Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
PROBATION
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: PRE-PYR
del.icio.us it!
|
PROBATION . The probation See also:system, in See also:penology, is an See also:attempt to reform a prisoner outside See also:prison, a See also:special See also:kind of warder—the probation officer—supervising the prisoner in the prisoner's own See also:home. The See also:state of See also:Massachusetts in See also:America was the first to attempt " probation," and at first (1878) in a tentative manner. As success crowned the efforts of the re-formers the system was See also:developed and applied to an increasing number of cases; and gradually other See also:American states followed with some See also:variations in their plans. The probation See also:officers attend the See also:court and the See also:judge officially gives up the prisoner to the officer chosen to supervise him, generally explaining to the prisoner that, if he is not obedient to all the rules made for him by the officer, he will be returned to court and prison will be his See also:fate. An officer generally has from sixty to eighty cases under his care. See also:Women officers are in See also:charge of women and boys and girls under eighteen. A probation officer has a special See also:area of the See also:town allotted to him and usually gets all prisoners from that area. He acquires an intimate knowledge of the See also:physical, economic and social surroundings in which his prisoner lives. He is therefore well fitted to See also:watch him and to help him to become once more a decent See also:citizen. He gradually gives him back his See also:liberty and removes restrictions until he is capable of living a decent See also:life alone. The See also:powers of the probation officer are necessarily very See also:great. The prisoner continues his See also:work as before, but the officer visits his factory or workshop and arranges to receive his See also:wages each See also:week, passing over the greater See also:part of them to the wife to keep up the home, giving a very small sum to the prisoner for See also:personal expenses, and retaining a small sum, which is paid back to the prisoner when he becomes a See also:free See also:man. The advantages claimed for the probation system are these, that a number of See also:independent well-paid probation officers, chosen for their knowledge of human nature and their skill in reforming it, can give personal See also:attention to individual cases; the stigma of prison is avoided, and while great care is taken that the prisoner shall be strictly controlled and effectively restrained, his self-respect is carefully developed; the See also:family project largely out of the mouth, and are of an elongated conical See also:form benefits, the home is not broken up, the wages still come in, and if the prisoner is a See also:mother and a wife, it is, of course, most important that she should retain her See also:place in the home; the prisoner does not " lose his See also:job " nor his See also:mechanical skill if he is a skilled workman. Lastly, the system is far cheaper than imprisonment. The prisoner keeps himself and his family, and one officer can attend to from 6o to 8o prisoners. In the See also:United See also:Kingdom the probation system has been applied to See also:young offenders by the Prevention of See also:Crime See also:Act I9o8. That act empowered the prison commissioners to place offenders on See also:licence from the Borstal Institution (see JUVENILE OFFENDERS) at any See also:time after six months (in the See also:case of a See also:female, three months), if satisfied that there was a reasonable See also:probability of their abstaining from crime and leading a useful and industrious life. The See also:condition of their See also:release is that they be placed under the supervision or authority of some society or See also:person (named in the licence) willing to take charge of the case. This is, of course, only a limited application of the system of probation, for those detained in a Borstal Institution are offenders between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one who have been convicted of an indictable offence. It does not apply to those of full See also:age, nor to those under twenty-one years of age who have been committed to prison for See also:minor offences. It has been See also:long held by See also:English prison reformers that young persons under the age of twenty-one should not be committed to prison, unless for serious offences, but that they should be put under some system of probation. Legislation to this effect was foreshadowed by the home secretary in his speech on prison reform in the See also:House of See also:Commons on the zoth of See also:July rgio. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] PROBATE |
[next] PROBOSCIDEA (animals " with a proboscis ") |