INTRODUCTION The Seventh Annual Conference of the New York State Association of Magistrates convened in the Hotel Astor, New York City, on January 21 and 22, 1916. Fifty-two magistrates, representing different cities and villages, together with other persons interested in the problems of the lower courts, attended the meetings. Four sessions were held, including the annual dinner. The papers and discussions were of great interest and value and will be found, slightly abridged, in the proceedings which follow. The officers and executive committee, elected to serve during the ensuing year, are as follows: President Hon. Brooklyn. - Hon. Edward J. Dooley, City Magistrate, Vice-President-Hon. Thomas H. Noonan, City Judge, Buffalo. Secretary and Treasurer - Charles L. Chute, Secretary of the State Probation Commission, Albany. The other members of the executive committee are as follows: The Conference of Magistrates is an annual event. By bring ing together the Judges of the courts throughout the State in which most of the first and lesser offenders are tried, the peculiarly important social and humanitarian as well as legal and administrative problems of these courts are discussed by the judges to whom the community has given these problems for solution. The State Probation Commission, which originally called together the judges, has continuously cooperated with them in arranging these conferences and considers this work one of the most important of its various activities. [360] PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION OF MAGISTRATES FIRST SESSION Friday, Afternoon, January 21, 1916 PRESIDENT GEORGE C. APPELL, CITY JUDGE, MOUNT VERNON: I regret to announce that Mayor Mitchel who was to address 118 at this time has been called to Washington on some important business. Commissioner of Corrections Lewis will address us in his stead. ADDRESS. HON. BURDETTE G. LEWIS, COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTIONS, NEW YORK CITY: I regret very much that Mayor Mitchel cannot he present this afternoon with you to welcome you to our great city. Because, as a lawyer, as an investigator, as Commissioner of Accounts, as an administrator and as an appointing officer, he has shown his interest in the work of the poor man's court at every turn. I am glad, however, to be here to welcome you to the city because I wish to take this opportunity to express the appreciation of our Department for the co-operation which has been given us by the courts, the district attorneys and the Police Department of the City. It isn't an easy thing to work together in this great common problem of handling the delinquents in a great city, but we have been able to put aside the little things and to co-operate to a remarkable degree. As magistrates, you, of course, are considerably interested in the Police Department of your respective cities and I am sure you cannot be less interested in the Police Department of this great city of ours. When I was in San Francisco at the Exposition the police chiefs of the country asked to see the exhibit of the New York Courts, Department of Correction and Police Department several times, and asked to have the moving pictures of the New York Police Department repeated for them three times so that they cou'd get a clear understanding of the police work of this city. You will be interested in our work here because it is true that our police department was never in so good condition as it is to-day; that it is working in harmony with the Magistrates' Courts as never before, and that the personnel of the Department was never in better condition and the esprit de corps was never so splendid as it is to-day. There are several causes for this; the most telling is perhaps because of the growth within the Department in power and influence of the young men who have been chosen as patrolmen by competitive examinations instead of being chosen along the old lines as the old-timers were. Among the immediate causes, I should enumerate perhaps as first, the fact that the Mayor upon taking office unfettered the police and 'eft them reasonably free to deal with the gangsters and thugs that prowled about the streets by day and night; and second, his persistent refusal to interfere with the detailed administration of the Police Department; and in the third place, I should say, it is due to the excellent judgment shown by the capable and resourceful Police Commissioner of the city in dealing with that force. Never before, so far as many of us can remember, never before, as far as the memory of the inspectors goes, has there been a Police Commissioner who has co-operated with his whole staff as has Commissioner Woods. As soon as he took office he well understood that the thing lacking in police headquarters was co-operation between the men in uniform with the head of the Department and he started to remedy that at once. Every two or three days he has a conference in headquarters where he calls all the officers before him and they discuss their common problems and work out plans for the common welfare of the Department as well as for the development of the work. As Magistrates, you are undoubtedly interested in experiments that are being made and developments being made with respect to the work in penal institutions as well as the work in the courts. I wish to call your attention to the Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Act which applies to cities of the first class and which has been put into effect in New York City by the appointment by the Mayor of the three citizen members of that Commission who took office on the 28th day of December. The Parole Commission provided by this law consists of five members: - the Commissioner of Correction as president; the Police Commissioner as a member (both unpaid for this position) and three other persons appointed by the Mayor for terms of two, four and six years respectively, with a provision that their successors shall be appointed by the Mayor for ten years each. This Commission has power to provide conditions under which persons committed to institutions, that is to a reformatory or a workhouse or a penitentiary in cities of the first-class, may be paroled or released from the institution. In the case of Magistrates' Courts, it applies only to the class sometimes denominated "frequent offenders," and in the case of frequent offenders where evidence shows that they have been convicted twice previously of six different offenses within twenty-four months, or three times previously during their life and then the Magistrate must impose an indeterminate sentence not to exceed two years. That is to say, the sentence may run to two years and the term of sentence is to be fixed by the Parole Commission sitting afterward. The law provides that the Magistrate making commitment of these frequent offenders may sit as a member of the Parole Commission to pass upon the eligibility for parole of the person committed to an institution by him, so that there is no clipping of the wings of the Magistrates, as some would say. The only thing done is to change the time of fixing the sentence and likewise making it necessary for a majority vote of the Parole Commission to decide the term instead of the Magistrate fixing the term himself alone while sitting in Court. That doesn't apply to the first or second offenders. The Magistrate is left as free to-day as he ever was in making any disposition in the case of first and second frequence; it is only in the case of frequent offenders that this provision of law operates. You who are acquainted with the congested calendars of the Magistrates' Courts of New York City will appreciate what that means. Here the Judges are burdened with a great number of cases, particularly by a host of frequent offenders who go around the vicious circle of arrest, trial, conviction, sentence, a ride to the workhouse, stay a few days, a ride down the river, a discharge; which routine is followed through again by the police courts, district attorney and probation officers through a vicious circle. A Some fail to appreciate what that means to the institution. commitment to the institution of these offenders under short terms. is practically useless for the reason they are not held long enough to cure them of disease. Eighty-seven per cent. of the women committed to the workhouse have been shown to have serious blood diseases in positive form. In the case of others, the pickpockets and jostlers, you cannot bring the fear of God into their hearts, if the most you can do is to give them six months. They don't mind being sent to prison provided they can go on the circuit again in the cities of the United States and then winter in New York at the expense of the city. But if a man needs to be held for more than six months and has been convicted several times previously under this Act after a careful scrutiny of his case if it seems necessary he may be held more than six months and the fear of God can be implanted in his heart so he won't return again. I would like to give you an item or two from the report of our finger-print expert of the workhouse. There were 19,809 persons committed to the workhouse in 1915. Of this number 6,249 had been there three times or more; of this number 9,338 had been at least once before; 3,089 had been there twice before; 1,157, four times; 756, five times; 550, seven times; 437, eight times; 272, ten times; 197, eleven times; and so down, running to one person who had been there thirty-seven times. Then another report, summary of the annual report, which is very interesting to us, shows that in January there were 28 persons committed to the workhouse twice within the month of January; in March 27 persons were committed twice; April 28; May 25; June 31; July 22; August 20; September 18; October 6; November 14; December 23, were committed twice within that month. During the year 1915, 242 persons were committed to the workhouse twice within a given month, and eight were there three times within a given month, One of the most difficult things we have to do is to teach these people how to work and reform them, if possible. It is pretty hard to talk to a man about reforming him if he happens to have gotten six months for the same job the other fellow got ten days for. It is a difficult thing dealing with these fellows because of the lack of uniformity in their sentences. This makes them cynical and gives them a careless attitude toward the officers of the law. You should hear their discussions of the magistrates, of their |