information as to their subsequent conduct except such as may be gained accidentally or by reason of the reappearance in court of the offender. It is believed that the number of persons released under suspended sentence would be considerably greater if the services of probation officers were at the disposal of all the courts.

(b) Probation for Children.

In the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx practically all children's cases are heard in the Children's Court, established in 1902, as a part of the Court of Special Sessions, and presided over by a justice of that court. The court is held in the building at the corner of Third avenue and Eleventh street, apart from all other courts. In the same building is the Bureau of Dependent Children, maintained by the Department of Public Charities, which passes upon the applications for the admission of destitute children to institutions as public charges. The Court of Special Sessions consists of six justices, the children's part being presided over by one or the other of these justices, not necessarily in rotation but as assigned by the board of justices. The justice whose experience in the Children's Court antedates that of the other members of the court, Justice Olmsted, states that there is no "probation" work in the Children's Court, i. e., no placing on probation, under the provisions of the law of 1901, as amended. Many children are, however, released "on parole" and under oversight. The secretary and superintendent of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Mr. E. Fellows Jenkins, has been appointed chief probation officer. He is assisted by the salaried agents of that society, and also by a number of volunteers. A group of Catholic

ladies, who attend the Children's Court in succession, assist as volunteer aids in the case of Catholic children. Mrs. Sophia Axeman (who is also a probation officer for adult offenders, in the Court of Special Sessions), with one or two volunteer aids, assists in the case of Jewish children. As to the Protestant children, the numbers are few and there appears to be no organized volunteer aid, though an Episcopal clergyman stands ready to assist if called upon.

According to the testimony of Justice Olmsted, when the child is released on parole he is under no probationary or other oversight. His testimony on this point reads as follows:

A. I think I stated it very briefly when I stated we had no probation officer and only this parole system which we have described.

Q. How many parole officers have you appointed? A. None. Q. None? A. No, I would not; it requires six justices to act. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children acts in the matter of investigation and reporting.

Q. That is preceding the decision as to whether you will commit, or is it subsequent to that? A. Both before and after.

Q. If a child is convicted of some minor offense and is released on parole for a period of one month under whose surveillance is he during that month? A. Nobody's; that is one of the things I think is necessary. You do not want anybody holding up that child; otherwise, when that uplifting influence is gone, down goes the child. I believe the reforming process must be in the child itself. If you are to save a child, you must teach that child to do something for itself. If you have somebody with the child all the time, the child is afraid to do wrong owing to the deterrent influence. When that influence is taken away, they are likely to go wrong, but if you rely on the child it will bring out elements of character to hold it up.

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"Q. Then it is the society that exercises this oversight during the months of parole? A. They do not exercise any oversight. They get the report, perhaps a week before the time is up.

Q. Then I should say instead of exercising oversight, secures information? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Is it the society as an organization or by an individual? A. The society as an organization.

Q. That society reports on each case at the end of the parole period? A. Yes, sir; sometimes, as it will happen, he comes in before the period ends, and then the society reports sooner.

Q. Now, then, in regard to the child under parole; what takes place is that at the end of the time the society makes to you a report based on the visits of one of its agents to the home and to the neighborhood? A. Yes, sir; and if the child is working, to the place of the employer of the child.

Q. And that is, as you understand it, simply a visit to obtain information as to the conduct of that child during the period of parole? A. Yes, sir.

Q. You get a report which is made from the information secured at the end of the period concerning conditions during the period? A. Yes, sir; unless they may have secured other information incidentally, which would be furnished to us."

Again, Justice Deuel, who has taken special interest in the work of the Children's Court, and who had much to do with framing the present charter provisions on this subject, testified immediately after Justice Olmsted, as follows:

"Q. Do you know whether it is the custom to have the child report to the society? A. I understand the child must report to the society once a week; that has been the custom. There are other cases where the boy is excused; certain circumstances might cause the society to excuse the boy; and it has been done by the society on my request.

Q. Your general impression is, it is the custom for the boy to report unless relieved from doing so by the society? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do they visit the boy's home? A. The report shows that the boy's home and school have been visited.

Q. And that is submitted to you by the superintendent of the society? A. Yes, sir; in typewriting and it is filed with the

papers.

Q. Do you understand that during this parole period the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is supposed to help the child, advise with the child? A. In any case where they find advice would be for the benefit of the child they would give it or report to the court. They would report to the court where caution or advice was advisable. I would prefer that; I would prefer that the society should report to me and leave it to us to determine what should be done.

Q. The function of the probation officer is that of a friend to the child? A. It should be; under my supervision, he would do what I directed him to do.

Q. What would you direct him to do? A. I would find out what he had done and what should be done, and then direct him.

Q. Take the case of this report from the society. Do they report what the conditions were, or do they try to shape conditions during the month of probation? A. I have never gone into that."

Justice Wyatt, of the same court, testified as follows:

"Q. What does this society do with those placed under its care? A. All I know is what we have them give us in the report. They describe the surroundings and conditions of the parents, etc.

Q. My conception of probation work is not that the probation officer shall ascertain simply whether the child is doing well or badly, but that he should help the child to do well. Now that, I do not understand, from the testimony of Judge Olmsted and Judge Deuel, to be the nature of the work carried on by this society? A. They do not do what you would call charity work or educational work, but they put all the facts in the possession of the court, and the court tries to pass its judgment in such a way as to tend to the uplifting of the offender.

Q. Don't you understand that in the work of Mrs. Axeman, for adult offenders, that her relation to those women is that of a friend, counsellor and adviser? A. I have no doubt she tries to make it so.

Q. Does not that add to its value? A. It may.

Q. Is not that what probation work means? A. No; it adds to it. most decidedly.

Q. Do you understand that that society undertakes to do that kind of work with the children under parole? A. I do not understand what the society does, except what it brings into court."

Mr. E. Fellows Jenkins, secretary and superintendent of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, testified that he was appointed on December 13, 1901, as chief probation officer in the Court of Special Sessions, in all cases of minors paroled under the age of sixteen years. This was before the establishment of a separate Children's Court, but carried with it the probation work at the Children's Court when that court was established as a part of the Court of Special Sessions. He has to assist him sixteen paid agents of the society, one of whom is a woman. The system of requiring the children to report weekly at the office of the society was tried for nearly a year, and was then discontinued. The children are now paroled in the custody of the parents until a certain day, usually about a month ahead. Before the end of the period an investigation is made by the society and a written report is submitted to the judge on the day on which the child appears in court.

'Q. Won't you tell us a little more in detail just what you do and just how you divide up the work between your different assistants in connection with a child under parole during the first month, let us say? A. The case is first given to the officer of the society in that district (police court district), and it is also given, as I stated before, to the representative of the child's religion. She tries to visit that child at least once a week, and the officer of the society visits the child, too; and if I receive a report during the parole period from the officer of the society or from any one of the ladies working under Mrs. O'Keefe or from Mrs. Axeman that in their opinion that child has not obeyed the