CHAPTER XXI THE FUNCTION OF THE PAROLE IN THE REHABILITATION OF THE CRIMINAL The laws of our State definitely provide for the rehabilitation of the criminal. The Department of Public Welfare is required to adopt such rules and regulations concerning all prisoners and wards committed to its custody as "shall prevent them from returning to criminal courses and best secure their self-support and accomplish their reformation." By the Act establishing the Department of Public Welfare as amended in 1927, the supervision and after-care of persons paroled remains in the Department of Public Welfare and is exercised by the Division of Paroles. In order properly to correlate the work of determining the length of sentence and of granting of paroles with supervision and after-care, the chairman of the Parole Board is also the Supervisor of Paroles under the Department of Public Welfare and is responsible for proper supervision and after-care of parolees. The details of supervision have been assigned to the Superintendent of Supervision who is subordinate to the Supervisor of Paroles as well as to the Director of Public Welfare. The Department of Public Welfare (now the Board) is given great latitude in the establishing of rules and regulations for parole, under which prisoners in the penitentiaries and in the reformatory and other penal and reformatory institutions may be released from the institutional enclosure and remain in the custody and under the supervision of this Department of the State. The Department must, however, have made or shall have satisfactory evidence that arrangements have been made for the honorable and useful employment of the paroled man in some suitable occupation and also for a proper and suitable home, free from criminal influences. The law gives the Department sufficient, almost unlimited, power of supervision over the parolees. All prisoners and wards are considered only temporarily released while in the parole status from the time of release until the final discharge. During this period they are technically in the legal custody of the officers of the Department of Public Welfare and are considered as "remaining under conviction for the crime or offense for which they were sentenced by the court." They are subject to be taken and returned within the enclosure of the institution from which they were released upon any violation of the rules and regulations made by the department. The statute expressly uses the words "full power to enforce such rules and regu lations" and "to re-take and re-imprison any inmate so upon parole is hereby conferred upon the officers and the employes of the Department of Public Welfare." The law does not definitely limit the length of time which the paroled man must remain under parole supervision. It requires the Department to keep in communication with all parolees and it may set any length of time as the parole period, except that it must not recommend for discharge anyone who has not served more than six months under parole. It may discharge a parolee when he has given reliable evidence that he will remain at liberty without violating the law and that his final release is not incompatible with the welfare of society. PAROLE METHOD OF SUPERVISION It is clear from the foregoing reference to the law that parole is a method of supervision of those released from penal and reformatory institutions and not a method of escaping incarceration. All inmates of penal institutions, excepting those who die while incarcerated, must at some time be released into society. The parole law provides a means by which criminals can be supervised for a period after release. Regardless of whether the sentence is indeterminate or definite those so released undergo the supervision of the parole administration. In the case of definite sentences the good-time laws serve to reduce the period of incarceration and during this interval between the reduced period and the definite term of imprisonment provided for by law for the particular crime, the inmate so released may be subject to parole supervision and must be for a period of not less than six months. In the case of indeterminate sentences the length of sentence, beyond the minimum, is determined by the Parole Board, and during the entire period of time between the release and the maximum provided by law for the particular offense, those so released may be subject to parole supervision and must be for a period of not less than six months. While the Parole Board exercises a function formerly entirely judicial in determining the length of the term of imprisonment, and thus must consider the crime and the elements of punishment and deterrence, it is mainly interested in predicting the feasibility of granting freedom to a criminal and in his possibilities for readjustment in society. On the one hand then it is interested, like the system of criminal justice, in the fact of the crime, its nature and degree and in the sufficiency of punishment; on the other hand it is interested in the criminal as a human individual as a whole (who has offended) and as a person with group relationships, in the causes of his criminal career and in his potentialities and possibilities, in his future career as a free man in society. In discussing, therefore, the functions of parole in the rehabilitation of the criminal we are interested mainly in the latter phase-the criminal as a person and in the equipment he has for life, his physical make-up, his attitudes, his habits, his training and experience. We are interested in his complete life-history, because we wish to conserve his useful experience and to prevent the recurrence of criminality. "In consideration of any parole said Board shall consider and give weight to the record of the prisoner's conduct kept by the superintendent or warden." This is not only a provision which aids the prison or reformatory in disciplining its inmates, by holding out the parole as a reward, but a requirement that the Board and the supervisional administration take into consideration, first, the behavior of the person while under observation in the prison. This report, therefore, includes a study of the Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac and the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet and the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Menard, from the point of view of the rehabilitation of the criminal. Secondly, it is a study of the present administration of parole supervision intended by the law "to prevent criminals from returning to criminal courses, best secure their self-support and accomplish their reformation." CHAPTER XXII THE ILLINOIS STATE REFORMATORY AT PONTIAC The Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac accepts commitments of boys and young men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six. The importance of training and instruction for a population of this age-level has been taken into account in the plan of the institution. There is not only a separate school building for academic instruction, but some of the shops are designated as "schools" in the forms and reports of the institutions. In the case records, studied by the Committee, of inmates about to appear before the Parole Board, very little reference, if any, is made by the staff in its recommendations to the Parole Board of the work and school progress of the particular inmate. But the daily employment report giving the distribution of inmates to the various shops and schools lists a great variety of productive industrial work, and even more variety in the opportunities for non-productive work, i. e., services for institutional maintenance. The officials in charge of each shop should be able to give detailed and specific reports of the accomplishments of the youths, their diligence and aptitude. Such reports would have to be considered in the light of opportunities presented to the inmate and his progress rated according to the extent he has utilized them. A worker in a shop where he can acquire no knowledge or skill cannot be expected to accomplish much. On the other hand, workers in shops where they can acquire proficiency should be rated accordingly. Understanding the circumstances in each shop, and having a detailed report of the specific accomplishments of each inmate, the Board would be able to rate him, and to determine where he can best be placed in the outside world. What is it possible for an inmate to accomplish at Pontiac? A. OCCUPATION AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITY AT PONTIAC The following shop schools are listed in the daily employment report: bakery, blacksmith, carpentry shop, masonry, printing, painting and glazing, shoe making, tailoring, tinsmithing. These are classed as "Trade Schools." SCHOOL TIME AND WORK TIME The inmates are required to put in half a day in school and the other half-day at work at one of the shops, either in the productive or non-productive classification. If a youth, however, has finished the |