lead. The Po-
lice department that will perform its
Job best, they have come to realize, is
the one that will find and dig cut the
Geeu roots of juvenile delinquency, the
Eotbed from which our criminals spring,
apparently, overnight.
They have planned to supplement,
not to displace, those agencies now
fighting Juvenile delinquency-th boys
and girls clubs, big brothers. big sis
ters, etc-and to coordinate their ef-
forts
These were the conclusions of the
New York Police Departments Advisory
Committee on Crime Prevention. which,
in its report in 1929, urged the crea-
ton of a crime prevention bureau, under
the direction of the Police Department.
This bureau is especially effective in its
fight against crime. and an outline OF
its methods will show how workers in
a dozen cities throughout the coun-
try, armed with experience and boil