Book Reviews : Professional Personnel for the City of New York. By DAVID T. STANLEY. (Wash ington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1963. Pp. xviii, 461. $7.50.)

• Author: Charles Patterson
• Date: 01 December 1964
• Published date: 01 December 1964
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700469
• Subject Matter: Articles

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long, protracted proceedings which take him from his other clients and income-pro-
ducing activities.
The public defender’s office, on the other hand, is free of these pressures and
can, given adequate staff, provide the kind of pre-trial investigation that justice
demands. All such arguments are, of course, familiar. But it may be useful to have
a reminder of the magnitude of the inadequacies associated with the present system
of criminal procedures.
Finally, a word on Trebach’s research technique is in order. In addition to docu-
mentary evidence and interviews with state, local, and federal officials, the author
interviewed several hundred New Jersey, Philadelphia, and federal prison inmates.
The prisoners’ responses are introduced as evidence for the conditions and events
reported in the book. Though Trebach reports that no pattern of group bias sufficient
to distort the mass picture was discovered, it is unlikely that most social scientists
would be satisfied with his procedures. On the other hand, the technique itself is
suggestive and given proper safeguards could produce some valuable information.
The differences in the rate at which Trebach’s prisoners were critical of state and
federal law enforcement officers and state and federal detention facilities coincides
with generally accepted views and suggests that convicted criminals may provide
objective information in spite of any bitterness they may possess toward society and
its law enforcement institutions.
The Rationing of Justice includes a four-page note on the convict interviews
along with twenty pages of tabulated responses. Also included are copies of The
Model Defender Act, Standards for Defender Service and the case of Gideon v.
Wainwright, forty-one pages of footnotes, a five-page bibliography, an index and a
list of cases cited.
S. SIDNEY ULMER
University of Kentucky
Professional Personnel for the City of New York. By DAVID T. STANLEY. (Wash-
ington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1963....