Menninger attacks criminal procedure
Who's the criminal—the accuser or the accused? Dr. Karl Menninger of Topeka's famed Menninger Foundation, asked approximately 4,000 persons in Hoch Auditorium yesterday afternoon. He presented a plea for modern, humane treatment of law breakers.
Dr. Menninger termed America's criminal procedure "ancient and unseintic."
"It produces more crime than it prevents," he said. "Ninety percent of all criminals are never apprehended. Most of the prisons are filled with repeaters."
PUBLIC RECOGNITION of both prison conditions, and the state of the American legal system must come before progress can be made, the doctor said. "If people knew about the prison system they would want to correct it. The idea of vengeance should die out among educated people. Christians say turn the other cheek, only they are afraid the Lord won't get around to it soon enough."
Dr. Menninger termed the word criminal a "great sin of categorization," and said the title describes only one facet of an offender's personality. He described lawbreakers as lonely, stigmatized and usually from a lower economic strata. "They are branded by society," and society dictates "once a criminal always a criminal," he said. "Circumstances that most of us can scarcely imagine have led them in wrong directions. Their lives have not fallen in pleasant places. They have hurt us, they have hurt themselves worse."
A CRIMINAL ACT carried out in a fit of temper, or because a person is starving does not excuse the person from a charge. Dr. Menninger said. He added that often the public is willing to term some facet of their behavior or personality as being "sick." "But psychiatrists don't say all criminals are sick—they say pathological behavior. Thi means they can be treated. The public just brands them."
Dr. Menninger said major changes in the criminal system are needed. He gave rehabilitation of law offenders as an important area under consideration, adding "they don't do much to help people in prisons.
"In most cases these fellow citizens who commit crimes are potentially restorable to fellow citizenship, and in the meantime it is their natural God-given desert that we do not commit crimes against them, but rather that we employ the scientific knowledge which has increased so vastly in recent years toward the salvage, the rehabilitation, the redirection and the preservation of these fellow beings."
A breakthrough came when the Kansas legislature approved a diagnostic center, Dr. Menninger said. The first of its kind in the U.S., it will decide the best way to handle offenders after they are convicted, upon evaluation of all aspects of their personalities.
"In most instances these fellows can be rehabilitated," he said.
Speaker asks for TV tax
A government tax for television owners would improve the quality of American programs, according to Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver, former president of the National Broadcasting Company.
Exchanging ideas with Robert Lewis Shayon, critic and professor of the school of communications at the University of Pennsylvania, Weaver suggested that the money should be used to televise cultural programs.
The two men spoke at a speech and drama colloquium yesterday.
"After a 12-year struggle people are finally accepting Ultra High Frequency (UHF) stations, and in five years they will accept pay-TV," said Weaver.
WEAVER'S PLAN WOULD allow the viewer to select from 25 or 30 channels according to their specialities of current events, sports, drama, etc. Major networks would still draw their large audiences, he feels, but the viewer would not be limited to only three choices.
Shayon, while favoring this innovation, said exposure to better programming may not bring a public trend toward more cultural shows.
Weaver said, given this advantage, the average man will communicate with this form of program and will benefit from it.
meeting of the producers of the 10 top TV programs at least one predicted that television was headed for "total stagnation."
The television critic for the Saturday Review continued explaining network TV has come to a dead end but a profitable one for TV management.
This stagnation would come from the network's reliance on the Nielson ratings which are used as a yardstick for retaining or dropping a program. This limits experimentation since there is no money to be wasted on pilots which will fail under the Nielson ratings, said Shayon.
SHAYON SAID IN a recent
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Weaver, chairman of Subscription TV, Inc., argued that many low-rated programs are bought by sponsors for lower prices and this money could be used for experimental pilots.
Whom should you call when you're looking for places for your spring party?
Who else but the
IN PLACE OF THE recently-investigated Nielson survey, Shayon suggested that independent agencies should take larger and more varied samplings to determine viewer taste. He noted that the Nielson survey is not subjected to careful examination but is merely accepted by the networks.
Visiting professorships ($200,-000)Two new endowed visiting professorships, to bring outstanding faculty from other campuses to the University for temporary periods.
School of Law building ($750, 000)—To provide a new building for the School of Law. Higher Education Facilities Act funds in the amount of $375,000 are anticipated.
23rd & Neismith VI 3-0611
Children's Institute Building ( $175,000)—To strengthen program for handicapped children, and to bring together various teaching and research departments of the Lawrence campus. Federal funds totaling $450,000 have been authorized contingent upon KU meeting its share of the cost of the building.
Summer faculty fellowships ($892,000)—To extend the present limited program for summer faculty development.
to the sets only record what programs the set is tuned for and do not give any indication of who is viewing the program," said Shayon.
"The Nielson machines attached
Weaver said Shayon was overstating the menace of the Nielson ratings.
Daily Kansan Thursday, April 14, 1966
Following is how the $18.6 million in private funds which the Council for Progress was asked this afternoon to raise would be spent:
How council will spend its goal
Research funds ($4,000,000)— To augment federal and state funds.
Undergraduate scholarships ($2,400,000).
Endowed professorships ($800,-
-000) -Eight additional endowed
professorships, to be added to the
13 now existing here.
Graduate fellowships ($1,200,-000).
Student loans ($500,000)—A revolving fun, for emergency needs, and to match additional federal matching funds for student loans.
Museum of Art building ($1,-
000,000)—In the present building,
only 500 of the 10,000 items in the
Attention KU Students Want to fish, hike, or have a picnic Free?
FREE LAWRENCE DAY
Acquisitions Fund ($1,000,000)
—To augment special collections for the libraries and museums.
Sunday, April 17
Outdoor Theater ($300,000)—To strengthen the summer music camp and summer theater and drama programs.
Medical Research and Graduate Center ($750,000)—To centralize and accommodate the Medical Center's research functions. $750.- 000 in federal matching funds are anticipated.
Residence colleges ($1,000,000)
—Classrooms, faculty offices, and equipment to be appended to residence halls to serve as “colleges within the College” in which freshmen and sophomores could live, study and learn in a more closely knit situation. Federal matching funds at a ratio of one-to-two are anticipated for construction costs.
Four Lakes Recreation Club De Soto, Kansas Phone 143
$2 million collection can be displayed at one time.
Radiation Therapy Center ($500,000)—To obtain and house the latest equipment in the treatment of cancer, including a Betatron, which is capable of treating deep-seated cancer with minimum damage to intervening tissue and bone.
College Life
Chi Omega House April 14,9 p.m., informal
"God is Dead—So What?"
Guest Speaker: John Gottuso, B.A. Sociology, M.A. Psychology, Ph.D. Candidate Los Angeles, California
Remember: College Life Conference April 15 to 17. Rock Springs Ranch
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