Indeterminate Sentence Research Articles

Intent in Criminal Conspiracy

t B. S., i9ii, LL. D., 1927, Dakota Wesleyan University; LL. B., I9I4, Yale University; LL. D., I938, Tulane University; Dean of the College of Law of the University of Illinois since I922 and Provost of the University of Illinois since I93I; author, CASES AND MATERIALS ON CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE (I933, 2d ed. I939); SuPREME COURT IN FELONY CASES (Illinois Crime Survey) (i929); co-author, PAROLE AND INDETERMINATE SENTENCE IN ILLINOIS (i928); contributor to various legal periodicals. The writer wishes to acknowledge the assistance of W. D. Guthrie, a senior law student in the University of Illinois. I. See HARRISON, CONSPIRACY AS A CRIME AND AS A TORT IN ENGLISH LAW (I924) I. is the most extended of the offenses, being connected with every form of wrong-doing. And the procedure is in some respects difficult, both from its variety, and because the offense itself has not always been well understood. 3 BISHOP, NEW CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (2d ed. I9I3) ? 202. 2. Sayre urges limiting the crime to agreements involving a purpose to commit a crime. See his article: Sayre, Criminal Conspiracy (1922) 35 HARV. L. REV. 393. 3. HARRISON, op. cit. supra note I at 9I; 8 HOLDSWORTH, HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW (i926) 38I; KENNY, OUTLINES OF CRIMINAL LAW (I5th ed. I936) 337. Harrison and Kenny would limit the application of the crime to agreements to commit torts of fraud or malice. Cf. Wilson v. Commonwealth, 96 Pa. 56 (I880). 4. Harrison suggests that combinations to procure a breach of contract are not criminal conspiracies beyond cases where such breaches are criminal in individuals. HARRISON, op. cit. supra note I at 96-99. Kenny takes the position that such combinations are criminal when they are peculiarly injurious to the public. KENNY, op. Cit. supra note 3 at 337, citing Vertue v. Lord Clive, 4 Burr. 2472, 98 Eng. Rep. R. 296 (K. B. I769). 5. WINFIELD, HISTORY OF CONSPIRACY AND ABUSE OF LEGAL PROCDURE (I92I) 29-37. 6. 3 HOLDSWORTH, op. cit. supra note 3 at 40I-405; WINFIELD, op. cit. supra note 5 at 22-28. 7. This statute provides: Conspirators be they that do confeder or bind themselves by oath covenant or other alliance that every of them shall aid and support the enterprise of each other falsely and maliciously to indict, or cause to be indicted, or falsely to acquit people, or falsely to move or maintain pleas; and also such as cause children within age to appeal men of felony, whereby they are imprisoned and sore grieved; and such as retain men in the country with liveries and fees for to maintain their malicious enterprises and to suppress the truth; and this extendeth as well to the takers as to the givers. And stewards and bailiffs of great lords, which by their seignory office or power undertake to bear or maintain quarrels, pleas, or debates for other matters than such as touch the estate of their lords or themselves.

Indeterminate Sentence Laws. The Adolescence of Penocorrectional Legislation

Indeterminate Sentence Laws. The Adolescence of Penocorrectional Legislation

A Study of the Indeterminate Sentence, Probation and Parole in Utah

A Study of the Indeterminate Sentence, Probation and Parole in Utah

Prison Tendencies in Europe

America has, for a long period of time, held the distinction of conspicuous leadership in penal reform. Her Pennsylvania system conquered the world, her reformatories were imitated, her experiments with self-government received an attention which in late years has been translated into concrete performance in Europe. Her eagerness to experiment, based on a disregard for tradition, led to the origination, or the progressive adaptation, of such institutions as the indeterminate sentence, parole, probation and the juvenile court. Today, leadership in penal reform in general is no longer confined to this country, and if we think in terms of prison reform in a more restricted sense, the rapid theoretical and practical progress of Europe in this field in late years, bids fair to make the pupil master. Of the numerous trends in prison reform which are discernible abroad only two will be considered here. The first is the development of clinical study of the adult offender as basis for his prison treatment. The second is the organization of this treatment in the light of such study. In connection with the latter, special emphasis will be placed on the efforts being made to secure a well selected and trained prison staff.

What the Courts, the Prisons, the Employer and the Public Should Know of the Released Prisoner

In the United States the Federal Government and each of the forty-eight states-making forty-nine in all-has its own code of laws. Fifty years ago there was little or no cooperation between the courts and prisons. That was the period of the treatment of convicts enmasse, the time of definite sentences. That was before the time of the individualizing of punishment; before much use had been made of the indeterminate sentence law; before many reformatories had been established or reformatory methods were applied to state prisons. Then prisoners were released at the prison door at the expiration of sentence-in some states less commutation or good time--with no one to get them employment or act as friend and supervisor. In a few prisons that may be true today. In most jurisdictions progress is being made in the individualization of offenders. Probation and parole are being more widely used. Probation is applied in most of the states of the Union. We should distinguish between probation and parole. Parole means the conditional release of a prisoner from an institution. Probation means the conditional release of an offender who has not been sent to an institution. In either case proper supervision by capable parole or probation officers is essential. Parole is not an act of clemency, as some seem to think. It

A Study of Social Science Data and Their Use

Dialectics relates to the process of reasoning from probabilities and observed indications. The scientific method reasons from meticulously stated data presented so that another mind can analyze and evaluate the accuracy, force, and effect of each datum. The dialectic method precedes the scientific. The dialectic method precedes the scientific. The dialectic method is necessary in the treatment of problems that must be acted upon but which have not been conclusively analyzed by scientific methods. This method does not add to the fund of human knowledge. An example of the dialectic method is the report on Parole and the Indeterminate Sentence made in Illinois. The scientific analysis of social science phenomena includes four methods: statistical, case study, observation, and experimentation. There are no statistical data: a datum is a fact or assumption; statistics, classification and presentation. A case study may be classed as experiment which, if properly controlled, would produce dependable results...

HARNO, ALBERT J., ANDREW A. BRUCE, ERNEST W. BURGESS and JOHN LAN-DESCO. Parole and the Indeterminate Sentence. A Report to the Chairman of the Parole Board of Illinois on "The Workings of the Indeterminate-Sentence Law and the Parole System in Illinois." Pp. 268 and Index. State of Illinois, 1928

HARNO, ALBERT J., ANDREW A. BRUCE, ERNEST W. BURGESS and JOHN LAN-DESCO. Parole and the Indeterminate Sentence. A Report to the Chairman of the Parole Board of Illinois on "The Workings of the Indeterminate-Sentence Law and the Parole System in Illinois." Pp. 268 and Index. State of Illinois, 1928

Indeterminate Sentence and Soviet Penal Law

Indeterminate Sentence and Soviet Penal Law

The Indeterminate Sentence in Hungary

The Indeterminate Sentence in Hungary

The Indeterminate Sentence in France

The Indeterminate Sentence in France

A Brief Comparative Study of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Statutes

A Brief Comparative Study of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Statutes

Topical Digest of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Statutes

Topical Digest of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Statutes

Historical Sketch of the Indeterminate Sentence and Parole System

Historical Sketch of the Indeterminate Sentence and Parole System

Penal Legislation of 1923 the Indeterminate Sentence

Penal Legislation of 1923 the Indeterminate Sentence

What Should Be the Form of the Indeterminate Sentence and What Should Be the Provisions as to Maximum and Minimum Terms, If Any?

Thirty-seven of the states have statutory provision for the indeterminate sentence in some form, but there is a considerable diversity in these statutory provisions. In four of the states the form of the sentence is indeterminate as to the term of imprisonment, no term being named, but the statutes provide in substance that the sentence shall be taken as being for an indefinite period not less than the minimum nor more than the maximum term fixed by statute for the offense of which the prisoner has been convicted. This is also true in some other states as to sentences to a reformatory for first or young offenders, but not as to sentences to the penitentiary. In Pennsylvania, for instance, sentences to the Pennsylvania Industrial Reformatory are indefinite in form. Ohio was in this class until the last legislature provided that the court must name a minimum which cannot be less than

Selection of Prison Officials and Guards

During the last decade the efforts for prison progress have been principally directed to the matter of the treatment of prisoners, the construction of buildings, prison labor, food and clothing, classification, indeterminate sentence, parole, education and the mental study of inmates. Comparatively little has been done to improve the methods employed for the selection of officials and subordinates, and practically nothing has been done to provide means for the necessary training of such officers and subordinates. These matters have, indeed, been discussed from time to time, but no more. This angle of the prison problem surely is of no small importance and is as essential to substantial progress as the features enumerated above. Penal institutions are gradually being looked upon as serving either of two purposes. First, for the reformation of offenders, and secondly, for the permanent detention of those who need custodial care. The public should learn that the supervision and treatment of offenders is essentially a task for persons with certain natural qualifications and specialized training. It is interesting to note that the New York State Legislature in 1847 enacted a law providing as follows: No appointment shall be made in any of the state prisons of this state on the grounds of political partisanship; but honesty, capacity and adaptation shall constitute the rule for appointments, and any violation of this rule shall be sufficient cause for the removing from office of the officer committing such violation. Time has shown us that both the spirit and the letter of this law have been violated, and if the penalty of imprisonment had followed conviction for every violation, it is probable that many of our prison officials would have found themselves included among those whom they were appointed to supervise. In one of our prisons alone in the space of some seventy years we have had thirty-six wardens. Surely this was not because men increasingly fit for the job were found in such quick succession. A noted lawyer has been quoted as saying that there are two kinds of laws, one kind to be strictly observed and the other to satisfy the reformers. On the basis of experience it would

Indeterminate Sentence, Release on Parole and Pardon (Report of the Committee of the Institute)

Indeterminate Sentence, Release on Parole and Pardon (Report of the Committee of the Institute)

Indeterminate Sentence, Release on Parole and Pardon (Report of Committee "F" of the Institute)

Indeterminate Sentence, Release on Parole and Pardon (Report of Committee "F" of the Institute)

Indeterminate Sentence, Release on Parole and Pardon (Report of the Committee of the Institute)

Indeterminate Sentence, Release on Parole and Pardon (Report of the Committee of the Institute)

Operation of the New Parole Law in Illinois

Few persons in Illinois have any understanding or knowledge of the vast changes which have come about since the first of July last year in the administration of the new parole law. Without attracting any considerable amount of public attention changes have been brought about in the parole system which practically revolutionize it. The results already are so apparent that we who are entrusted with the parole work in Illinois feel that the new plans are now safely set upon a solid foundation. Illinois has been a pioneer in many penal enactments. Our state was one of the first to adopt the parole system. It was also one of the irst to adopt probation laws. It was actually the first state to enact Juvenile Court laws, and last but not least in importance, a new Civil Administrative Code, which brings into being a Department of Public Welfare, embracing all that the name implies. It will be the aim of the present administration to keep Illinois in the foreground in all such matters. Illinois passed its first indeterminate sentence act and parole law in 1895. That act was amended in 1899 by giving the paroling power to the State Board of Pardons instead of to the Penitentiary Commissioners and the Wardens. The Penitentiary Commissioners and the Wardens constituted the paroling power for the four years between 1895 and 1899. The Act of 1899 remained practically without change until the legislative session of 1915. In that session a small step was made toward a parole for what is known as definite sentence crimes. The short step made in 1915 was broadened in the 1917 session when the legislature revised the whole parole act. The present act became effective July 1, 1917. At the Prison Congress last winter at New Orleans I heard the present parole law of Illinois described by persons who have devoted their lives to prison work as one of the very best laws in effect at this time in any of the states. The present parole act was not a compromise. It was carefully prepared in the Attorney General's office.