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| VOLUME I, No. 8. | AUGUST, 1911 |
A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE
NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION
AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
| TEN CENTS A COPY. | SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS A YEAR |
| Page | |
| The New York State Board of Parole | 1 |
| The Organization and Correlation of the Probation and Parole Systems | 6 |
| Events in Brief | 11 |
George A. Lewis
Member of the State Board of Parole, President of the Eleventh State Conference of Charities and Correction
Reprinted from the New York Herald
Of the value of the parole in the Stateof New York there need only be saidthat, so far as the parole authorities havebeen able to learn, out of every one hundredmen paroled from Sing Sing, Auburnand Clinton prisons since the systemwent into practical effect, in October,1901, eighty-three have “made good.”During these ten years approximatelytwo thousand men on parole have compliedwith all conditions required ofthem and been discharged. Assumingwhat was pretty nearly the fact, that aformer convict after serving a prisonterm under the old system was a morallybroken man, even though he might notpursue an active criminal career, thismeans that there have been two thousandmore useful members of the communityreturned to it, and that there are twothousand less actual and potential criminalsin existence than if there had beenno parole work in the State—this number,moreover, being exclusive of menunder the restricted liberty of parole“now at large and in good standing,”who may be said to swell the satisfactorytotal to 2,600.
Aside from the moral advantage derivedfrom the parole, it may be mentionedthat the State has made a materialgain to the extent of some hundredsof thousands of dollars that would otherwisehave been expended for the maintenancein prison of men who have beenat large and are self-supporting.
A large and increasing number of ourprison population come sooner or laterbefore the Board of Parole for its considerationand judgment, the number ofapplicants eligible for parole havinggrown more than four hundred per centsince September, 1907. The hope of earlyand favorable action furnishes thestrongest incentive for the prisoner toconduct himself without fault in his cell,in the workshop and in the school. Thefamily and fri