Various

“ Persons interested in the extension and improvement of probation, and those interested in the development of parole, have been so much occupied in establishing and strengthening the one system or the other, that they have not taken time to be sufficiently concerned about the desirable relationship between the two systems. The probation system in most places has developed, under permissive legislation, more or less sporadically, as a local experiment or expedient. ”

“ Under the present system in New York State, if each of five institutions— (each with its own parole officer) —paroles a person to the same locality, it would be necessary from time to time for five different parole officers, each attached to a different institution, to go to that locality, each officer to see and inquire about a different person on parole. How much simpler and more effective it would be to have one officer in that vicinity who could look after persons paroled to there from any and all institutions. Volunteers cannot be depended upon; we must have paid officers. ”

“ The probation and parole systems have come to stay, but they must so improve their operations as to be able to stand the most rigorous examination by both friendly and hostile inquirers. The increased financial support which both systems need will come only as the systems prove that they are succeeding as they should. I doubt if the parole system can stand the scrutiny and cold analysis, which will some day be brought to bear on it, unless it operates through local officers. ”

“ A paid probation officer as a rule should not be expected to look after more than about fifty new cases during a year, or at any one time. Volunteers should have no more cases than their free time permits them to attend to adequately, which is usually not more than one or two. The overloading of probation officers with more cases than they have time to attend to, is disastrous to efficiency. ”

“ What sort of supervision or reformatory influence can be exercised by a parole officer who, on account of the wide territory he has to cover, may be able to see a certain John Smith, who is on parole, only once in every two, three or four months? Some parole officers do not see those under their care even as often as this. The officers are forced to rely on written reports, which in many cases are utterly undependable. Parole work at long range and by mail order is necessarily defective and unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the use of traveling officers means large traveling expenses. ”

“ No prisoner is ever admitted to parole unless he can show that he will be self-supporting out of prison. Only a day or two before this meeting of the Board, however, a letter had been received by the warden of the prison from the New York Police Department to the effect that the police of a Western city had telegraphed that a warrant for the man’s arrest was on the way from that city, where he was wanted for grand larceny. ”

“ In most places the service of each probation officer is wisely confined to a single court, or to a single city or county. In Ohio, Indiana, and certain other states, however, the adult probation law provides for itinerant probation officers, attached to state penal or reformatory institutions, and required to travel considerable distances in order to visit those on probation scattered in different parts of the State. ”

“ Not these two men but all society will be benefited if a conviction is brought about. Then why should not the burden incident be distributed and borne by society as a whole rather than by two of its members? ”

“ There were some sixty men who applied for parole at the April meeting of the Board at Sing Sing, and of these thirty applications were granted, and I may safely assert that in the case of every prisoner granted his parole it was better, both for the State and the individual, that he should be given the opportunity again to test his capacity in the struggle for an honest livelihood. ”

“ One institution and then another has gradually adopted parole methods and employed parole officers, but without much, if any, regard for other parole systems or for the probation system. Year by year these two systems have grown up side by side, and the numbers of probation officers and of parole officers have increased. There are now nearly 1,000 paid probation officers in the United States, and the number of parole officers is probably in the hundreds and still multiplying. ”

“ Nevada Convicts to Build Roads.—As the result of recent legislation, convicts in Nevada are to be put to work constructing roads. The Washoe county commissioners, according to a press despatch, have requested 50 convicts to work on the highways in that county. The state is to pay one dollar per day for each convict engaged on good roads work, and to furnish the implements and all the necessary materials. Each convict who does the work assigned to him is to receive twenty-five cents a day, as well as a commutation of sentence. The prisoners will live in tents and be under constant guard. ”

“ Were each court of a town, village or small city to have its own probation officer, the officers as a rule would be without enough cases to occupy their time, and they would be underpaid and inexperienced. ”

“ The Parole Board does not permit prisoners to avail themselves of the services of lawyers to present their cases or urge them upon the Board by arguments or appeals, either written or oral. Let us not be too optimistic, as there is a reverse side to the picture which claims our earnest attention and should stimulate public spirited persons to promote and encourage ceaseless efforts aimed at betterments which require legislative and executive concurrence and encouragement for their realization. ”

“ While opinions radically differ upon these subjects, I am persuaded that we shall find in the near future some more just solution of the problem of providing more work and more diversified industries in our prison and securing to each industrious convict something like a living wage, available to ameliorate the pitiful conditions of poverty and want so prevalent among the families of prison inmates. ”

“ Of the value of the parole in the State of New York there need only be said that, so far as the parole authorities have been able to learn, out of every one hundred men paroled from Sing Sing, Auburn and Clinton prisons since the system went into practical effect, in October, 1901, eighty-three have “made good.” During these ten years approximately two thousand men on parole have complied with all conditions required of them and been discharged. ”

“ These schools are conducted with the greatest earnestness and efficiency, under the supervision and with the co-operation of the State Department of Education. Many men who come to prison are absolutely illiterate: many, too, without the smallest speaking acquaintance with the English language. The prison school pupils are almost always eager to learn, and display the greatest patience in gaining an elementary education. ”

“ In addition (5) both probation and parole officers often deal with the same persons. An offender who at one time comes before a court to be investigated by a probation officer, or who is placed by the court under the care of the probation officer, may at another time be on parole. Furthermore, other members of his family may at times be on probation or parole. (6) It is to the advantage of the local community to have an offender who is on parole in its midst, properly supervised by a local officer. ”

“ The purposes of probationary and parole oversight, as well as the duties of probation and parole officers, as has already been intimated, are substantially alike. Whether a person is on probation from a court, or on parole from an institution, the same kind of inquiries must be made from his relatives, friends, neighbors and employer in order to ascertain whether his conduct is satisfactory ”

“ Naturally many institutional authorities will probably desire to appoint their own parole officers, and to have them directly responsible to the institution. Should a personal desire, however, be allowed to stand in the way of efficiency? ”

“ Without attributing any distinct ethical value to the mere acquisition of unfamiliar facts, it is nevertheless true that the broadening of the mental prospect, the removal of blindness from the mental eye, is very often—particularly in the case of men guilty of crimes of violence and passion—the apparent proximate means of a practical reformation of the individual. ”

“ They are in jail not because they committed a crime but because they are supposed to have seen one committed.
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“‘It is nothing less than outrageous,’ says The Boston Post, ‘that two men can be imprisoned for months simply because they saw somebody else commit a murder.’ We subscribe to the statement. Undoubtedly the ends of justice sternly demand the retention of such witnesses. It is necessary for the wellbeing and protection of the community that hard and fast measures be taken for the prosecution of murderers.” ”

“ In the long run the standards of the probation officers are probably just as likely to be right as those of the parole officers. (4) In the next place a critic might ask what would be done with females on parole. Of course we all recognize that girls or women on either probation or parole should be placed under officers of their own sex. If the local paid probation officers were all men, and there were cases of girls or women on parole, the situation could be met in the same way as if there were females on probation ”

“ The business of investigation is one of the most serious defects in our juvenile court system. There are very few courts whose investigations are systematic, uniform and impartial. Cases are often rushed through and the facts learned afterwards. ”

“ First applied only to adults and in cities, its benefits have been wisely extended to children and to all the courts of the State. By legislation in 1909 a measure took effect which enables boards of supervisors to fix salaries for probation officers, and during last year fifteen counties availed themselves of this privilege, and others are following their example. The system does not exist and is not designed for habitual criminals and hardened recidivists, but only for first offenders ”

“ He is awakened to a glimmering consciousness of the relativity of his rights, wrongs and desires, to the rights of others, and he is less apt to break out in anti-social criminal acts. The recent introduction of a carefully graded marking system, with honor bars or chevrons, and stars worked on the sleeve, has been a potent means of obtaining better discipline and improved conduct among the prisoners. ”

“ To look after these 3,435 persons as well as those continued on parole from the preceding year, the state employed only 16 parole officers. Each officer served for only one institution. The only state institutions in New York which do not use traveling parole officers are Elmira and Napanoch Reformatories for young men. Persons paroled from these two reformatories to live in New York City are placed under the oversight of agents of the Prison Association or other organizations ”

“ For intelligent disposition of any case a judge must have in his possession the essential facts regarding the life and history of the child before him, and it must be ascertained that these facts come from a reliable source, known to the court. ”

“ It owes them compensation for the time they give in the service of society. They are not criminals but laborers worthy of their hire.”
“Clapping innocent people into jail is serious business. And witnesses thus detained, like innocent people falsely imprisoned, should receive pay from the state for the service done in one case and damages for the injustice committed in the other.” ”

“ A large and increasing number of our prison population come sooner or later before the Board of Parole for its consideration and judgment, the number of applicants eligible for parole having grown more than four hundred per cent since September, 1907. ”

“ Aside from the moral advantage derived from the parole, it may be mentioned that the State has made a material gain to the extent of some hundreds of thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been expended for the maintenance in prison of men who have been at large and are self-supporting. ”

“ The report of the warden gave his estimate of the character and capacity of each man, with that official’s view as to the probability of the prisoner keeping his parole. The report of the prison clerk was as to the convict’s crime, the date of his reception in prison, his criminal history as revealed by photographs, finger prints and measurements, and an account of punishments, if any, and other particulars from the prison records. ”

“ First, those who act as probation officers should possess the right personal qualifications. They should be intelligent, devoted, firm, sympathetic, tactful, discreet, observant, energetic and resourceful. ”