Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein, speaking yesterday afternoon before the Brooklyn section, National Council of Jewish Women, 285 Schermerhorn street, stressed the need of what he termed “preventive law.” His complete talk follows:
“Blindfolding the Goddess of Justice was doubtless intended to convey the thought of an impersonal justice. There lies the fundamental evil. Abstract justice may be impersonal, but its application by human beings to human beings cannot and should not be impersonal. The impersonal conception of justice has caused the placing of too much emphasis on the offense and too little on the offender. The amount involved does not determine the sordidness of the crime, nor the degradation of the thief. The commandment “Thou shalt not steal” was not divided on the basis of amounts or methods.
RE-CODIFYING LAWS
“There is as much need for preventive law as for preventive medicine. Preventive medicine has made for longer and better life. Preventive law would make for better citizenship and greater respect for constituted authority. In the State of New York we have 2400 sections of the Penal law, nearly 1000 sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure, over 100 sections of the Inferior Criminal Courts Act, over 1000 crimes enumerated in the general laws, over 1000 Federal Penal Statutes. Manifestly, even the possibility as well as the probability of decent citizens coming into conflict with the law, certainly in its less serious phases, is great. What we do not know we cannot respect. The laws should be re-codified and made simple enough for the average citizen. Defendants as members of society present social problems. Each offense, each defendant, is a separate problem to society as a whole. The more spent for social service in connection with our courts, the less will be spent by the taxpayers for the upkeep of Penal institutions.
“To direct human beings in the proper channels is much more important than to throw them behind prison doors. To administer justice without the aid of social service is as impossible as building without tools.”
Mrs. Murray Hearn presided.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
