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.
Drunkenness and the Pledge System.
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.
Medical and Surgical Treatment.
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.
Separate Trials for Women.
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.