Books: Jogging Prisoners' Memories

THE THIRD DEGREE—Emanuel H. Lavine — Vanguard ($2).*

"Manny" Lavine, 25 years a police reporter, has seen many strange sights in station houses where he waited for a story to break. No reformer, he here reports what he has seen without indignation, seems to feel that, on the whole, criminals get what is coming to them.

Says he: 70% of all convictions are obtained by forced confessions. Mildest method: protracted questioning, sometimes going on continuously for over 24 hours, keeping the prisoner awake, thirsty, hungry. Usual method: beating the prisoner about the head and neck...

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