Wills, Thomas A.

English

University of Miami School of Law

University of Miami Law SchoolInstitutional RepositoryUniversity of Miami Law Review2-1-1952CONTEMPORARY CORRECTION. By Paul W.Tappan, Editor. New York: McGraw-Hill BookCompany, Inc., 1951.Thomas A. WillsFollow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlrThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami LawReview by an authorized administrator of Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact library@law.miami.edu.Recommended CitationThomas A. Wills, CONTEMPORARY CORRECTION. By Paul W. Tappan, Editor. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1951., 6U. Miami L. Rev. 274 (1952)Available at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol6/iss2/18BOOK REVIEWSCONTEMPORARY CORRECrION. By Paul W. Tappan, Editor. New York:McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1951. Pp. 434. $5.50.This book about the treatment of criminals and delinquents has thirty-one authors, whose specialties combine to make up the field of correctivepenology in contemporary United States practice and thinking. The volumegrew out of the program in Correctional Administration in the GraduateDivision for Public Service at New York University, at which institutionEditor Paul W. Tappan, Ph.D., Jur.Se.D., is Professor of Sociology andLecturer in Law. For the development of that program, and of this book,Dr. Tappan thanks especially Austin MacCormick, James V. Bennett, San-ford Bates and other present and past authorities in the Federal Bureau ofPrisons.The book is divided into five sections: Correction; Preliminary Con-siderations (objectives and methods- statistics -training workers); Admini-strative Organization and Classification (the Federal prison system-Stateorganizations for correctional administration - classification - reception cen-ters- the Youth Authority plan- the service unit); Programs in the Correc-tional Institution (custody- discipline -religious, medical, psychological andeducational services-group therapy -employment and labor); Types of Cor-rectional Institutions (architecture- women's institutions - jails - reformator-ies-juvenile detention and training institutions); Extramural Treatment(parole -probation- prevention - the future in correctional work)."It would be unrealistic to anticipate a singleness of view among allleaders in a field such as correction," Editor Tappan comments. "Variationof opinion is an evidence of its dynamic character. There has been no effortto minimize the differences in view, but it may be observed in the readingthat there is a rather remarkable measure of consensus among effectiveleaders in the field as to the objectives and even as to the measures oftreatment."This area of consensus among the writers will afford small confort tothe reader who would convert criminals into useful citizens by the primitiveexpedient of making them as uncomfortable as possible. Whatever theirdisagreements, the thirty-one writers of the book justly are introduced, aswell, by a Sanford Bates foreword which says in part:It is time to look facts in the face. Whatever may be ourultimate philosophy as to the treatment of the criminal, it shouldbe an informed one. There has been too much reliance upon thesimple and convenient formula that swift and sure punishment isthe only cure for crime. We should be ready with data, statistics,and sound reasoning to buttress our belief that other things than274BOOK REVIEWSpunishment enter into the task of crime correction. If it can beshown, as surely it can, that those jurisdictions that rely most heavilyupon punishment also support the highest crime rates, and thatthose jurisdictions which have advanced to the point of attemptingto understand the criminal and forestall his activities through pre-ventive measures have the least amount of crime, the facts mustbe revealed.With this gently hard-boiled viewpoint, few if any of the writers seemto be in basic disagreement. They eschew emotionalism with brisk contempt,and find little utility and nothing of professionalism in the view that punish-ment means nothing "and that all criminals are products of forces outsidethemselves, or are to be regarded as sick individuals."When society copes with conduct abhorrent to it, the editor points out,the criminal, the victim, the innocent bystander and the general public eachhas interests at stake, none of which can be fully satisfied and even whenwise compromises in objectives can be made, much difference of opinionstill remains as to the specific methods of treatment by which the goalscan be attained.Against retribution as a goal, Dr. Tappan is uncompromising, thougheven here he acknowledges - with a nod to Aristotle - a deep public needfor the criminal's expiation to "restore a balance" in society. But whileadmitting that same service may be performed to society through the chan-nelizing of sadistic and aggressive impulses of the community against thecriminal, Tappan concludes that more harm than good is done throughpunishment that is retributive in purpose.He disagrees, however, with those "criminological idealists" who vehe-mently deny that punishment has any effect in deterring crime. The doctrineof deterrance is a basic tenet of the classical school of criminology in itsreaction against the penological harshness of the late eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries. Reflecting the influences of twentieth-century depthpsychology, Dr. Tappan considers that the greatest danger in deterrent pun-ishment lies in the readiness with which its theories may be used as abenign mask for true, underlying motives of savagery and revenge."Granting the dangers .. .[however] ...the penal law is neverthelessdeterrent in intention and effect," he writes. Its intimidations are essentialto the protection of society. It is wholly unrealistic to deny effect to thegeneral awareness of the policeman's stick and revolver, of the speed cop'ssiren, of the special danger in Federal violations, and of the prison's livingentombment. These threats are acutely real to potential offenders."But it would be just as misleading to suggest that deterrent punishmentis the major remedy in the view of these correctional authorities, as to accusethem of wanting to "coddle" criminals. Tappan regards deterrent punish-ment as a necessary, but negative, goal. Most-applauded of today's positivegoals in correction is rehabilitation, and very much of the book deals withthis surprisingly ramified problem. Prison architecture, politics, work versusMIAMI LAW QUARTERLYidleness, classification and grouping of prisoners arc just a few of its aspects.No panaceas are offered.For lawyers, this remarkable symposium has value. To the professionmost active in law-making, it shows needs, trends, problems and suggestedsolutions.THOMAS A. WILLS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LAWUNIVERSITY OF MIAMICASES ON THE CONSTITUTION. By John P. Frank. New York: McGraw-HillBook Company, 1951. Pp. XI, 339. $3.50.This is not a casebook for a law school course but as supplementaryreading for a number of undergraduate courses in government this selectionof cases by Professor Frank is the most satisfactory of the half dozen suchtexts known to this reviewer. The collection has two notable merits. First,its emphasis is on recent cases of current interest; of the sixty cases, appro-ximately three-quarters stem from the Roosevelt and Truman Courts. Part-icularly in an introductory course it is necessary to provide the student withillustrative material on contemporary problems if his interest is to be fullyaroused. The fact that but few of the earlier cases are represented (only nineare dated prior to 1900) does not mean that the historical background 'islacking, for Professor Frank has in his explanatory notes, which occupyalmost a third of the book, adequately set forth the background and thedoctrinal precedents. To this teacher this method is preferable to that ofgiving the classical cases and then using notes to explain the later develop-ments.The second merit lies in the emphasis on civil rights which ProfessorFrank uses as "a loose term to describe those liberties of the citizen in thefields of politics, religion, race relations and criminal law." This large pro-portion of civil rights cases can be explained in part by the fact that suchmatters have been the particular concern of the Roosevelt Court and tosome extent of the Truman Court. Another explanation is that with thedemise of substantive due process in 1937, constitutional limitations are nowconfined almost altogether to the political and personal liberties of the in-dividual. One may also believe that Professor Frank has given deliberateemphasis to these cases in a time when the political scene is largely dominat-ed by a race between some of our domestic zealots and the Russians todetermine which group will abolish our liberties. The opinions of the dis-senters in the recent freedom of expression cases may perhaps have someinfluence in counteracting the drive for national conformity which is tendingto produce a nation of political Milquetoasts.Professor Frank has broken away from the novel approach of his lawschool casebook in constitutional law in which the material was arrangedchronologically. Here he has divided the cases categorically although not

CONTEMPORARY CORRECTION. By Paul W. Tappan, Editor. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1951.

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CONTEMPORARY CORRECTION. By Paul W. Tappan, Editor. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1951.

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