LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which #11 treble the space.] PROBATION AND CRIME.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SFFcrAYDR."] SIR,—In November, 1920, the Home Secretary appointed a De- partmental Committee on the Training, Appointment and Pay- ment of Probation Officers. After a delay of sixteen months the members published their Report in March, 1922. Sixteen meet- ings only were held, and forty-nine witnesses were examined, of whom no less than twenty-eight were working in the Metro- politan area or in Middlesex, so it is somewhat doubtful whether provincial problems connected with Probation, which differ very materially from London problems, received adequate considera- tion. It was expected from the terms of reference that the question of training would have a most important position in connexion with the inquiry "to inquire into the existing methods of training, appointing and paying Probation Officers, and to consider whether any, and if so, what alteraVons are desirable in order to secure at all courts a sufficient number of Probation Officers, having suitable training and qualifications; and also to consider whether any changes are required in the present system of remuneration." It was anticipated by those with experience that emphasis would be laid upon the possi- bilities of employing trained social workers as Probation Officers —graduates and others of higher educational attainments— provided that they underwent a further course of training in police-court work. The general training of such students in case work and in after-care work would be invaluable in carry- ing out constructive probation work, and they would have been able, in addition, to build up a system of records and to establish a co-ordinated system for the after-care of juvenile offenders and of young prisoners in place of the numerous existing schemes where overlapping of visiting and inquiry is rife, records are non-existent as a rule, and where it is impossible to test results because of the lack of co-operaton between the various workers.
It would appear, however, that the Committee considered that this matter was of secondary importance, for one witness only was called who was concerned with the general training bf social workers, and no definite recommendations were made in the Report as to the nature of the training which Probation Officers should receive to qualify them to perform their important duties under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907. The Committee are content to bless the existing Societies who are supplying the majority of the present Probation Officers—who require, almost invariably,, that their officers should be total abstainers and that they should subscribe to the tenets of some particular communion--and who continue to control them, 'although they are paid by the courts employing them. They suggest, further, that a male Probation Officer should be able to look forward at the age of thirty to a salary of £200, and that a woman officer at the same age might receive, £150. Under the present educational system a young elementary school teacher, on leav- ing her training college at twenty, after a grant-aided education, receives a commencing salary of £175 a year, while the members of a Departmental Committee recommend uanimously, as a real concession, £150 as an adequate remuneration for a woman of thirty to whom is entrusted the difficult task of the reforma- tion of the failures of our educational and social system I
A hopeful feature of the Report appeared in Recommendation 18, that the Home Office should be assisted by an Advisory Committee, including representatives of Magistrates, Local Authorities, Probation Officers, and other persons specially experienced and interested in this work. The Home Secretary has adopted this recommendation and, further, he agreed in the House of Commons, in May last, to give adequate representation to the Provinces in addition to the Metropolitan area, and to permit members of the Advisory Committee to initiate dis- cussion on matters connected with Probation, without limiting them, as is suggested in the Report, to the consideration of matters referred to them.
This Advisory Committee, which was appointed by the Home Secretary as announced in the Press last week, includes, in Addition to the Chairman—the Parliamentary Secretary—and an Assistant Secretary to the Department, three Metropolitan Magistrates, three Provincial Magistrates, three Probation Officers, two representatives of Local Authorities, and the Secretary of the London Police-court Mission. I venture to suggest that if the question of the training of Probation Officers and the establishment of a proper system of records is to receive, at last, adequate consideration, it is essential that one, or, pre- ferably, two social workers with vision, general and administra- tive training and a broad outlook should be added to the Committee by the Home Secretary. If this is done the members already appointed, with considerable Police-court experience, will benefit greatly by their knowledge, and the Home Office, magistrates, and the public, who are interested in the reforma- tion of offenders, will look forward with confidence and hope to the extended use of Probation and to the appointment of trained and suitable Probation Officers for every court in the kingdom. The Advisory Committee have a wide field to cover, and while, owing to the necessity for national economy it is impossible to emulate the elaborate administrative machinery such as is in full working order in America, where there are as many as four hundred Probation Officers attached to one court, it appears certain that within a short time the present scandal where 21 per cent. of the courts of England are without Probation Officers will be a thing of the past. It is a comforting thought that the best probation work in England equals, if it does not excel, that in any other country, and if the Advisory Committee are able to assist the Home Secretary to level up the average work with the best British probation work of to- day and to suggest a practical scheme for the initiation of work in the 215 barren courts, they will be doing a great service to society.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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