Jail Week Ends

During the first week Judge Jacob Gitelman sat on Rochester, N. Y.'s City Court bench in 1934, he laid down the rule that every drunken driver was going to jail. Because one truck driver pleaded that a straight jail sentence would cost him his job, thereby taking away support from a wife and six children, Judge Gitelman sentenced the offender to spend six Sundays in the Monroe County Penitentiary. Legality of Judge Gitelman's experiment was questioned, however, because Section 2188 of New York Law says "once a sentence starts it must not be interrupted." To remove this obstacle to interrupted jail terms, last year bills were introduced in the Legislature to amend the law, but Governor Herbert Lehman vetoed them on the ground that the weekend sentence idea had not been tried out enough for State-wide adoption. He suggested legislation be passed applicable only to Rochester.

Last week in Albany the Governor signed the new bill. Next day in Rochester City Court a radio repairman named Maurice Thomas, 33, pleaded guilty to intoxication after his car smashed into a bus. Said Judge Gitelman as he sentenced him to spend three week ends in jail: "This law is to be used only when the court feels a straight sentence endangers a man's job. His family does not suffer, he is only deprived of his valued leisure time." Repairman Thomas' jail week ends will run from sundown Saturday until sundown Sunday.

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