Members, officers and committees of the commission... Meetings of the commission.... Forms for records and reports of probation officers. Conferences of probation officers.. Conference of city magistrates... Manual and suggestions to probation officers.. Courts using probation, and number of probation officers. Persons on probation, their offenses, and estimated results. Collection of payments for the support of families, and of fines and Juvenile probation, medical inspection, and probation associations. Probation in the supreme and county courts. Probation in towns and villages.. Compensation of probation officers. Women probation officers for women and girls. Appropriations for the commission.... PART III. APPENDICES. Appendix A. Statistics of persons on probation during 1909. Appendix B. Recommendations to the Buffalo City Court.. Appendix C. Resolutions on the death of Samuel J. Barrows, and on Appendix J. Excerpts from laws passed in other states during 1909.... 205 Appendix K. Supplementary bibliography on probation and juvenile REPORT To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York: PART I. BRIEF SURVEY OF THE YEAR AND OF THE OPERATIONS AND ADVANTAGES OF PROBATION. Duties of the Commission. (Section 30, Chapter 52, Laws of 1909.)* To exercise general supervision over the work of probation officers and to keep informed as to their work. To collect and publish statistical and other information as to the operations of the probation system. To inquire into the conduct and efficiency of probation officers from time to time, and when advisable to conduct a formal investigation of the work of any probation officer. To secure the effective application of the probation system and the enforcement of the probation law in all parts of the State. To make an annual report to the Legislature. Chief Features of the Commission's Work During 1909. The Commission has held six regular meetings, and a special meeting with the judges of the Buffalo City Court; committees have conferred with the judges of courts in Mount Vernon and New York City. It has held a conference of city magistrates and a conference of probation officers. It has supplied over 51,000 copies of forms to probation officers for their records and reports. It has collected monthly reports from probation officers, and made supplementary inquiries concerning methods and individual cases. * Amended by section 30, chapter 613, Laws of 1910. The secretary and individual commissioners have visited many probation officers, magistrates and other local officials for purposes of inquiry, suggestion and assistance. The Commission has co-operated with local authorities in establishing and improving the probation system. It has informed all magistrates in the State, numbering approximately 3,600, regarding amendments added to the probation law in 1909. It has published five pamphlets and leaflets concerning the operations and advantages of probation; and has acted as a bureau of information in supplying literature, information and advice. It is preparing a much needed manual and guide for probation officers. It has assisted in holding civil service examinations for positions of probation officers in Rochester and Erie county. It has collected the probation laws of other states, and given careful consideration to desirable legislation. The office of the Commission has issued 36,492 pieces of mail matter, of which 9,484 have been personal letters. Summary of Use of Probation in the State During 1909. The statistical reports made to the Commission by probation officers indicate an increase in the number of persons placed on probation in the State during 1909. The reports show that 11,384 persons (of whom 2,795 were children and 8,589 were adults) were under probationary oversight during 1909. Nine thousand and six of these were placed on probation during the year; 3,162 were on probation on December 31, 1909. Were the probation system not in existence, a considerable number of those released on probation would have been imprisoned. About 1,000 of the persons placed on probation were convicted of felonies, and in the absence of probation many of them would have been committed to State prisons or reformatories. The number of persons* committed to institutions after conviction during the year ending September 30, 1909, was 116,108 (of which 111,022 were to public institutions). The following tables compare the number of boys, girls, men and women placed on *This does not include all the children committed as truants. probation during 1909, and the number of boys, girls, men and women committed after conviction, during the year ending September 30, 1909, to public and private institutions. Children Placed on Probation and Committed* to Institutions. The probation system was used in 1909, in the Supreme and county courts of 27 counties, and in the inferior courts of 30 cities and of 24 towns and villages. The table below shows the relative numbers of places using the system in 1907, 1908 and 1909. Number of Places Using Probation. PLACES. 1907. 1908. 1909. Towns and villages using probation. Counties using probation in supreme or county courts, or both. In 13 cities and 14 counties appropriations were available on December 31, 1909, for the employment of probation officers. Appropriations for probation service were made for the first time and became available during 1909, in the Auburn Recorder's Court, the Rochester Children's Court and the county courts of Erie, Os *This does not include all the children comm'tted as truants. Including 2,369 boys committed to private institutions. Including 731 girls committed to private institutions. Including 852 women committed to private institutions. This does not include an appropriation made in New Rochelle, but not used owing to a legal difficulty. wego, Otsego and Warren counties. Appropriations made during the previous year became available during 1909 in the counties of Chenango, Essex and Montgomery. Appropriations to become available in 1910 were made during 1909 for the employment of probation officers in the Kings and Oneida County Courts, and for the employment of additional officers in Buffalo and New York City. The number of probation officers holding appointments on December 31, 1909, was 454. Sixty-one were salaried under that title from public funds; 33 were detailed from other branches of the public service to give all their time to probation work; 10 were paid from private funds; and 350 were volunteers. One hundred and thirty-five probation officers were appointed during 1909, and 10 of this number were publicly paid. On January 1, 1910, the number of probation officers paid from public funds was 65. The highest salaries appropriated for probation officers in this State were appropriated during 1909 for two probation officers in the Kings County Court, their salaries being $2,500 each. Illustrative Cases. The possibilities and actual results of probation are best illustrated by individual cases. A boy arrested four times.- A boy of foreign parentage, placed on probation in 1902, had been arrested four times within eleven months for stealing food. Inquiry by the probation officer showed that the mother allowed the boy no opportunity for play, but compelled him to work in a barber-shop week-days after school, and to get up early Sunday mornings to peddle papers. Because she gave him nothing to eat before he went out Sunday mornings, he had several times stolen milk and fruit for his breakfast. The probation officer, who was a woman, established friendly relations with the boy and his family, and tactfully persuaded the mother to treat her son more reasonably and kindly. Later when it became necessary for the boy to leave school, the probation officer secured employment for him. As evidence of his appreciation of the probation officer's friendship the boy afterwards presented the officer with three jewel cases which he himself designed and made. After a time he found work in a grocery store, and is now its proprietor. The results in this case showed that the boy, in spite of his four arrests in eleven months, was not incorrigible. Friendly advice |