Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Probation

Protective and probationary work naturally fell to women’s share very early in the growth of their interest in law enforcement. Even to the most obtuse masculine mind, it became apparent that women were fitted to look after women and children held temporarily under the tutelage of the courts.[^[46]] Even this, however, was a great gain for women. Probation officers were called into daily consultation with judges, members of the district attorney’s office, the chief of police and his subordinates, and the opinions, reports and investigations of women officers were soon shown to be of the highest value to the judges, attorneys and police. Hundreds of women thus won by sheer efficiency the respect of those in charge of law enforcement.

Regular probation officers are called upon to influence children, wives and husbands by members of their families who feel that a formal trial and sentence can thus eventually be avoided. All such officers seem eager to respond to human appeals and their spirit is an indication of the sincerity of their work. It is not only probation officers who thus save the courts both time and money and promote individual and social welfare. While official probation work is a part of the judicial function, a great deal of unofficial probation work is done which, through its preventive nature, relieves the court of labor. Teachers and social workers of various types are doing similar work to that of probation officers in their attempt to prevent crime and delinquency.

There are numerous probation associations and committees in the United States. Sometimes these are composed of men alone and again of men and women.

Probation and parole officers have helpful allies in the “Big Brothers” and “Big Sisters” now coöperating in many cities to prevent further lapses from grace on the part of young delinquents or offenders. The work that the Big Sisters in New York regard of prime importance was the Little Sisters’ Country Home where girls were sent to build up mentally, physically and morally before they were placed in private homes or in employment or again in their families. Such a home was established by Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt at Little Neck, Long Island, Mrs. Vanderbilt being the president of the New York Big Sisters, but unfortunately it soon burned.

The Council of Jewish Women also does a great deal of protective work in its various sections. Each section is urged by the national council “to put itself in connection with the police and magistrates’ courts as well as the county or city attorney’s office and all officers of the department of justice and to make it known that wherever a Jewish girl appears or is arraigned, the section stands ready to do whatever may be necessary to help the accused or her family or the prisoner if she be a prisoner.” Preventive correctional work is done by this association along recreational and educational lines.

The New York Society for the Improvement of Urban Conditions among Negroes is seeking to train colored men and women for probationary work among their own race. In the past year 464 cases of adult and juvenile delinquency were handled. “The Committee takes special pains to secure thorough follow-up work. Each case is treated as one of special importance in which the worker handling the same considers herself personally responsible.” A class of girls which the magistrates’ court assigned to the Association for care and which other associations have turned over to it is being instructed in gardening by a teacher furnished by the Board of Education. The Society also tries to reinstate discharged employees when mere misunderstandings have led to dismissal and in other deserving cases. It believes in labor organization as an aid to this security.

So many other forms of social effort are working toward the same goal as probation that it is impossible to estimate the number engaged in preventing individuals from becoming public offenders and public charges. Probation officers do use, and are urged to use further, all existing organizations which are established to supply fundamental needs like shelter, food, clothing, employment, medical help, recreation, education and the rest. Indeed probation officers are dependent upon the organized efforts to supply those needs—so dependent that probation work can proceed only in proportion to the effectiveness of those organizations.

Here then we have a condition of a great public service, one of the greatest, being still dependent on private charity and effort. Many elements, like competition, intermittency of help, and incompetency owing to the volunteer nature of the organization, prevent the widest usefulness of these allied agencies upon which success in probationary work so largely depends. For that reason there are probationary as well as other social workers who begin to emphasize the ideal of public concentration of social effort in the city administration with the aim of eliminating waste and securing certainty of support and steadiness of trained effort. All the forces of the community need to be centrally organized, it is argued, to meet the requirements of the probationary system and such central organization must be governmental since the probation function is a governmental one.

Thus probation work leads into social service in the widest sense. Every disclosure of the shortcomings of the system of imprisonment shows this. And it is natural that women who are so keenly concerned in every branch of social service should give attention to the larger aspects of probation: the reformation of the individual wrongdoer and the protection of society. That many women probationary officers are not content with a narrow view of their functions will be discovered by anyone who takes the pains to read the discussions at the Fifth Annual New York Conference of Probation Officers, held in Syracuse, in 1912, at which, for the first time, there was a special meeting for women to consider the special problems of women.

At the Fourth Annual Conference of the State Association of Magistrates in Syracuse, in 1912, Dr. Katharine B. Davis, now commissioner of corrections of New York City, presented a plan, which she had been urging, for a state commission into whose care all women delinquents should be given as soon as convicted and for a more rational use of existing State institutions for women and the establishment of other institutions needed to carry out the work of the commission. Miss Julia O’Connor, a probation officer in the New York Children’s Court, emphasized the need of dealing with defective children and Miss Gertrude Grasse, Secretary of the Juvenile Protective Association, brought out the fact that an inspection of school children for feeble-mindedness would prevent defectives getting into the courts at all.

Women attended the sessions of this conference of magistrates and were present at the dinner which formed one of the features of the occasion. At that dinner the president said: “Ladies and gentlemen: For the first time in the history of our Association, the chairman has to use the word ‘ladies’ in addressing the gathering, which shows that we have joined the ranks of the progressives.” The Association of Magistrates firmly believes in the value of salaried women probation officers in juvenile courts and for women offenders and makes recommendations constantly to the courts with reference to their appointment.