People ex rel. Sievers v. Mcgee

The relator, who was convicted in the Court of Special Sessions on a plea of guilty of the misdemeanor of keeping a disorderly house (Penal Law, § 1146), was sentenced to a term of three months in the workhouse. The relator urges upon this court that the Court of Special Sessions had no power or jurisdiction to impose on a first offender a prison sentence in the first instance; that he may merely be required to file a bond with an alternative imposition of prison sentence in default thereof.

The critical issue is whether the punishment for a violation of section 1146 (which prescribes no…