The Green Forest tribune., 1915-07-30
SYSTEM WORKS WELL
State Probation Commission Is
 Lauded by New York.
Experiment Has Proved in Every Way Worthy, and Authorities Are Unanimous in Opinion That
 1t Be Maintained.

One of the most active of the small departments of the New York state government Is the state probation
 commission. AS shown by a recent
 report on the state departments pre-
 pared for the benefit of the constitu-
 t1onal convention by the department
 of efficiency and economy and the
 New York bureau of municipal re-.
 search this commission is entirely sep
 arate In its organization and duties
 rom any other state department. It
 has large and unique field, namely,
 that of developing, extending and i'm
 proving probation work in all the
 courts of the state.
 Probation is defined as a system by
 which a court seeks to supervise, dis
 c1pllne and reform offenders without
 branding them as prisoners and with
 out sentencing them to jail or prison.
 It is intended especially for the young
 or first offenders. It is used in all
 Kinds of courts and for all sorts of offenses, but it is perhaps of greater importance in the juvenile court. Pro-
 bation has been called the right arm of the juvenile court"
 The first probation law in the state was enacted in 1901. Following the enactment of this law probation work in the courts developed slowly and irregularly throughout the state. A special commission to study the work was authorized by the legislature of l9O5; ten men and four women were appointed on this commission by Gov ernor Higgins. The commission ma1 thorough inquiry and presented a report the following year. Out of it's work and recommendations grew the present state probation commission. The commission was created by the legislature in 1907. Homer Folks has been president of the commission since its creation. Frank E. Wade, another of the original commissioners, is now vice-president. The other members are Edward c. Blum of Brooklyn, Edmund J. Butler of New York, Judge Aiphonso T. Clearwater of Kingston and pr. John T. Finley, commission. CT of education. The present secretary of the commission is Charles L. Chute, who succeeded Arthur w. Towne in 1913.
 Some of the work :he commission has accomplished toward extending and developing the probation system in the state is indicated by the follow ing facts: When the commission began it's work in 1907 there wole were 1,620 persons of all ages on pro- bation. At the end of ,a14 there were l0,925. Besides assisting in this great extension, the commission has urged discrimination in the selection of cases and the all impor- tance of carefuland t'ioE38Eh- zsoEls= a,asf .l.-sy- l.-sy---- 4.4 -u1 broDaJ1on officers.
 The report of the commission ex- tending over seven years show that more than TO per cent of all persons placed on probation are reported by the probation officers each year as their terms of probation and being discharged with 
 The cost of the state prisons, peni- adult and juvenile reforma- tories, for maintenance alone in 1913 was $2,292,349. This takes no ac- count of the vast sums expended in lands, buildings and equipment and the sums spent annually for repairs aud new construction. The average daily population of the institutions the year was 11.414, mak- ing the per capita cost for years $2O0.S3 The entire es- timated cost of the probation system for the year 1919 was $253.675. This