Taming the Criminal: Adventures in Penology [Lewis Lawes's Copy] by [PRISONS & PRISON REFORM] GILLIN, John Lewis - 1931

New York: Macmillan Company, 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. Study of penological practices across the globe, from the criminal tribes in India, Japanese penal institutions, and the Parchman prison farm in Mississippi. Provenance: From the library of Sing Sing Correctional Facility prison warden and author of the 1932 memoir "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" Lewis Lawes, his bookplate featuring a cartoon of Lawes at his desk, a repeat prisoner standing before him, the speech bubble eminating from his mouth: "I'm in again boss to return your book." By the time Lawes retired from his post in 1941 he had overseen 303 executions, though he was best known for prison reform and the policy of treating his prisoners like humans rather than unreformable criminals. The book plate may very well be an example of prisoner art based on the crudeness of the illustration. Octavo (22cm.); publisher's maroon gilt-lettered buckram; vii,[7],318pp.; photographic frontispiece, eleven leaves of photographs printed on rectos and versos. Boards rather rubbed with exposure at spine ends and corners, tiny soil spot to upper cover, endpapers toned with a few chips at top edge of front free endpaper, else Very Good, internally sound. Pictorial ownership ex libris to front pastedown of Sing Sing prison warden Lewis Lawes (1883-1947).