How I Would Classify Criminals
As far as we know, there is no systematic classification of criminals in any State. For the sake of facilitating the work of the courts and saving much time, we would recommend the following classification, which is entirely original, never having seen anything like it before:
It is under four general heads, viz.:
(1) The insane, (2) the mental and industrial illiterate, (3) the born criminal, and (4) the victim of circumstances. I have not used the word dependent in this classification, as it is too indefinite. An insane person or a pauper or a cripple may be dependent according to some classifiers. I prefer to use my own division under the four heads into which all criminals may readily be placed.
If this Board of Experts finds that the accused is or was really insane or mentally unbalanced when the crime was committed, it should recommend to the Court without delay, so as to save time and expense, that the person be sent to an asylum or sanitarium for treatment, and kept there until entirely cured.
In case the prisoner recovers his sanity, he should be returned and re-examined by the Board. They have all the records before them, and all the facts in his case, and after considering them carefully, could recommend his discharge, or, if they think best, put him on trial.
Second: If the Board finds that the wrongdoer belongs to the second class; that he is illiterate and has no trade, or that he is a lazy and good for nothing idler, preying upon his fellow men for a living, or that he is tainted with some physical malady, or is suffering from tubercular trouble, epilepsy, dipsomania, or indeed, any progressive disorder, then the Board can recommend to the Court that such a one is a fit subject for Elmira Reformatory, or some other institution of a similar character, where he will receive mental, moral and industrial training, besides medical treatment, and be discharged only when cured of his delusions, and fit afterward to live as an honest and law-abiding citizen. There are hundreds of industrial and mental illiterates that pass through our courts every year—young men who never learned a trade, and can hardly write their own names. The only way to save them from criminal lives is to educate them, and turn them out of prison when cured. It is a waste of time and money to send such persons to State prison or penitentiary, as more than 50 per cent. return again, after a brief season of liberty, confirmed criminals. Many of our prisons receive yearly as high as 82 per cent. of first offenders who have no trade.
Third: It is a well known fact that more than half our criminal population are recidivists or backsliders in crime. A great wrong is committed on the community when we send a criminal away for a definite period, and afterward turn him loose upon the community. If the offender is known as a rounder, or habitual criminal, by all means send him to a prison colony and keep him there for the remainder of his life, or till cured. Our criminal population grows yearly, and we are compelled to build new prisons and reformatories, simply because our penalogical ideas are impracticable, if not archaic. Not only are we making no progress, but some kinds of crime are alarmingly on the increase.
I do not regard the habitual criminal as beyond the hope of reformation. I believe there is a tender chord in his heart that can be touched, if we go about it in the right way.
But it is an outrage to turn such a man out of prison or penitentiary, after a limited term of confinement, without a home to go to, or a place to work. If they know him, they will not receive him, nor give him employment. And the police will arrest him on sight as a suspicious character, and railroad him back to prison. The State should provide employment, and a home for such a person until he gets on his feet again, or keep him in jail.
The fourth and last mentioned in this classification is the criminal of circumstances. This man may have snatched a pocketbook from the hand of a lady, or stolen a loaf of bread when his wife was sick at home, and his children crying for food. Such a person should not be branded as a criminal. He should be paroled on his good behavior. To send such a person to prison is simply to make a criminal of him.
Our State has been in the business of punishing criminals for more than a hundred years, during which time millions of dollars have been wasted. Let us try classification, then endeavor to cure criminals or restrain them till they are fit to associate with the law-abiding people of the Nation. This is real prison reform.
I think that such a Board of Criminal Experts as suggested here would have fewer indictments, but more convictions. And we would need fewer jails and Courts of Justice. We would save the taxpayers millions of dollars yearly, but immeasurably more important than all these, we would come nearer to doing justice to all men, and the rights of the people would be more justly safeguarded than they are to-day.
(Since I first recommended the abolition of the Grand Jury in an article of mine that appeared in the New York Press of March, 1906, and later in Van Norden’s Magazine, to whom I give due credit, other reformers have spoken on the same subject, but have made no mention of the one who first called attention to the matter, which is manifestly unfair.)
CHAPTER XIII
SCHOOLS OF CRIME
Crime, like many of the diseases that afflict the human body, is both infectious and contagious, and criminal principles can be taught to old and young as easy as the alphabet or any of the profoundest sciences.
As the larger part of our population dwell in cities and these cities are recruited from the immigrants that come to our shores, it is reasonable to believe that many of them, if not criminals already, come with criminal instincts, so that the rising generation who are the offspring of crooks are sure to be criminal.
According to the present statistics, the United States leads the world in criminality. Hitherto, Italy and Russia were the leaders, but now the United States surpasses all others.
It seems that for every million of inhabitants the United States furnished 115 known relapsed criminals, Italy 105, Russia 90, England 27, France 19, Germany 18. Not only do we make criminals ourselves, but we import them through our defective immigration laws. Congress could partly remedy this evil against a free people by closing our immigration doors for the next twenty years. But our political party leaders, who rule the people, are afraid to do this, hence our rapid growth in crime, partly through immigration.
As a matter of fact, when crooks get together, no matter what their sex or age may be, they are sure to brag of their criminal accomplishments, and escapades. It is in such an atmosphere that crime is taught, and especially among the young. To a beginner in crime who hears them, all such utterances are exceedingly interesting, and much of it is sure to make a deep and lasting impression for evil. As a rule, many criminals are exceedingly garrulous and talk much, and when they tell a rosy tale of how to get money or valuables without working for them, the whole thing seems captivating. Frequently such a story carries a new beginner in crime off his feet. It is in this manner that our jails, reformatories and houses of refuge become schools of crime.
It is the general opinion of the leaders of bench and bar that crime is carefully and systematically planned and taught in our prisons. The fact is that more than fifty per cent. of all our first offenders return to jail a second time, showing clearly that rather than being weaned from such a life by the imprisonment, many of them are encouraged to continue it.
When I have asked boys and young men why they returned to crime a second time, they informed me that while inmates of different prisons and reform schools, they learned scientifically how to become pickpockets, thieves, second-story men, and burglars. That is, they were taught it.
In some of the prisons which I have visited at different times, such as Sing Sing, Auburn, and Elmira, the inmates have not the same opportunity of speaking to each other, as the law is strictly enforced to prevent such communications.
But in the City and District Prisons of Greater New York, Blackwell’s Island Penitenetiary, the House of Refuge, the reformatories and county jails without number, where old and young crooks are huddled together, they are permitted to communicate their ideas as they please. My opinion is that all such places are simply schools of crime.
My cure for such a condition of affairs is entire isolation, segregation and classification, and the inculcation of moral and religious teaching.
The old adage, that prevention is better than cure, is as true to-day as ever. And yet our law-making bodies and prison authorities seem to forget all about it in this mad age. Recent statistics show that crime among young people is alarmingly on the increase, and one of the main reasons for it is what may be termed “criminal contamination.” But little or nothing is done to prevent it.
Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist mentions the case of a crafty old Jew, named Fagan, who was known to the London police as a “fence,” or receiver of stolen property. Fagan carried on a business much like that of a pawnbroker, in advancing money on all the “stuff” or stolen goods that was brought to him. He had a number of confederates of both sexes in his employment. They were adepts at the business, and could destroy the identity of all the stolen property which he purchased daily from his thievish customers.
Fagan always kept on hand a dozen of boys, whom he called apprentices. These with the aid of dummy figures, dressed in male and female attire, he carefully taught the art of pocket-picking. As soon as they had learned the business, they were sent out in pairs into the thoroughfares of London, where they “worked” rich men and women for all they were worth, and often brought back large quantities of plunder. Fagan was finally captured “with the goods,” and hanged for his crime. This is the origin of what is known in criminal parlance as “Faganism.”
Within twenty-five years “Faganism” has become a profitable business in the New World. This is especially true of New York, where strong evidence of “Faganism” is presented in our criminal courts from time to time.
The work is done by a gang of greedy, diabolical wretches who teach boys and girls to pick pockets and when they become experts send them forth to steal in the street, street cars and large stores. The work is so carefully and systematically done by our East Side “Fagans” that they are able to cover their tracks so as to elude detection. It is a shocking state of affairs to be told by the District Attorney’s detectives as well as many settlement workers who live among these people, that many of the police are in league with the “Fagans” and share their plunder.
Detective Reardon has made a study of “Faganism” on the East Side the past few years and has been able to “run down” scores of criminals of this grade. In about two months Mr. Reardon has been able to make 178 arrests for pocket-picking, besides breaking up a score of “Fagan Schools” where boys and girls from ten to seventeen years of age were taught how to steal. Several well known thieves named Meyer Lewis, Cockeye Meyer, Joseph Monkey and Fitch who were proved to be “Fagans” were sent to jail and their business broken up.
As soon as a “Fagan” is arrested he at once offers the police a big bribe not to expose him and in some cases it is accepted with the result that Fagan still remains in business and divides the spoils with the police. This was the experience of Miss Wold and Detective Reardon who made a thorough investigation of East Side conditions several months ago.
As a rule our modern “Fagans” are very foxy. The boys and girls sent uptown to the Fifth Avenue stores and thoroughfares are well dressed while those down town are dressed like school children and frequently carry a bunch of books in their arms. The New York police will have to change their tactics entirely else they will never “run down” these criminals.
In a great city like New York we must expect such criminal combinations to defeat the ends of justice by teaching children to steal and then receive the plunder, but when such persons are caught they should get the extreme limit of the law and be shown little or no mercy. They are the worst kind of degenerates.
Recently four Central Office detectives found a “Fagan” headquarters on East Third Street in this city, run by a notorious “fence” named “Gaunt” whom they arrested with four others. The revelations came through a Tombs prisoner named Herman Doritz who made a sworn statement to the Court that he, with many others, was taught the art of thieving in Teddy Gaunt’s School of Crime. There were forty pupils in the school and after their graduation these lads were scattered over the city in large stores, where they stole thousands of dollars worth of goods besides pocket books and jewelry. As soon as the “fence” received the stolen property he took pains at once to destroy its identity. Then he sent men out to sell it at half its real value. In this way the boys said he made big money at the business.
Now, whenever the police arrest a juvenile criminal they put him through the “third degree” to see whether or not he was taught in a School of Crime. This is proper. But the cause of much of this must be laid to our high living, fevered home life, grasping after the dollar and the lack of moral training in our homes and schools.
I have no hesitation in saying that the Boys’ Prison of the Tombs is a prolific School of Crime!
What would I do about these things? Well, when love had failed I would treat the teachers and scholars of our Schools of Crime to a dose of corporal punishment. But some one says this is degrading. So it is. But what is more degrading, blighting and damning than crime! Give them their choice.
CHAPTER XIV
YOUTHFUL DELINQUENTS AND THE CHILDREN’S COURT
The dense population of the lower parts of the city, the narrow streets, the ubiquitous gin mill and the dirty tenements all combine to make New York the centre of the most accessible temptations—temptations that swiftly carry ruin and demoralization to hundreds of boys and girls every year.
Perhaps it is not generally known that some of the toughest and most daring of our present-day criminals began their downward career at a tender age. There is something blushingly heroic in crime—made so by the dime novel, which the boy of the tenement reads and then emulates by personal example.
It would be most difficult to assign a reason that would explain all the conditions that have led young people into crime, but we are sure that vicious and intemperate homes, biting poverty and the godless companions of the streets have had much to do with the criminal records made by this class during the past quarter of a century.
When we think of the multiplication of evil resorts, such as the saloons, play houses, bawdy houses, gambling hells, policy shops and other places that harbor young lads for drinking and carousing purposes, my only wonder is that so few go astray.
These temptations to crime which are presented in every form to the youth of a modern city are altogether unknown in rural settlements and country villages.
A Scene in the Children’s Court, corner of Eleventh Street and Third Avenue.
We are glad to say that only a very small number of the child criminals are girls. And the reason for their downfall in almost every case is due to bad homes and profligate parents.
One of the things that impress the visitor to the Tombs prison is the large number of poverty struck faces he meets, the sallow complexions, the sunken cheeks, hectic cough, the glassy eyes and stooping frames, all indicating that the young manhood has been harshly dealt with. Some of these boys are so diminutive, that they look as if they were only ten or twelve years of age, when in reality they are sixteen or eighteen.
Here is a sample conversation with a small boy:
“Hello Johnny, how are you to-day?”
He replies, “I ain’t doing well.”
“What brought you here?” He hangs his head and gives no answer.
“How old are you?” “I ain’t only sixteen.”
“Are your parents living?” “Mother has been dead since I was six years old. But pa, he is living. He gets drunk so often that me runs away from home.” “But how did you get here?” “Oh, when I was hungry I stole money to buy food.”
This will account in some measure for the boy’s fall. Think of it—a boy without a mother in a large city like New York! After I had made an investigation I found out that his father was an idler and dissipated and took no interest in his family, and the boy has been under no religious influence since his mother died. Poor boy! His only playground was the street with the denizens of the tenements as his associates, and most of them evil. He hated his home and was glad to get away from it, because there he learned to drink, carouse and curse like his father. That home to him was pandemonium! No wonder he was a thief and in prison.
A great many children of the tenements learn to drink beer when very young. They are sent by their parents to the saloon with the “growler” and are sure to drink the beer out of the pail before they return home. Although it is illegal to sell to children of this age, saloon keepers take chances for the money. Thus the child forms an appetite for strong drink and is preparing to be a drunkard or a prostitute.
One day I found a chubby, honest-faced German boy behind the bars. He came alone from the Fatherland when he was twelve years of age. An uncle, a farmer in a Western state, awaited his arrival and took him to his new home. Here he made him work like a slave, giving him no opportunity for either secular or religious education. Herman stood it a few years, then ran away. He worked his way East by stealing rides on freight trains. He would have died of starvation on the way had not the train hands to whom he told his tale of adventure taken pity on him and generously shared their food with him and smuggled him over the different roads till he got to New York. Here he wandered around the city looking for work, but found none. Unfortunately he was found one night in company with two young thieves and was arrested on suspicion. He lay in prison several weeks. After a thorough investigation we were able to show that he was an honest boy. Before going out, I gave him a note to a Y. M. C. A. worker, who gave him some clothing and food and lodging for two weeks, and then secured for him a position. Some months afterwards I found Herman in a mission settlement as one of the workers. He was clean and neatly dressed. What a transformation from the dirty, ragged condition he was in when in prison!
The large foreign population of New York and the dense ignorance of those who come from some of the countries of Europe is constantly in evidence in the criminal courts. As near as we can estimate, for we have no accurate information on the subject, about one-half the number of persons arrested in this city every year are either foreign by birth or parentage.