Probation and Suspended Sentence (Report of Committee "B" of the Institute)

Abstract

It is the purpose of this report to present the main results of a survey of the statutes of all the states of our country as to their provisions for probation of offenders and suspended sentence, to extract from them their salient features, as -well as their limitations, and to offer suggestions as. to the ways in which, in the light of accumulating experience, they may wisely be broadened and perfected. The theory of probation as a process of reformation has been so fully and ably presented in prior reports and in public discussion that it may be regarded, not only as familiar, but as approved in the minds of those officially or professionally concerned in the administration of the criminal law, and to a degree-although it must be admitted still incompletely-in the mind of the general public. Such reference as will be made to the history of the development is resorted to solely for the purpose of showing the readiness with which the theory has been accepted, and to depict the institution as a living and luminous fact in our present advanced jurisprudence.