The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-10-25
FOIta Points Out Defects in
 Justice System
Assistant District Attorney Speaks on Woman's Club
 Crime Prevention Hour

Following is the summary of an address given by Assistant District Attorney George w. Folta Sunday afternoon on the Juneau Woman's Club crime prevention program:
 q admire the courage of the Juneau Woman's Club for tackling in conjunction with the General Federation of Woman's Clubs of the United States, problem as complex and difficult as that of crime prevention, and I sincerely hope that it's members will not falter when they begin to meet with disappointment and rebuff which are inevitable because the ramificationS of crime are not only unbelievably extensive, but more over reach into apparently re- spectable places.
 Alaska is fortunate in not hav- ing organized crime to cope with. Nevertheless, since our system of criminal jurisprudence is patterned after those of the. States, it is just as vulnerable to the depredations of organized gangs, and just as much in need of reform through simplification and speeding up of procedure. That branch of crim- inal law which prescribes the prac- tice and procedure in criminal cases has been under fire because it is utterly out of step with the times. Much of it has undergone no change for hundreds of years. Eighteen years ago, when ex-Presi- dent Taft was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, he branded the administration of crim- inal justice in the United States as disgrace.
 Laxity in Alaska
 "Th hough the enforcement of criminal laws begins with the de- lection of crime and apprehension of offenders, no such work is being done outside of incorporated towns in Alaska because there is not a single officer assigned to, any of the districts outside of incorpor- ated towns. For every mile that is policed, 10000 square miles are un- policed. This constitutes vast no- mans land in which the criminal is unmolested today. In the early days, many miner disappeared with his poke of gold soon after hitting the trail through this mo- mans land for civilization. In re- cent years there have been numer- ous disappearances of men which cannot be explained on any theory but that of murder.
 Though aware of this condition, neither Congress nor the Legisla- ture has seen fit to remedy it.
 Antique Procedure
 50 paralyzing is our antiquated criminal procedure that years elapse between the arrest of an offender and the final determination of his case. Needless to say such delays benefit only the defendant. The tortuous course of criminal pro- ceeding is beset with many tech nicalities, for the existence of which there is no longer any reason. Wit nesses die, disappear and forget, while the inconvenience to which they are put in being required to appear during successive stages of a case is so great that it is be- coming increasingly difficult to ob- tain even unwilling witnesses. The method of handling witnesses is the same now as it was 400 years ago when people lived and died at the place of their birth and when it was an event to make a journey of 30 miles.
 Tn the Justice Courts where most misdemeanors are tried, juries often convict defenders, but the