Extermination of Habitual Criminals
The extermination of the habitual criminal—his removal like a weed from a garden—was advocated today in a startling address made in Minneapolis to the Interstate Sheriffs' Association by Charles W. Peters, chief deputy sheriff of Cook County.
The unexpected suggestion that the man who will not reform ought to be slain by legal means aroused much discussion in Chicago among ministers, lawyers and laymen.
Leniency for first offenders, parole for the worthy, an adult probation law, were advocated by Mr. Peters, who then insisted that in cases where life has proved a failure, where efforts of reformation have been ineffectual and the criminal is a body sore on the social system, that extermination should be resorted to.
Only One True Reform.
Furthermore, he created intense surprise by his assertion that in twenty years' experience in handling criminals he could recall only one case of true reformation on the part of an "habitual."
The Hon. and Mrs. JOHN L. WHITMAN, Chicago, Ill.
Mr. Whitman is Superintendent of the Bridewell. They have been friends to thousands in need of friends.
