Glueck Proposes Reform Measure Modernizing Mass. Penal System

A partial solution to Massachusetts' current prison woes is in the offing. Sheldon Glueck, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law, is working on a bill to reform the State's outmoded penal system. The Law School's Legislative Research Bureau is drafting the proposed measure, which will go before the legislature sometime next year.

The new bill will call for a special tribunal to handle both sentencing and parole of convicted criminals. It would take sentencing power away from the judges and vest it in a new "Adult Authority" which would have complete control over the convict until his return to society.

The legislation is based on a study Glueck conducted while a member of a Commonwealth Commission in 1953.

As proposed in the bill, the Adult Authority would comprise a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a sociologist, a cultural anthropologist, an educator, a criminologist, and a lawyer or judge. It would determine correctional procedure and psychological and social treatment appropriate to each convict. In addition it would fix the length of sentence.

Massachusetts is saddled with a haphazard system of piecemeal criminal legislation, Glueck's report states. The State lacks a unified, consistent theory of punishment and an integrative organ to coordinate the various agencies dealing with punishment and parole.

Under the suggested system each criminal would go to a Diagnostic and Classification Center immediately after conviction. The judge would not be allowed to pass sentence, and the Adult Authority would decide correction procedure after intensive study.

Glueck emphasizes that the procedure would be geared to rehabilitation. Each case would come under constant scrutiny as the treatment progressed, and sentence could be modified depending on the individual's progress.

"At the sentencing stage the best of judges is in no position to determine the length of treatment necessary for the individual case," Glueck's report states. Present Massachusetts law allows too much arbitrariness in penalties imposed for particular crimes. A coordinating body could remedy this situation, the study continues.

The legislation would be similar to a California law in force since 1944.