XV
WOMEN OFFENDERS AND THE LAW
The Constitution of the United States guarantees to a person accused of crime a trial by an impartial jury, or by a jury of one’s peers. The handling of cases against women offenders has little regard for that guarantee. Discriminations against women who have come in contact with the law are the custom.
If any one is inclined to doubt this, let him imagine the case reversed and applied to himself. Suppose a man accused of an offense against the law should be accused by a woman, arrested by a woman, held in jail by a woman, tried in a court-room filled with women, before a jury composed only of women, and sentenced by a woman judge. Would such a man feel that he was getting impartial justice given him by his peers?
Also in the treatment of cases involving sex, the penalty of the law rests heavily on the woman and the man usually goes free. Sex immorality is a crime for a woman, but the man, the partner in the crime, is rarely touched by the law. Until recently in New York State, even pandering, or living off the earnings of a prostitute, was classed, as it still is in some other States, as disorderly conduct, in the same class of offenses as selling a street-car transfer. In some States adultery is still a misdemeanor. It did not become a criminal offense in New York until 1907, and it is still almost impossible to obtain a conviction unless there are some unusually revolting circumstances. Many cases have come into the courts of the State where women have been arrested in a raid on a disorderly house, and where the men found with them have been released, and the women held.
The large majority of the arrests of women are for the two offenses of intoxication, and prostitution or street-walking. The usual sentence for both of these offenses is commitment to the workhouse for from eleven to sixty days. Nearly half the cases of intoxication are of old offenders who are sentenced over and over again. Some years ago the Legislature passed a measure making provision for a State farm where these women could be sent for care and treatment, and where they could have useful occupation; but it has not yet been established.
Prostitution: The same sentence to the workhouse for varying periods of from five to ninety days, or even six months, is the common one for prostitution. It is doubtful if a sentence of this kind has ever been of the slightest benefit to any woman so sentenced. The usual court procedure is a mill through which this class of unhappy beings goes, without either their reformation being accomplished, or their danger being lessened to the community. When it is realized also, that a considerable percentage of these women are feeble-minded or at least sub-normal, the necessity of facilities for examination and classification and proper segregation are apparent.
The entire process of dealing with the problem of public prostitution in New York City is one that is revolting from a woman’s viewpoint. To rid the streets of street-walkers and to keep them “clean,” a force of police in plain clothes patrols the streets. These police are usually the new men on the force selected for their youth and good looks. Promotion often rests on the number of arrests that they make. A smile or a nod, and a girl may respond. If she speaks, an arrest can and often does follow.
This kind of training for the young men of the police force is degrading to them. Also, the fact that arrests in nine cases out of ten are those of women of the street, does not preclude the possibility of the arrest of a silly, ignorant, but innocent girl. Brought into court, the presumption is that she is guilty.
There is always a first arrest for any offender against the law. The records of the magistrates’ courts show that nearly one-third of the women’s cases brought into court are first offenders. Called for the first time before a judge in an open court-room, incoherent with fright, the girl is often unable to say a word for herself. If she is fined, or sentenced to the workhouse, or held in detention pending investigation, and is kept in association with other women of degraded lives, the chances of her being reclaimed are practically gone.
The law holds an accused person innocent until proved guilty, but a woman accused of a crime against morality has to prove that she is innocent. Under the usual court procedure, a prostitute is outside the protection of the law and her word has no value in the court.
Night Courts have been established in order that offenders arrested at night, after the day courts have closed, may come immediately before a magistrate, without having to spend the night in jail awaiting trial. There are separate night courts for women in New York City, and all arrests for prostitution or loitering are tried in these courts.
The motive behind the establishment of the Women’s Night Court is humanitarian, but it is there that one sees the discrimination against women as the fundamental of the proceedings.
Women are sentenced to terms in prison for offenses far less serious than those for which men are discharged. The discrimination against women, and in favor of men, even extends to the cadet, who pursues the most shameful business in the world, that of exploiting unfortunate women. Until a few years ago the maximum penalty for such a man was six months in the workhouse.
The law now permits a sentence of from two to twenty years, but convictions are rare. Nearly every prostitute is exploited by some man who takes her earnings, and on whom she relies to protect her from the police. If these cadets and procurers could be eliminated it would greatly diminish professional prostitution, but they are most difficult to reach. The women they exploit will often perjure themselves to save these men from the vengeance of the law. Also, the fact that no conviction can be had on the testimony of the woman unless supported by corroborative evidence, makes her afraid to testify against one of them.
The Penalty of Fines: Imposing a fine as a punishment for prostitution should be absolutely prohibited. It does not act as a restraint, and simply means that the woman must go out on the street to earn her fine, and it makes the State a partner to her crime. It has been abolished in practice by some judges; but it is still the custom in some courts in New York State, and is even imposed by some judges in New York City. A bill to abolish fines throughout the State was introduced in the Legislature of 1916, but failed to pass.
Young Girls: Girls between the ages of sixteen and eighteen are in the most dangerous period of life. Figures show that the great majority of girls who become prostitutes are ruined before they reach seventeen years of age.
A girl of sixteen in New York State is too old for the Children’s Court. She may therefore be held in jail with the hardened street-walker and the habitual drinker. If she is without the protection of home or family, she may be left alone, for the State makes no provision for a guardian for her unless she has property, when the State is required to provide one for her.
Delinquency, thefts, and misdemeanors on the part of young girls are often the results of natural instincts gone wrong. Love of pleasure, a desire for pretty things, and a wish to be attractive is common to all girls. A false step, a yielding to temptation, followed by an arrest and a trial in an open court-room, often mean an ordeal which leaves an indelible mark on the girl’s soul, and a disgrace which it is almost impossible for her to live down.
Girl Victims: The most pitiful cases are those of very young girls brought into court as the victims of crime. It is difficult to get conviction in these cases, as corroborative evidence is necessary. The shock to the sensibilities of such a girl at having to tell her story to men and having to answer questions in an open court-room can scarcely be exaggerated. The need of women in places of authority, to help in cases of such crimes, is great. Women probation officers are only the first step in the right direction, but there are too few of them, and whenever a movement is made toward economy, they are the first to be dismissed.
Houses of Detention: A great need of New York City, and a need shared by every city in the State, is a proper place of detention for women. As delinquent children are now separated from older offenders, so delinquent girls, first offenders and old offenders, and other classes of women who are held awaiting trial, or for investigation, or as witnesses, should not be obliged to associate indiscriminately with one another while awaiting the disposition of their cases.
The need of a building large enough to provide for the separate detention of the various classes of women who are in the care of the court has been recognized, but so far little provision has been made to meet it. In other places in the State, wherever there is a court, there is need of a place of detention for women where they will be safe from degrading influences, and where they will be under the care of other women.
Women Judges or Judges’ Assistants: The system which has been instituted in Chicago since women were given the vote, of a quiet talk with a woman assistant in the Court of Special Sessions, in her own private office, instead of an open trial, has resulted in saving many a girl who otherwise would have become an outcast. In certain intimate matters it is a woman’s task to question girls. Contrast the picture of an open court-room: the judge on the bench, the jury, if there is one, composed of men, the room filled with men of all descriptions, and the frightened, trembling child, with this private room with the young offender telling her story alone to an experienced woman. Which offers the best chance for saving the girl from a ruined life?
Frequently the girl comes from a family where crowded living conditions make decent living almost impossible. Instead of her first offense coming up for inevitable punishment, it is treated with the sole object of prevention and cure.
Judges in New York State cannot appoint women assistants without authority from the Legislature, and that authority the Legislature has always refused to give.
Policewomen, or Women Protective Officers, are now recognized as a necessary part of the correctional work of a city. The work of the woman protective officer is very different from that of the policeman. The policewoman protects and controls, rather than arrests. In protecting children, in caring for lost children, in acting as mother to the motherless, in watching over young girls, in getting evidence against cadets, she does an invaluable work. The disorderly saloon, the dance-hall, and the moving-picture theater are all hunting-grounds for the white-slaver. In getting evidence in this sort of crime she is more effective than the policeman. There are policewomen now in fifty cities of the United States.
That the whole subject of prostitution and the law is a most difficult one to deal with, there can be no question. It needs the combined intelligence of both men and women engaged not only in theorizing over the problem, but in actual efforts to grapple with it. Until public opinion supports the single standard of morality, the courts will continue to discriminate against women.
Unfortunately, women of all ages, even very young girls, are arrested. Sometimes they are guilty, sometimes innocent, sometimes sinned against, sometimes only the victims of circumstances, but always unfortunate. Their misfortune and its results on their lives are more terrible than they need be, because they are usually deprived of the help of women in places of authority.
In the Chicago Court of Morals women are welcome, and there are women court officers, women police, and women probation officers who create an atmosphere entirely different from the usual court-room. There is also no division of sex; when it is a question of morality, the man and woman are both held. A physical examination is made by a woman physician. When a woman is found to be diseased she is sent to a hospital to be cured.
Some of the most progressive magistrates and judges are endeavoring to improve the methods of handling cases of women offenders, but it would seem that wherever the welfare and disposition of women are involved other women should be part of the machinery which deals with them. This is not so much because of sentimental considerations, for in some cases women would be less influenced by sentiment than men, but there are certain peculiarities, tendencies, and experiences common to each sex which only those of that sex can understand. In all cases of women offenders against the law other women must be concerned, and should be equally responsible with men for their handling and disposition.