The Crime Commission of New York State (Caleb H. Baumes, chairman) has lately wrought upon U. S. penal codes the most signal changes of the decade. The Baumes grading of punishments for repeated felonies, topped off by life imprisonment for a fourth conviction regardless of degree, has been the model for tightened laws in many a state. The theory underlying the Baumes code is that crime is disease, that habitual criminals are chronic patients. Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith of New York appeared before the Baumes commission a fortnight ago and elaborated...
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