International Prison Congress Addresses Crime
The annual cost of crime to the United States Government is a billion dollars a year. Noted European and American criminologists assembled as the eighth international prison congress at Washington, October 2 to 8. In discussing the question of minimizing criminal offenses, the following are some of the questions which came up: Is the death penalty longer advisable for capital crimes? Is a crime more serious when a group commits it than when one person commits it? What are the essential principles of a modern reformatory system? What are the effects of probation? How shall we deal best with the tramp and the vagrant? What can be done to assist prisoners' families? How can we deal best with inebriety? Should children be treated as criminals when they violate the law? What can be done about idle and vagrant children in large cities? etc. Chairman O. F. Lewis asked: “What can be done to make fewer criminals? That is the question, and the purpose of this international convention is to bring the best thought and experience of the world to bear on the great issue.”