PLACING MISDEMEANANTS ON PROBATION
JAMES A. COLLINS
Judge of the City Court, Indianapolis, Indiana
In the city campaign of 1909 I pledged the people of the city of Indianapolis that if elected judge of the city court, I would introduce a probation system as a means of helping delinquent men and women. The enactment of a law by the legislature of 1907, under which courts may exercise the right to suspend sentence or withhold judgment in the cases of adults, made possible the application of a probation system in the administration of justice in circuit, criminal and city courts.
The probation system inaugurated in the city court of Indianapolis has covered:
The power to suspend sentence has saved many novices in crime from undergoing the harsh punishment that would be otherwise meted out to them, and that seems to be contrary to the constitutional provision that “all penalties shall be proportioned according to the nature of the offense.”
During the past year sentence has been suspended in 236 cases and judgment withheld in 3,474. The majority of these were first offenders. In those cases where the judgment was suspended, the court has had to set aside the suspension of sentence and commit the defendants in only two cases, and where the judgment has been withheld less than two per cent. have been returned to court for a second or subsequent offense.
While there is no provision under thelaw for the employment of paid probation officers, adequate supervision in 352 cases was made possible by good citizens volunteering to serve in that capacity. These probationers were required to furnish the court a monthly report signed by the probation officer. Time will not permit the details of these reports. Each tells its own story of heroic efforts toward right living.
The old method of collecting money fines which compelled the defendant to pay or replevy the same moment he was fined was always a source of great hardship on the poor. It was unreasonable to expect a common laborer arrested late at night and convicted in the morning to be prepared to settle with the state. If he was unable to pay or make arrangements to have his fine stayed for the statutory period, he was sent to prison, not because the court had given him a term of imprisonment, but because he was poor, which is in effect, imprisonment for debt.
To aid this particular class there was introduced as a part of the probation system a plan for the collection of fines in small payments. In those cases where the defendant appeared deserving he has been released on his own recognizance and the case held under advisement for thirty to sixty days, as the circumstances seemed to justify, at the expiration of which time he was required to report to the court that he had paid in the amount designated as the fine and costs to be entered against him.
At the close of the year 830 persons had been given an opportunity to pay their fines in this way. Of this number, 64 were re-arrested and committed for their failure to pay their fine, and the affidavits in 32 other cases are held for re-arrest. The balance lived up to their obligation with the court and paid in more than $7,100.
This plan operates to the benefit of the defendant in several ways: it saves him his employment; it saves his family from humiliation and disgrace, as well as from the embarrassment incident to imprisonment; but more than all, it saves him his self-respect. With but a single exception not one to whom this opportunity has been given and who had paid his fine in full has been in court a second time.
No unfortunates appeal more strongly to the court than the victims of the liquor habit. In all cases of first offenders charged with being drunk and in those cases where the defendant had others dependent upon him for support, the court has made it a condition on withholding judgment or suspending sentence that the defendant take the pledge for a period varying from six months to one year. At the close of the year 101 persons had taken the pledge, and of this number all but ten had kept the same faithfully.
In the severe cases where the defendant was bordering on delirium tremens, he was committed to the workhouse and the superintendent informed of his condition. While there are no special arrangements for the treatment of inebriates at the workhouse, Superintendent O’Connor has successfully provided a separate department for such cases. With these inadequate facilities a splendid work is now being done among this class of unfortunate and harmless offenders.
Men suffering from physical defects have frequently been before the court charged with offenses entirely out of harmony with their antecedents and environments. In these cases the court has been able to call to his assistance some of the best-known surgeons of the city. During the year three surgical operations were performed. Two of these were brain operations and one was sterilization for degeneracy. Three additional cases were successfully treated at private institutions for the drug and liquor habits.
Acting upon the suggestion of Amos W. Butler and Demarchus C. Brown, the court set aside Wednesday afternoons for the separate trials of women and girls. A woman probation officer maintains an adequate system of investigation and supervision.
During the seven months that the work among women and girls has been in charge of a probation officer, 139 cases have been investigated, and of that number only 11 were imprisoned, and adequate supervision provided for 70 during the probation period.
In 18 cases of drunkenness, under the supervision of the probation officer, pledges were taken, and all but three have kept the same faithfully. In 15 cases of country girls coming to Indianapolis and falling into bad company, resulting in their arrest, arrangements were made, by this officer, for the return of these girls to their homes in various parts of the state. In the balance of these cases investigation disclosed that the defendants were more sinned against than sinning and the cases were dismissed.
The criminal code is absolutely silent upon the question of recovery for loss or damage to property and injuries to the person growing out of criminal acts except that in cases of malicious trespass the court may fine a defendant a sum equal to twice the amount of the property damaged. To fine a person double the value of the property damaged and because of his failure to pay the same, place the additional burden on the citizen of supporting him in the workhouse or jail seems in itself an absurdity.
As a part of the probation plan the court requires every person charged with any offense involving the loss or damage to property and injuries to the person to make full and complete restitution to the injured party before the final disposition of the case. Upon a proper showing that restitution has been made the court is then in a position to take such action as the other facts in the case justify. Under this plan more than $1,800 in restitution has been recovered and turned over to the proper parties.
The results of the operation of any system of justice are not to be measured by dollars and cents.
During the year 1910 the court disposed of more than 15,000 cases. Notwithstanding this tremendous volume of business there was a saving to the county in the cost of feeding prisoners in the county jail of $1,393.61 and in the maintenance of the workhouse, $4,631.95.
Yet the reduction by fifty per cent. of the number of commitments of persons to the workhouse, jail and correctional department of the woman’s prison speaks with far greater force in favor of the probation system than any saving in dollars and cents, for of greater significance to the community is the moral uplift.