All men who are temporarily making this their Home are urged to attend religious services on Sunday at such place of worship as they may choose. All of the men are invited to attend the weekly religious services held at the Home, but they are not compelled to do this.
The food given the men is plain but substantial and wholesome, well prepared, and there is no limit as to the amount for each man.
The religious and literary meetings held on Tuesday and Friday evenings of each week in the assembly room of the Home have done much for the uplift and rehabilitation of the unfortunate men who have come to us. These meetings have grown in favor until the attendance at times has been seventy-five; our total attendance for the year reached two thousand five hundred and eighty; the number who asked for prayer at these meetings was four hundred and sixty-two.
In finding employment for those who come to us the adaptability of the men or women for some particular trade, clerkship or housework, is always taken into consideration, as we feel that it is much better to have people working in their special line of work than to be attempting something with which they are not acquainted. We also try as far as possible to see that the environment where we place them to work is of the best.
We have been greatly assisted in placing these men by the co-operation of the employers of labor in the city, for which we are very grateful. Without the help and good-will of those who employ labor it would be almost impossible for us to secure positions for them.
We have placed many of our men in positions of responsibility and trust, and their employers speak of them in the highest terms.
Maryland was one of the first states of the Union to adopt a system of probation for first offenders, and its juvenile court has accomplished splendid results. The operation of the system for adult probation is yet to be worked out along correct lines.
The Prisoners’ Aid Association hopes that probation of adult prisoners by the courts will be more extensively used. Much good is now being accomplished along this line by the courts recognizing the services of the association in acting as parole agent for the adult offender. We are now frequently asked by the courts to make a careful study of a case on hand before the prisoner is sentenced.
When a man has been paroled we endeavor to find him suitable employment, better his home conditions, if possible, and wield a helpful and friendly influence over him, having him make to us monthly reports regularly until such time as the courts deem advisable to give him his final discharge.
Prisoners convicted of embezzlement or larceny are often paroled on condition that they pay back the amount of the theft in instalments.