The San Francisco call., 1910-06-11
PAROLE system :
PREVENTS crime
Of S,023 Offenders Released in
Two Years Only 367 For
felt Probation

An attempt to keep offenders out OF
prison altogether and to allow them
their liberty on certain conditions is
discussed by the London Express in a
review of the probation of offenders
act which has been in force in Great
Britain for two years. This enables
the magistrate to have regard to the
character, antecedents. age. health or
mental condition Of the person charged
or to the trivial nature of the offense or
to the extenuating circumstances under
which the offense is committed and
then, without imposing a conviction.
order the discharge of the offender
conditionally upon his entering into
recognizance to be of good behavior
and to appear for conviction if he mis-
conducts himself during the period of
this probation. which is seldom less
than six months and may not be more
than three years.
The underlying idea, of course. is to
prevent the offender returning to or
going for the first time to prison and
to bring him under the direct personal
influence of men Cor women) of char
acter and power. How valuable this
influence must be in many cases 10
obvious enough.
FRIEND FOR CRIMINALS
The unhappy members of the Grim
inal fringe" who have no friends, or,
worse still, have only bad friends
whose lives are placed apparently be-
yond the pale Of civilizing influences.
are suddenly brought in contact with
and under the supervision Of a firm.
powerful friend-one who is only too
willing and usually able to lift them
out OF the hopeless, hapless groove,
who can not only set them on their
feet but keep them there.
This friend is the probation officer.
He is the eye of the magistrate. and
his power is derived from the fact that
he is an officer of the court invested
with definite legal power. In the old
days of the first offenders act much
good was done, but it was done by
ers-philanthrOpic societies and
the like-to whose power. of course
the law itself soon set a limit. More
over, it was only to first offenders that
the opportunity of probation came.
Now there is no such embargo. Every
one who comes before the magistrate
charged with offenses under the con-
ditions mentioned may be placed on
probation, under the care Of the pro-
baton officer.
This probation admits of variations.
but usually includes the prohibiting OF
the offender from assOciating with
thieves or undesirables or frequenting
undesirable places, the imposing OF
conditions generally for securing that
the offender should lead an honest and
Industrious life, and, where the offense
with which the probatiener is charged
was drunkenness, or was committed
under the influence OF drink, the, ex-
clusion Of the offender from saloons
and the insistence on abstention from
drink.
LAW PROVES EFFECTIVE
And in order to make these pronibi-
tions effective the probation officer IS
empowered to keep a general supervt-
sion over the prObatiOner, to visit him
in his home to advise, assist and BE-
friend him generally, to find him suit
able employment when required and to
keep the magistrate informed as TO
his progress and to recall him in the
event of misbehavior to the court
Out of the S,O23 offenders placed un-
der probation officers in two years only
S67, or less than per cent, had to be
recalled to the court to have their
penalties imposed. When IL Is remem-
bered that out of these S,O2S offenders
no fewer than 6,194 were charged with
indictabIe or the more serious offenses,
this result acquires fresh significance
and rebounds to the merit of the eX-
pertinent.