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The procedure would be as follows: All offenders are disposed of, either through suspension of sentence or commitment to penal institutions. It is possible to obtain the aistribution of mental defect for each of these types. The weights would be proportional to the number composing each type. The weighted average would thus be descriptive of the entire criminal class. The other method is to obtain a simple average by examining all the delinquents, or a fair sample of them, before they are committed to the penali institutions.

In this study an attempt will be made to estimate the proportion of mental defectives among those charged with and convicted of a telony in the Court of General Sessions in New York County. It is impossible to utilize the nrst method of investigation, for though the weights could be determined, we have ratios depicting the amount of mental deiect for but two of the penal institutions. The statistical results in this study have Deen acmeved therefore by analyzing a sample of the court cases.

As there were over 4,000 cases disposed of in the Court of General Sessions in 1917, resort has been nad to the study of a sample of 395 cases. These were taken from the records of the Voluntary Defenders' Committee of New York City. This committee was organized for the purpose of providing counsel for needy defendants in criminal cases. It began its activities April 1, 1917. In the course of the first year, the committee represented 574 defendants accused of the commission of felonies. In age distribution, educational attainments, civil status, wage distribution, etc., these cases were in every way typical of all the other court cases. What is true of them therefore may safely be asserted of all.

Of the 574 cases, 68, or 11.9%, exhibited various mental aberrations. In other words, of those coming into contact with the police, and brought into the Court of General Sessions charged with the commission of a felony, 11.9% were mentally defective. However, not all of these can be classed as criminals, for in the course of criminal procedure, 179 were declared innocent of the commission of a crime. In accordance with legal criteria, then, but 395 were criminals. Of these, 64, or 16.2%, were mentally defective.

The following is the distribution of the 64 defective criminals according to mental type:

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We note from the above table that of the 395 felons 40, or 10.1%, showed intellectual defect. If we add the closely allied class of constitutional inferiors, the total is increased to 11.1% Grouping the others under the general class of psychotics, we obtain a total of . 20, or 5.1%.

There are no statistics with which these are exactly comparable. However, they may be contrasted with the results obtained in the Chicago Juvenile Court by Dr. Augusta Bronner and Dr. William Healy. The former studied 505 boys and girls." She found that 41, or 8.1%, were feebleminded. She classed 11, or 22%, as doubtful cases. If we combine these two classes, we find that 10.3% showed intellectual defects, as compared with 11.1% of our adult felons. In his study of 1,000 young repeated offenders in the same court, Dr. Healy found that 8.9% were morons, .8% imbecile and 8.1% subnormal mentally, though showing more educability than the feebleminded. Combining these classes, we find that 17.8% were intellectually defective. The psychotics formed 6.9% of the group. The results obtained in the present study compare very closely with these, especially when the highly selective aspect of Dr. Healy's group of cases is taken into consideration.

Earlier in this study we noted the discrepant results obtained for populations in different types of penal institutions. These extreme variations tended, to some degree, to discredit the alleged relation between mental defect and crime in the eyes of lay persons, especially judges and lawyers. However, a further analysis of our statistics will prove that these results are a natural consequence of a process of selection, by which the defective elements of the institutions are con

2Am. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, November, 1914. Dr. Bronner does not state whether all the cases were duly declared delinquent. If some were later found innocent, then her percentage would be somewhat higher.

3The Individual Delinquent, by William Healy, M.D., p. 139.

stantly increased, as we proceed from reformatories to state prisons. These differences, then, are inherent in the populations, and do not result from inadequate investigations.

The following table shows the final dispositions in the cases of convicted felons:

Sentenced to

TABLE II

SHOWING DISPOSITION OF THE TOTAL AND OF DEFECTIVE CASES, RESPECTIVELY

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New York City Reformatory.

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New York State Reformatory.

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Penitentiary

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Total

395

100.0

55

7.3

16.4

21.8

23.6

12.7

18.2

100.0

4

In obtaining the percentage distributions for the defectives, the base has been reduced from 64 to 55, as 9 were committed to state hospitals. The State of New York has acquired an enviable distinction in the matter of provision for the criminal insane. It was among the very first, if not the first, to provide for this class. If these 9 had been convicted in most other states, they would have been committed to a penal institution, rather than to a hospital. Consequently, it would have been unreasonable, for comparative purposes, to have included these 9 in the above statistics.

The table develops interesting contrasts. In the first place whereas 35.2% of all the cases were placed on probation, but 18.2% of the defectives were thus disposed of. This immediately increased the proportion of defectives .in institutions as compared with court cases. From another point of view it is found that 7.2% of the cases in which sentence was suspended, were defective, whereas the percentage was 15 for the Penitentiary, 16.2 for the State Prison, and 25.0 for the State Reformatory at Elmira. The latter has a very high percentage of defective delinquents, because in the absence of a proper institution for this type of offender, the Voluntary Defenders' Committee frequently recommended commitment to the State Reformatory. Returning to Table II, we note in both cases an increasing percentage of committment from the Reformatory to the State Prison. In all but one instance, however, the increase is greatest, in the case of defectives. In other words, by a process of selection at time of sentence, the proportion of defectives in penal institutions is unduly increased as compared with their distribution among court cases.

We may now summarize the results of this investigation. Of individuals under arrest charged with felony, 11.9% were defective. Of convicted felons, however, 16.2% deviated from the normal. Of the defectives, 11.1% showed evidence of intellectual inferiority, and the psychotics, including those showing emotional instability, totalled 5.1%.

Furthermore the suspended sentence and probation act as a sieve, by means of which the mentally normal delinquent is segregated from the defective; penal institutions therefore must, of necessity, show a higher proportion of defèctives than do court cases.

INDETERMINATE SENTENCE, RELEASE ON

PAROLE AND PARDON

(Report of Committee "F" of the Institute)

EDWARD LINDSEY, CHAIRMAN1

This year's sessions of the legislatures have not been prolific of legislation on the subject of the indeterminate sentence, the parole system or pardon. No state not already having adopted the indeterminate sentence or the parole system has made either a part of its statutory law although the Vermont practice of conditional liberation under executive pardon, which had grown up, as noted in this committee's report for the year 1915, has now received statutory sanction by action of the legislature this year. However, amendments to the statutes have been made in some of the states to accomplish changes in the operation of the parole acts.

California provides that except in cases where a different minimum punishment is prescribed by law, for every offense declared to be a felony and punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, the minimum punishment shall be imprisonment in the state prison for not less than six months. By two acts approved on April 11th, 1919, it is also provided that a person sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for life is thereafter to be deemed "civilly dead" and that a sentence of imprisonment in a state prison for any term less than life shall suspend all the civil rights of the person so sentenced and forfeit all public offices and "all private trusts, authority or power" during such imprisonment, provided that in any such cases if the person so sentenced be liberated from prison by parole under the parole laws of the state, the board of prison directors having the power to grant paroles may permit to such person civil rights other than the right to act as a trustee or hold public office or exercise the privilege of an elector during the term of such parole. The scope or extent of such civil rights is to be determined by the board "either at the time the parole is granted or at such other time as in the judgment of such board is for the best interest of society and such paroled person." By

1The personnel of this committee is as follows:
Edward Lindsey, Esq., Warren, Pa., Chairman.

Will Colvin, Commissioner of Pardons and Paroles, Springfield, Ill.
Amos Butler, Commissioner of Charities and Correction, Indianapolis, Ind.
Allan Carter, Esq., Evanston, Ill.

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