Welfare. Under the law the Supervisor of Paroles, working as an officer in the Department of Public Welfare, is responsible for the supervision and after-care of parolees. This officer, therefore, works in a dual capacity, that of Supervisor of Paroles in which work he is responsible to the Director of Public Welfare, and that of Chairman of the Parole Board which by statute has taken over the "rights, powers and duties" relative to paroles, formerly vested in the Department of Public Welfare, but which has no power relative to the supervision and after-care of parolees. The Supervisor of Paroles, as such, recently has appointed an agent who is designated as the "State Superintendent of Supervision" to whom the details of the after-care and supervision of parolees has been assigned. CHAPTER XVIII HOW THE NEW PAROLE BOARD WORKS Under Section 5 of the Illinois Sentence and Parole Act it becomes the duty of the Department of Public Welfare (now vested in the Parole Board) "to adopt such rules concerning all prisoners and wards committed to the custody of said department as shall prevent them from returning to criminal courses, best secure their self-support and accomplish their reformation." 1 Relative to the work of the new Parole Board, Mr. Clabaugh, its chairman, in answer to questions put to him by a member of this Committee, has given the following description: "We have taken the Parole Board out of departmental management and made an independent statutory beard. It now requires the affirmative action of six members of the board of ten before any person can be released. The nine members of the board are divided into three sub-committees, three men sitting three days a week constantly at every institution.2 That subcommittee refers to all the facts available, and in some instances causes an independent investigation to be made on the outside by investigators that have been provided for in the new appropriation. Then these three subcommittees report to the general board once a month, and that board then reviews again, sitting as a committee of the whole, the recommendations of the sub-committee, so in that way we get first an independent, unbiased report from our own sub-committee, who are not interested either for or against a prisoner; then the whole board reviews the sub-committees' work and acts upon it. Once the board acts the decision is final and it is not subject to review." 1 Section 5 continues as follows: "Whenever any person shall be received into any penitentiary, reformatory or other institution for the incarceration, punishment, discipline, training or reformation of prisoners or wards of the State, the said Department of Public Welfare shall cause to be entered in a register the date of such admission, the name, nativity, nationality, with such other facts as can be ascertained of parentage, education, occupation and early social influences as seem to indicate the constitutional and acquired defects and tendencies of the prisoner or ward, and based upon these, an estimate of the present condition of the prisoner or ward and the best possible plan of treatment. The said department shall carefully examine each prisoner or ward when received and shall enter in a register kept by it the name, nationality or race, the weight, stature and family history of each prisoner or ward, also a statement of the condition of the heart, lungs, and other principal organs, the rate of the pulse and respiration, the measurement of the chest and abdomen, and any existing disease or deformity, or other disability, acquired or inherited; upon the register shall be entered from time to time minutes of observed improvement or deterioration of character and notes as to the method and treatment employed; also, all alterations affecting the standing or situation of such prisoner or ward, and any subsequent facts or personal history which may be brought officially to the knowledge of the department bearing upon the question of parole or final release of the prisoner or ward. And it is hereby made the duty of every public officer to whom inquiry may be addressed by the Department of Public Welfare concerning any prisoner to give said department all information possessed or accessible to him which may throw light upon the question of the fitness of said prisoner or ward to receive the benefits of parole or to be again placed at liberty." Reference is to institutions at Joliet, Menard, and Pontiac. • A member of this Committee has read several hundred of the sub-committee's The entire Board meets once a month and acts upon the subcommittees' recommendations. A licensed court reporter attends every general and every sub-committee meeting. When the chairman of the sub-committee makes his report to the entire Board, a stenographic copy of the proceedings, including all testimony, is presented together with a brief and the sub-committees' recommendations. Each case is reviewed by the whole Board and voted upon. The new Board was created by an Act approved in July, 1927. After that some time was lost in making the appointments. Notwithstanding this delay, and the further delay incident to the Board's orienting itself to its new work, fifteen hundred cases had been disposed of by December 1. The Board has adopted the following rules governing the parole of prisoners confined under the indeterminate sentence: "A sub-committee of the Parole Board first examines a prisoner shortly after he has been received and the record is preserved for future consideration when the prisoner is again heard after having served the minimum sentence. No formal petition is necessary, and no advertising is required, as the prisoner is brought before the Board by virtue of the rules. "Before a prisoner will be paroled, his mental condition and institutional record must be satisfactory and the Board must be satisfied that he is desirous of leading a better life, and that society will not be injured by his release. The Board takes into consideration the crime, the past life of the prisoner, the probabilities of his never again violating the law, the adequacy of his punishment, his conduct while in prison, and all other matters that in any way bear upon the question of the public welfare, as well as that of the prisoner. "The Board requires a prisoner to furnish names of reputable business and professional men who knew him for some years before his conviction, and who can attest to his former good character, so far as it relates to his honesty, industry, and sobriety. "Friends of a prisoner can best aid him by procuring letters as above indicated from persons who knew the prisoner prior to his conviction, and who will take an interest in his welfare after he is released. When an order is made for the parole of a prisoner, the question of employment is in the hands of the Supervisor of Paroles and the Superintendent of Supervision and all correspondence in regard to his paro'e should be addressed to the latter, Springfield, Illinois, or to the Parole Officer at the institution where the prisoner is incarcerated. "It must not be understood when the case is passed over or continued reports. The following may be taken as typical: "(No.)........, (Name).. Received. 1923, from... .. County upon a plea of guilty to burglary and larceny. Paroled, conditional that he be deported to Canada and that the authorities come after him. He is a Canadian. Did one term in the Ontario prison. Has been in this institution more than four years and we believe he is now entitled to release. There is in the record the necessary orders for his deportation to Canada, both our own government and the Canadian government having consummated arrangements for bringing that about whenever his is released by the Illinois authorities. "(No.). (Name).. Received. 1926, from. County upon plea of guilty to burglary and larceny. Not ready for parole. Young ...has done a term at the Vandalia State Farm, was once tried and acquitted for the killing of his step-father. He is regarded by the authorities as a pretty bad young man. We have paroled his associate.. because he has had no previous record, but we feel that this boy should have a substantial lesson to the end that he will learn that he cannot do the things that he has been doing so flagrantly." to a certain time, that the prisoner will then be paroled, as this will depend largely upon his conduct and such information as the Parole Board may have received since his last examination. "If, at any time, prior to the date to which any case has been continued, the Board is satisfied that the prisoner should be paroled, its former order can be revoked and parole authorized. "Paroles granted under this Act shall be for the maximum time for which the prisoner was sentenced, under the following terms, to-wit: "The first year the prisoner must report to the Superintendent of Supervision monthly; second year, every sixty days; the third and fourth years, quarterly; the fifth year semi-annually; and thereafter annually. At the end of the fifth year the prisoner shall be eligible to a hearing before the Parole Board on an application for final discharge. Petition for out-of-state parole transfer may be made at any time. "No prisoner who became a parole vio'ator under this Act shall be eligible to a second parole until he has served two years, without good time allowance, after being declared a violator. "All second-parole violators will serve a minimum of an additional five years in custody before another parole will even be considered. "Evidence tending to sustain or disprove the grounds upon which an application for parole is based will be received and considered in connection with the application." Reference previously has been made to the distinction between the indeterminate and the definite sentence. Among the major crimes, definite penalties are meted out only for four crimes, viz., misprison of treason, murder, rape, and kidnapping. Section one of the Parole Act provides as to these that persons sentenced for life may be eligible to parole at the end of twenty years; persons not sentenced for life but sentenced for a definite term of years shall not be eligible to parole until he or she shall have served the minimum sentence provided by law for the crime of which he or she was convicted, good time being allowed as provided by law, nor until he or she shall have served at least one-third of the time fixed in said definite sentence. Relative to the parole of those prisoners holding definite sentences the Board has adopted the following rules: "All applications for parole under this Act shall be governed by the rules controlling applications for pardon. "Paroles granted under this Act shall be for the maximum time for which the prisoner was sentenced, under the following terms, to-wit: "The first year the prisoner must report to the Supervisor of Paroles monthly; the second year, every sixty days; the third and fourth years, quarterly; the fifth year semi-annually; and thereafter annually. At the end of the fifth year the prisoner shall be eligible to a hearing before the Parole Board on an application for final discharge. Petition for out-of-state parole transfer may be made at any time. "Application for parole under this Act will be considered upon a proper showing by the prison records that the petitioner has observed the prison rules faithfully and that he has made such reformation that he will not again become a menace to society or a public charge. "No prisoner will be released on parole under this Act until proper arrangements have been made for his profitable employment as governed by the statutes made and provided in other parole cases. "No prisoner who becomes a parole violator under this Act shall be eligible to a second parole until he has served two years, without good time allowance, after being declared a violator. "All second-parole violators will serve a minimum of an additional five years in custody before another parole will even be considered. "Evidence tending to sustain or disprove the grounds upon which an application for parole is based will be received and considered in connection with the application." Among the questions propounded to Mr. Clabaugh by this Committee was the following stated with his answer: "Q. On what principally do you base your judgment in granting or refusing a parole? The material in the jacket, personal impression, or what? "A. A combination of all the facts and circumstances. First, the man's history; his education; his apparent mentality; his physical condition; his attitude toward discipline and toward society, as evidenced by his institutional record. In addition to that, his former habits; his associates; the environment under which he grew up; all the facts and circumstances relating to a man's history before he committed the crime, so far as it is available to us, his commission of the crime and his conduct since and while being punished; and his learning of one or more useful trades while confined. His attendance at school or church in the institution, and finally our own conclusion after talking to the prisoner in great detail and examining him several times before he is given a final parole. "It is very rarely the case that we talk to a prisoner less than three or four times now before he is given his final parole, so your question is a hard question to answer. It is the net collective judgment of the ten men after reviewing all the facts and circumstances with reference to the individual. In other words, we try to fit the punishment and the scheme of reformation to the individual and not the crime, after the inmate or the prisoner has served what is believed to be a reasonable punishment, as a deterrent to others, or other would-be criminals, for the crime committed." STATEMENTS REQUIRED BY STATUTE FROM TRIAL JUDGES AND THE STATE'S ATTORNEYS Section six of the Parole Act has this provision : "In all cases, whether the sentence be definite or indeterminate, it shall be the duty of the judge by or before whom any prisoner or ward is convicted or committed, and also the state's attorney of the county in which he or she was convicted or committed to file an official statement with the clerk of the court to be transmitted to and to thereby furnish the Department of Public Welfare an official statement of the facts and circumstances constituting the crime or offense whereof the prisoner or ward was convicted or committed, together with all other information accessible to them in regard to the career of the prisoner or ward prior to the time of the commitment for the crime or offense of which he or she was convicted or committed relative to his or her habits, associates, disposition and reputation and any other facts and circumstances which may tend to throw light upon the question as to whether such prisoner or ward is capable again of becoming a lawabiding citizen." The Committee believes from its investigations that no recommendations, evidence, or other material that come before the Parole Since the establishment of Parole Board these statements properly are furnished to it. |