Proceedings, recommendations, and background files of the Governor's Conference on Crime, the Criminal and Society

Arranged by subject.

Governor Herbert Lehman called this crime conference on July 23, 1935 in response to the U.S. Attorney General's National Crime Conference held in Washington in 1934. The national conference stressed the need for a coordinated law enforcement program throughout the nation.

The New York conference, held September 30 to October 3, 1935 in Albany, was a forum for discussion of crime and crime prevention by attorneys, judges, law enforcement administrators, government officials, and others with law enforcement responsibilities or interests. The conference was conducted in four general sessions with reports from five round table (subcommittee) discussion groups.

The recommendations generated by this conference led to Governor Lehman's anti-crime program, presented to the legislature in 1936. The legislature made substantial revisions to the Code of Criminal Procedure and the County, Executive, Judiciary, Correction, and Penal Laws.

This series documents the activities and recommendations of the 1935 crime conference which served as the basis for Governor Lehman's anti-crime program of 1936.

The series includes: transcripts of proceedings of General Sessions 1-4; transcripts of proceedings of Round Tables 1-5 concerning 1) crime prevention, 2) detection and apprehension, 3) prosecution and the courts, 4) institutional care, and 5) probation, parole and rehabilitation; conference planning and organization materials, including: 1) invitation, conference, and subcommittee (round table) membership lists, and 2) conference planning committee proceedings, August 5; recommended and proposed legislation and roll call vote tallies on proposed legislation; subcommittee reports; recommendations for administrative and legislative changes for anti-crime program; proposals and recommendations for a Department of Justice headed by the Attorney General or a Bureau of Justice in the Department of Correction; addresses on crime by Governor Lehman and Lieutenant Governor Charles Poletti; and news clippings on crime and the crime conference.

Folder list.

This series was compiled by the State Library from old collections #615 (boxes 1-6) and #46 (box 7). In 1978 the State Archives accessioned these records as collection #615, accession numbers -376 and -377.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.