Proceedings Following Conviction

Abstract

General Superintendent, State Reformatory, St. Cloud, Minn. The observations which I am privileged to submit to this annual meeting of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, and to the Wisconsin Branch of that organization, will be directed mainly to facts and conditions regarding the product of the Criminal Courts, and their proper management and disposition. Whatever information has been gathered is the result of experience in the practical field, and the writer undertakes to avoid the statement of alleged facts not probably established, or the expression of opinions not properly fortified. The official experience referred to has been confined to one of the northwestern states, but the evidence indicates that, in large measure, the conditions there existing, are general over a considerable scope of territory, and not wholly unknown in any part of the Union. Where civilization exists, there are rules of action, and where there are regulations and men, some of the men will sometimes violate some of the regulations. Therefore, there are jails, courts and prisons, and now probation and parole officers. All these should be adapted to dealing with the men who have been disobedient, and who are adjudged to require correction or detention.