The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-01-02
.FEAGIN AND WEIR
DIFFER SHARPLY
Judge and Chief of Police Dis
cuss Probation Plan
IS THE SCHEME A FAILURE i?
Judge Feagin Quotes Statistics to
Show 1t lsn't-chlef Wler Says
1t Is illegal, Unjust and DAN
serous to City and State.
is THE SCHEME A FAILURE 3?

|
has not failed as miserably as Sam
Dailey's experiment might lead people to
suppose 1t had.
| Daily is the negro, it will be recalled,
to whom the Judge entrusted, within the
last year. eighteen 'probationers'-fif
teen boys and three girls.
Several days ago Daley came up from
his farm near Tuscaloosa to see the Judge
and to tell the Judge how the Judge 8
probation scheme had worked out.
Daley wore a black suit of clothes and
face grew less benign and longer every
minute.
In a word, the probation PLAN had,
Daley said failed OF the IS probation
ers,p sent him, IL had run away. OF these
Z. three had since been sent to the pen
itentiary. The remaining six weren't
worth their board and keep.
Daley said, however, that he would
continue to keep and board the six. As
long as there was life, there was hope
Even if the business didn't pay him for
his trouble he was going to stick to it.
He was working for humanity" he said.
Incidentally. he thought a negro reform
atory school ought to be established. He
was trying to raise money for the work.
Judge Feagn.
Dailey's depressing story got into the
columns of The Age-Herald last Satur-
day. Judge teagin read the story, and
got to WORK on an article that is intenu-
ed to prove that the probation plan Is
all right and that all re now need in
| order to have a working ideal is pluck
| patience and pathos.
While the judges letter is somewhat
| long the source from which 1t comes, the
intimate knowledge the writer has of
| his subject and the fact that Judge
| Feagin has, in the judgment of some
persons, aiken high rank among crimi-
biologists, antherologists and socialogists
unite In making whatever he has to say
ON this subject interesting reading.
Here is the Judges letter:
ITO the Editor of The Age Herald:
| II notice in Saturday mornings paper
| the head lines: Probation Plan Falls
! Miserably, Two-Thirds of Negroes Sent
to Country Run Away. Sam Daileys
Experience. OF Is Practitioners IL Escape
AMI Become Convicts, etc.
his is calculated to nislead those
who fail to read the article in full.
|
with Sam Daley, the colored man to
whom fifteen boys and three girls were
| sent, twelve of whom have escaped,
| three of those escaped being caught later
In another county and convicted of Of
| tense there committed and now serving
out sentence In the penitentiary) are not
conclusive proof of the failure of the
probation system.
1.-The probation system, as set on foot
t., hn Dali 80 at,a<x l,ox to.
no law to back or sustain 1t.
Every little negro IA years of age or
under who is arrested and where the
evidence shows he Is guilty, is for the
| first offense released-put on probation
/ Punishment is suspended with the under
standing that If he commits a second Of
Tense he Is to be punished heavily for the
second offense. he is to. be sent to the
country on a farm
Now, there are about 275 little negro
boys and girls, IA years of age or under
| who have been arrested for first offenses
since this plan was adopted November
| 2S 1903
I'm round numbers there were arrested:
I'm December, 1902, about go.
I'm January. 1908, about 40.
I'm March, 1904. about rs.
I'm April, 1904, about 10.
"Slnce that time from five to fifteen a
month have been arrested
"Out Of this 275 between fifty and sixty
have become second offenders.
ut is these second offenders that are
sent to the country. 1t Is in short, the
incorrigibles. who have no respect for or
| fear of the law, that have been removed
from the temptations Of the slums of the
city to the farms in the country.
The Escapes.
| "Of all those sent to the country there
| have been more escapes--a larger per
cent-from Sam Daley. This is to be ac-
counted for from the fact that there
have been more bad boys brought to-
gether on his farm and that their COM
panionship is confined largely to them
selves Born and bred in the slums, and
In an atmosphere of crime. they talk
over with each other their past expert
ences and long for the former exciting
scenes of the city. Hence, so many ran
| away from Daley.
Besides. this honest meaning negro
man, Daley, who has given 125 acres of
| his 50O-acre farm to the negroes of the
State for reformatory for negro boys,
| has had no education, training or ex-
perience in the management of incorrigi-
BILE boys, nor has he any competent as
| sstant in the work he has undertaken;
hence the apparent failure. But he has
five boys end one girl out of the eighteen
who are still with him and apparently
| we'll satisfied and doing well. If he is
instrumental in saving even one-third of
! those hayward criminally inclined chill
dren committed to his care, he is doing
a great work for the State. This even
Is much better than to have left these
children in the city to pass their time
! their life, in Jail and out Of pail. in Jail
and out of jail, like Dickens little ne
elected child in the slums of London.
"The escapes of the other boys and
girls sent out to white families and to
members of the colored relatives of the
negro boys have been much less The
! truth Is there have not been fifty per
cent of escapes, or run Always of these
second Offenders or incorrigible boys. sent
| cut to homes In the country. including
the escapes from Sam Daley in the gem
| eral avera ge.
As to Result.
Now. what is the result when we COM
| pare these living facts and figures of
! one years trial with those of other coun-
| triesf
a Out of the 275 negro boys and girls
arrested and put on probation in this city
20 per cent committed the second offense
| and were sent to the country. The re-
naming so per cent are still here on good
behavior. and never come before the po-
lice court the second time.
20 Only so per cent OF the worse class.
| the second offenders, escape from the
homes on the farms, where little or no
| repressve influences are thrown around
them. Three of these are in the peniten-
tiary that we Know Of; the other escapes
are on good behavior or steering clear OF