m 9065 ~54- HE HV9065.T5T" ""'""''""■""'' iiIm* probation officer at worl<. 3 1924 013 951 060 ^tudtra tn ^anal Wark "Sintabtx 3 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK I. AT THE START n. INVESTMENT OF SELF III. A TEAM GAME IV. AS AN INTERPRETER V. PARABLE BY HENRY W. THURSTON Single copies, five cents ; twenty -five copies, one dollar Wi^ N^tti ^orh ^tiioal of ]pt;U{uttlpriittg UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING NEW YORX CITY Studies in Social Work Number 1. Social Work with Families and Individuals: A brief manual for investigators By PoBTEE R. Lee Number 2. Organized Charity and Industry: A chapter from the history of the New York Charity Organization Society By Edward T. Devink THE PROBA.TION OFFICER AT WORK I. AT THE START. Otto Wengierski, a fifteen-year-old boy, was a thief. The evidence of the bookkeeper from the office where Otto had worked had convinced the Judge, and even Otto himself, that he had of late received more postage stamps from the bookkeeper than he had put upon the letters he had mailed. Otto had not openly admitted this to the Judge, but when the Judge asked him what he thought should be done with him he broke out: "Don't send me away. Judge, I won't do it again if you'll give me another chance." "All right," said the Judge, "I'll take you at your word, and give you another chance to make good at home. But I will put you under probation to Officer Josephson, who will come frequently to see you and your father and mother and report to me how you are getting on. I expect you to talk things over with the officer and tell him all about how you came to do this. Report to him whenever he says, get a new job or else go to school, cut out stealing, and show me that you mean what you say. Ee- member, Otto, I expect to hear better things of you. Call the next case, Mr. Clerk." As a bunch of boys, charged with loafing and 4 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK shooting crap, crowds up before the Judge, to be followed in turn by boys who have stolen pigeons, girls who have kept bad company, girls who have stayed out all night, girls who have stolen bits of finery from the shops, and still other boys from rival groups who have fought in the streets and broken heads and windows, to be followed by still others who have been habitually truant from school, who have upset push carts, broken into candy stores and slot machines, stolen junk, carried off booty from freight cars, and so on through the list of juve- nile offenses. Officer Josephson and Otto go out of the court room together to begin their new relation of probation officer to probationer. Mother and father follow. The boy had been arrested on complaint of his employer. During the three days before his appearance before the Judge, he had had a medical and physical examination by a doctor and a mental examination by a psychologist. His mother had been present at the mental ex- amination and had willingly given many sup- plementary facts about herself, and about the birth, infancy, health, schooling, etc., of the boy, but of the boy 's father and of the financial and other social problems of the boy and the family she had told little or nothing beyond the fact that the father was not living at home and that the boy was. THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK 5 After leaving the court room tlie probation officer explained to Otto and his parents what his duties as probation officer were, gave the boy a probation card which stated the condi- tions of his probation, made arrangements to see each of them alone soon at places conveni- ent to them, and expressed the belief that what- ever mistakes the boy had made could be avoid- ed in future if they would all be open and hon- est with each other and all work together. The personal talks of the next two days, together with a careful reading of the examina- tions made by the doctor and psychologist, showed these facts about the boy and his family : That the father was lazy, given to sharp tricks in business, with no permanent job, not allowed by the mother to live at home on account of questionable personal habits and irregularity of income, but fond of Otto and rather admired by the boy for his smartness. Father and son often took luncheon together and also went to movies and cheap theatres whenever the father had money. That the mother had taken up dressmak- ing to help keep the home together for Otto and his sister of twelve. That she was given to complaints about her hard lot, al- ways hard up for money, took all of the six- doUar wage that Otto received, and con- 6 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK tinually urged him to try to get a job that would pay more. That the little girl was the pet of all the others and at all costs must have good clothes and go to school. Otto had more love for her than for anyone else. That Otto himself was of a bright mind, nervous organization, given to bad per- sonal habits, and led into bad recreational habits by his father, as well as familiarized with sharp business practices that were as near dishonesty as the law would permit. The stamp stealing experience that brought him into court was not his first experience at petty stealing. The others had not been detected. In short. Officer Josephson found out that if. he was to make effectual plans for his care of Otto while on probation he must consider not only the fact of his repeated stealing but at least these other facts : 1. His nervous organization and tendency to bad personal habits ; 2. His active mind and need of recreation ; 3. His broken home and divided loyalty; 4. The questionable moral and business ex- ample and ideals of his father; 5. The financial stress of his mother ; 6. His love for his sister and his strong de- sire to help her and his mother. The stealing by Otto was of course wrong, but it was more significant as a symptom of the THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORE 7 physical, mental, social, economic, and immoral stimuli which together were driving him on toward repeated delinquent acts. Therefore a good team game between the probation officer and Otto and his family must aim not only toward the prevention of further actual dishonesty by Otto, but also toward a wholesome adjustment of all the underlying factors in his personal and family life that, un- less adjusted, would be likely to lead not only Otto but his mother and. sister into further trouble. Building upon the sound basis of all the es- sential facts in the case Officer Josephson was able gradually not merely to prevent further stealing by Otto but to help him to build up clean personal habits and better health, better bal- ance in his recreation, sounder business ideals ; to secure more regular contribution toward the family budget by the father; and finally, through the real interest in and love for both Otto and his sister by both father and mother, to bring about at least a formal and economic restoration of the father to the family circle. Although the personal and social facts of im- portance back of each one of the thousands of other boys and girls who are brought into our Juvenile Courts no doubt differ somewhat in every case from those which Officer Josephson found in the case of Otto, the start in good pro- 8 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK bation must always be made in practically the same way: namely, by finding out all the im- portant facts in the case and by starting out on an intelligent constructive plan of probationary care that takes all of these facts into considera- tion with an open mind toward the discovery and use of more facts as they appear. The fol- lowing questions, to which the answers were helpful in the probationary care of Otto, will be found useful in making an efficient start in the probationary care of most boys and girls : 1. What kind of a body has he? What are its weaknesses, abilities, appetites, passions and habits? 2. What kind of a mind has he? How well is it equipped? 3. Who are the home and other companions of this probationer? Whom does he like and whom does he dislike? Who holds the secret of his choices ? 4. What kind of work has he done and can he do? 5. What kind of play and recreation does he have and what kind does he like best? 6. What are his controlling ideas of right and wrong? II. INVESTMENT OF SELF. What reasons have a probationer and his mother and father within two days of their first meeting with a probation officer (as in the case of Otto and Officer Josephson) so to trust him that they will tell him intimate personal facts about themselves and one another? In the first place, the probationer is just now in trouble, and if he doesn't make good on pro- bation he will be in deeper trouble. The pro- bationer knows this, his mother knows it, and his father knows it. In the second place, the Judge, on whose decision the fate of the pro- bationer finally rests, has officially appointed a particular officer to represent the court in help- ing the probationer to make good. The doctor and the psychologist and the officer are all in the position of expert advisers. They seem to those in trouble to have a certain right, as a physician has, to ask all the questions neces- sary to help them to understand what the real troubles are and how to help the probationer to overcome them. But even with such conditions in his favor at the start the probation officer will not continue to get at all the further facts, and to get real team work with the probationer and his par- ents to make and to carry out plans for the future, unless he can gain the genuine trust and 10 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK confidence of the probationer. Now the per- sonal trust and confidence we give another are based not alone on the initial conditions under which we meet him, but even more upon his own personality and his behavior toward us. To get the complete confidence and co-operation of probationers and their parents a probation ofiS- cer must, therefore, be ready to make any in- vestment of himself that he finds to be neces- sary. For example, a man who had placed a boy in three homes in succession where he had failed to make good, was bringing him back sullen and sUent from the third place. The man left the boy outside a suburban store at noon while he went in to buy some crackers and cheese for luncheon. When he came out the good citizens were trying to stop a fight between his boy and a resident boy who had picked a quarrel with him. The man rushed in and pushed these good citizens back and insisted on forming a ring un- til the boys could fight it out. His boy won. The townspeople were shocked, and inclined to believe that the probation officer was the guar- dian of toughs and young gunmen. But the boy, after he was filled up with crackers and cheese, burst out: "Gee, Mr. S., I didn't think you really cared about me. But you sure were my friend this time all right. I'll do anything you say." And he kept his word. He made THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK 1 1 good. He needed a real investment of person- ality to secure his confidence. A fair chance to fight is perhaps not often the kind of investment a probation officer needs to make in his probationer, but as a rule he needs to make some investment of himself which the probationer will understand. Sometimes it is an invitation to his home, as in the case of a shiftless man arrested for non-support of his wife, whose probation officer took him to his own table, in order that he might see with his own eyes what a nice little home a man could keep up on a small salary. Sometimes it is a visit to the boy's home at night or on Sunday at the expense of needed rest or church attend- ance. Sometimes it is lending money with a three to one chance to lose it. Sometimes it is a confession of some weakness of his own against which he has still to fight. There are a thousand ways to invest yourself in a person whose problems you understand. But put your- self in the place of a person in trouble and ask yourself the question: "Do I fully trust a stranger until he has in some way trusted me, — put his money, his time, his reputation, his inti- mate personal affairs to some degree in my power?" The probation officer must win the unreserved confidence of his probationer. What gives the mother influence with her children? The investment of herself. What is 12 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK the price a father must pay for the privilege of keeping the respect and confidence and love of his adolescent boys and girls? The invest- ment of himself. What is at the basis of true marriage? Unlimited reciprocal investment of husband and wife in each other. Who is your real friend? The one who is ready to invest in you. How can you gain such influence with de- linquent boys or girls that you can be a real help to them in their fights to overcome their faults? Show them the stupidity of lying and theft, don't let them fool you, but invest yourself. ;A; probation officer, aided by the doctor and the psychologist, may make an investigation that reveals all the handicaps which beset a pro- bationer ; plans for overcoming these handicaps one by one may be perfect and the probationer agree to them; but unless the probation officer in serious cases is then ready to invest himself in the probationer he will not count for much in what happens to the probationer thereafter. The conditions under which you can become a good probation officer are inexorable, and one of these conditions was stated two thousand years ago. The good probation officer lays down his life for his probationers. III. A TEAM GAME. But the probation officer must not make the mistake of thinking that he is the whole thing. If he knows his particular probationer as he ought to know him, he will be quick to realize situations in which he must work not directly, but indirectly through some one else. For ex- ample, a school principal in a high school was told at the close of the session on a Friday night that an over-grown, iU-bred, mulish boy had been so insolent to a woman teacher that she had sent him from the room with the statement that he could never come into her class again until he had apologized. Both teacher and prin- cipal thought he would never come back. But the principal not only knew his pupils, but he knew their homes and friends, and he was not only ready to invest his own personality but he was an artist in the use of these homes and friends for the good of his boys and girls. He took a train at once (pupils came to this school from various directions by surface and steam cars) and called upon the grandmother of the boy and explained to her the whole situa- tion. The grandmother saw the girl friend of the boy; the girl friend saw the boy and got the whole story from him, and on Monday morn- ing the boy came back to school and apologized. He never knew how the thing was done, but it 14 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK started him on a different track in tliat school and in life. Years later when in the morning I often met this successful young man at a street comer where the paths toward our respective places of business crossed, I always recalled the method by which he was made to choose the right course in a moral crisis, and not only this but I also thought of what a wonderful pro- bation officer this school principal would have made, with his rare power of finding out and using the particular person and agency that could do things for his students which he him- self could not do. His action in this case was merely typical of his action in other cases of crisis in the lives of his students. The alert and successful probation officer must in the same way study all the agencies, not only per- sonal but material, which are peculiarly avail- able for each child under his care, and enlist these agencies both in the carrying out of his carefully laid plans of betterment and in mak- ing more effectual plans. He will also study all the resources of his district which can be used for probationers in general. Prom these general community agencies and persons, and from those which are available only to individual probationers, the probation officer who is an artist at his work will choose his most effective available agencies day by day THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK 15 and child by child to help each of them to over- come his particular handicap, and to feel the growing sense of self-respect and power which come to those boys and girls : who for weakness, disease, and discomfort of body begin to know what it is to be well; who for idleness and inefficiency in work begin to know the satisfaction of achieve- ment; who for play and recreation that merely excite or lead to bad companionship and immorality begin to experience the whole- some stimulus of competitive team games and to respond to purer and more ar- tistic music and plays; who for ignorance and credulity begin to feel the thrill of adventures yet to come through wise choice and reading of books which admit them into the wonderful story of what man has done and written down for them ; who really find in the probation officer, often for the first time in life, a friend who knows all about them and likes them just the same; who in questions of morals and religion first gets hold of the idea that here is guidance and inspiration toward an ever larger and richer life instead of a mere prohibition and condemnation of those practices and pleasures which are dear to them, even if fleeting and low. The probation officer must of course always 16 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK try to keep his probationer from further wrong- doing, but he will often do this best by know- ing his probationer and the resources of his home and community so well that he can keep the probationer busy doing right and thus have less time and strength to do wrong. If the probation officer is to be a real sub- stitute for the reformatory he must aim to fill up one hundred per cent of the time of his pro- bationers in activities that lead them toward a larger and more efficient life. To do this for each of his boys and girls one by one as each has need the probation officer must know the helpful persons, agencies, and opportunities of his district so well that he can enlist at any time any one or any group of them, for the good of the individual probationer in question. And he must do this not in the spirit and manner of one who can say to one go and he goeth and to another come and he Cometh, but as members of a team or co-operat- ing group, each of whom is guided by the same purpose : this one thing we do. How much is a probation officer worth who in contacts with probationers and other social agencies in the community habitually says you and I but never we? IV. AS AN INTERPEETBE. What is a probation officer to do when the resources of his district are inadequate: when homes are poverty-stricken, houses wretched and unsanitary, the streets the only play- grounds, employment opportunities largely dead-end occupations, schools crowded and cur- riculum formal and uninteresting; men and women who will help few and discouraged, morals and religion at a low ebb? In short, in a congested urban district where chances for wrong activities seem to be the rule and whole- some opportunities the exception, what can a probation officer do ? Under such circumstances how can one help a probationer to keep busy doing the right until he forgets how to do the wrong? What is the use of studying the child and making plans when you can't carry them out? What is the use of investment of self when you only throw yourself away? What is the use of trying to play a team game for the good of the child when there are no others with whom to play? Under such conditions is not all that can be done by the probation officer to co- operate with the policeman, to screw down the control of the law a little tighter and help moralists to make the condemnation of evil a little more severe? Such questions as these I believe are habitually asked by some probation officers and occasionally asked by many others. What is the answer? 18 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORE In the first place, are we not inclined to over- state somewhat the discouraging conditions? Suppose you try this experiment. Study the boys and girls in your care one by one, listing in each case your best judgment as to what is the matter, the plan you think would be suc- cessful if you could carry it out, and a list of all the persons and agencies needed to make the plan a success. Then check off those persons and agencies in each case that you know are not available. There will of course be left in each case those persons and agencies whose co-opera- tion you at least stand some chance of getting. Often such an experiment as this shows a pro- bation officer that for many of his probationers he has available more help and helpers than he had thought, and this consciousness will give strength and courage and insight for better work in those cases. On the other hand, and this is really the point I am trying to make here, this process will also show in a forceful and cumulative way the longer you keep it up, just what kind of per- sonal help, what institutions, agencies, and op- portunities, are really most needed in your dis- trict. Perhaps, as a result of this process, you are the one person in your community who really knows better than anyone else the number of delinquent boys and girls whose delinquencies THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK 19 were in part caused and whose recovery is in part delayed by : 1. Poor health conditions, unhappy homes, lack of playground; 2. Truancy, lack of interest in school, sus- pension from school; 3. Lack of employment; 4. Lack of wholesome companions ; 5. Neighborhood temptation to appetite and passion. If so, and there are any in your community who have ears to hear, let them hear these facts of yours. If the children of your community are ever to gain the conditions that are essen- tial to wholesome life it will be because those who know their handicaps plead their cause. It is not enough that the probation oiScer know his probationer, invest his own life, and co-operate with persons and agencies as they now are in his community. He has the further duty of becoming an advocate for the children, an interpreter to the citizens of the community in which he works, of the handicaps under which his boys and girls are fighting their bat- tles for a self-respecting, self-supporting life. Out of such advocacy have the Juvenile Court Movement, the Big Brother and Big Sister Movement, the Playground Movement, the Juvenile Protective League Movement, and many others grown. The probation officer has a message for his community ; it is his duty, his opportunity to find his voice. PAKABLB. Behold a certain probation officer went forth to his day's work among his probationers, and as he met them in their unlovely homes, upon the streets, lurking in the alleys, loafing on the comers, dodging the attendance officer and the policeman, selling papers, seeking for a new job, idly busy at messenger service, he found that some of the blind instinctive Teachings of their natures toward a more complete life for their bodies were trying to take root among the thorns of personal and social immorality, appetite and passion. And these outreaching tendrils of their lives the thorns were already choking. He found further that other gropings of the life within them had stretched out toward the stony soil of barren schooling, truancy, dead- end occupations; idleness and inefficiency in work; and unsympathetic, ignorant, and base companions at home and on the street. And these tender new out-growths of their natures were being scorched and withered in the fierce heat of a demand for competitive efficiency in industry and citizenship, for they had no depth of root. And stiU other strivings toward at least a semblance of life and activity had struggled out upon the much frequented but hard paths of THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK 21 irreligion, theft, disorderly conduct, and oppo- sition to law. And these the condemnation of public opinion, police, sheriffs, courts of law, jailers and hangmen were devouring up. Then when the probation officer saw the blind, groping reachings after life of his probationers thus choked out among the thorns of appetite and immorality, scorched and withered by the sun of competition in the shallow soil of ineffi- ciency, and devoured up by the officers of the law from the well-trodden byways of trans- gression, he sought out each aspiring, misguid- ed, but growing tendril as it pushed its way out from the life of each of his probationers toward the thorns and stones and highways, and wisely guided them in the direction of the good soil of a healthy and clean body, regular attend- ance and steady progress in school, interesting and creative work, recreative and joy-giving play and companionship, better taste in dress, reading, music, and plays; toward a truer understanding of the worth of a real friend and of harmony with the Infinite. And behold, when these blind, groping off- shoots of activity seeking a more abundant life, in places where there was no life, were thus guided to a good soil they began to grow and to store up health, intelligence, efficiency in work, joy in play, respect for law, and recog- nition of duty which give promise of self-sup- 22 THE PROBATION OFFICER AT WORK porting and self-respecting citizenship — some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. And the probation oflScer, as late at night he daily lays his tired head upon his pillow, feels in his heart that his labor has not been in vain ; and he breathes a prayer that on each coming day his eye may be keener to see the weak, straggling, misguided beginnings of life among his probationers and his hand quicker and more skilful to guide them toward places where the soil is good enough so that they can take root. And at the close of the prayer the persistent, aching, overwhelming burden of his heart finds voice in a great cry: "And Lord, if it please Thee to hear us, help me and my fellow-citizens of this town in the days that are soon to come to pluck up more of the thorns, to clear away more of the stones, to plough deeper, harrow longer, and to fertilize with a more generous hand, that straightway there may be good soil enough hereabouts to go around among all my probationers!"