In Indiana the law authorizes the board of trustees acting as a parole board, or the Governor, to release on parole persons who have been confined under commitment in five institutions: the State Prison, the Reformatory, the Woman’s Prison, Girls’ School and Boys’ School; to all of these, sentences are in effect indeterminate except for murder or treason. Prisoners so released are under supervision and accurate records are kept.
The Indiana probation law applies in three different ways, respectively, to felons, to misdemeanors, to juvenile delinquents. A person who is convicted of a felony is sentenced to a state prison or a reformatory. Sentence may be suspended and he be released on probation. The committal is sent to the institution to which he is committed and he is placed under the supervision of the agents of that institution exactly the same as if he were paroled therefrom.
If the offense is a misdemeanor, the court may suspend judgment and release the offender upon such terms and conditions as in his judgment and discretion seem right and proper. The prisoner is placed under the supervision of the probation officer authorized in each county by the juvenile court law or under the oversight of some other probation officer designated by the court. In either case the law makes proper provision for such subsequent action by the court as the behavior of the convicted person merits.
The juvenile court law provides for a juvenile court in every county in the state. There is a special juvenile court in Marion County, containing the city of Indianapolis. In all other counties the judge of the circuit court is ex-officio the judge of the juvenile court. Provision is made for the appointment of at least one paid probation officer in every county and for such volunteer officers as will agree to perform the service without pay.
Juvenile delinquents may be released by the court upon probation and placed under the care of these officers. They make reports to the Board of State Charities. They should understand thoroughly that their work should properly be divided into three phases: (1) before the trial; (2) at the trial; (3) after the trial. The first contemplates a complete investigation of the child’s history. It should include everything that can be learned of it and its surroundings. The second involves presenting to the court all learned facts together with the conclusions and recommendations of the officer. The third contemplates complete supervision of the child after it is released upon probation. It is not necessary to state that in all this the best interests of the child alone should determine the action to be taken. What has been worked out in one place and another as to the best methods and practice in the case of children is being applied to adults who are subjects for probation. Our experience is now great enough to enable us to say that many men and women offenders can be reclaimed to useful lives without imprisonment, by correct probationary treatment.
EVENTS IN BRIEF
[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.]
Immigration and Crime.—That lax immigration laws are to a great degree responsible for many of the criminal cases calling for the attention of the courts, is the opinion of Major Richard Sylvester, of Washington, D. C., president of the international association of police chiefs, which held its nineteenth annual convention in Rochester in June. Several years ago the association memorialized Congress to define anarchy and more carefully restrict undesirable immigration.
Referring to the large number of alien criminals, Major Sylvester said: “Many of these subjects come from climates where capital punishment does not prevail, where the least respect for law and life is had. If certificates of good character from the authorities at places of departure in foreign lands and a year’s means of support were made legal requirements for presentation at our doors by each individual, the disadvantages might not be so great or so many.”