Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/584

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��Popular Science, Monilily

��of a prison sentence. When they are discharged they are Hkely to repeat the offense at the earUest possible moment, and society is compelled to foot the bills for their frequent trials and commit- ments.

When Police Commissioner W^oods be- came satisfied that a percentage of criminals should be dealt with as psychopathic pa- tients rather than as normal men who have chosen to com- mit crime, he deter- mined to test this idea. So it was that after a certain amount of experi- mental observation the Psychopathic Laboratory at Po- lice Headquarters came into being.

Before the laboratory was finally es- tablished we devoted forty-nine days to observations. Each day the prisoners at headquarters are "lined up" so that the detectives may recognize any familiar faces. At these daily "line-ups" we picked out men who appeared to be suf- fering from some men- tal defect and gave them a thorough men- tal and physical exam- ination.

During this experi- mental period, four hun- dred and nine prisoners were observed. Of this number, fourteen were found to be feeble- minded, one insane, two constitutional inferiors, two drug habitues, one hopelessly immoral, one an alcoholic. Only eight were normal. Out of the twenty-nine selected for examination, twenty-one were found to be defective mentally. Seven per cent of those ap- pearing at the line-up were examined and five per cent were found to be ab- normal.

The average number of daily arrests during the period of our preliminary ob- servation was six hundred and twenty-

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��three and the total number of arrests was thirty thousand, five hundred and thirty. We feel assured that observations ex- tending over forty-nine days are suffi- ciently comprehensive to warrant us in assuming that what we found indicates a condition which exists the year around. And as six hundred and twenty-three is the average number of arrests which take place every day and five per cent of those arrested are abnormal, thirty- one persons who are unbalanced mental- ly are locked up eve- ry day. These pris- oners suffer from all sorts of mental ills ranging from dan- gerous forms of in- sanity to the pitiful condition of a grown man with the brain development of a child.

Criminals of this type cannot be im- proved through the ordinary corrective methods. They serve their sentences and return to so- ciety only to re- peat the offense and pass again through the Po- lice Department, the courts, the District-Attor- ney's offices back to prison from which t h e \^ emerge each time more dangerous. This means that they not only con- stitute a constant menace to society but are a needless ex- pense as well. Their constant reappear- ance in the courts soon mounts up to a very considerable sum. Also, it goes without saying, prison treatment is far from humane in the case of such per- sons. Where their difficulty is one which may be cured, they require hos- pital treatment and where it is incurable they should be committed to an institu- tion wherein they would be protected

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