tration, and protect it from improper influences. It is not a problem which requires primarily administrative capacity, as does the work of most city departments, but is essentially a human problem, involving many delicate and difficult factors and requir ing for its successful development a wide range of knowledge and experience, breadth of view, constant revision of method and intimate relations with other agencies for social improvement in each locality. For these reasons, the Commission regards as its most important recommendation the suggestion that in each city of the first and second classes there shall be appointed an unpaid board of probation commissioners who shall have substantially the powers of a board of directors, in relation to probation officers and probation work. In such a board, we are convinced, there will be found the required combination of organization and flexibility, with opportunity for necessary growth. It will have full authority to retain all the valued features of probation work as thus far developed in particular courts, and gradually to add thereto the features indicated in this report as essential to a well-rounded probation system.

In the opinion of this Commission, it is clearly desirable that probationers should be placed under the supervision of probation officers of their own sex, except that boys under the age of fourteen may often be placed under the care of women probationers with good results.

(h) State oversight needed.

For many years it has been the settled policy of this State to exercise central supervision over all charitable and reformatory agencies having any connection with public authority. By the collection of statistics and other information in regard to the

work of such agencies, by inspection from time to time by accredited representatives of the State, by formal investigation when abuse has been suspected, by formal recommendations, enforced, in some instances, by formal orders, the State has undertaken to bring something like harmony, unity and consistency into its charitable and reformatory work. The results achieved by the State Board of Charities, the State Commission in Lunacy and the State Prison Commission in their respective fields have, in the opinion of this Commission, more than justified this settled policy of the State.

We are, therefore, strongly of the opinion that, while probation work must always be permitted a considerable degree of flexibility to meet local conditions and individual needs, there should be provided, nevertheless, some form of central oversight. This should involve the collection of information in regard to the extent to which probation is utilized in different portions of the State from time to time, the manner in which probation work is carried on, and the value of the results secured. It should include the authority to make formal and detailed investigations of probation work in any given court or locality, when such is deemed advisable; it should provide for the making of suggestions to the Legislature from time to time for the improvement of the probation system, and for recommendations from time to time to public authorities, judicial and executive, concerned in the administration of probation; it should involve the promotion of probation work in those localities in which it is not availed of; in short, it should involve the performance by some central authority, from time to time, of the work which this special Commission has carried on during the past few months.

The question as to the proper constitution of such a State supervisory body has been given careful consideration. The work is in many respects similar to that carried on by the State Board of Charities in its supervision of reformatories for juvenile offenders, and for women. It has some points of contact with the work of the State Prison Commission. The creation of a new body, to be known perhaps as a State Probation Commission " naturally suggested itself, and some members of the Commission have felt that a body created for this specific purpose would secure more valuable results than any existing agency of the State government.

The Commission is aware, however, of the inadvisability of increasing the number of permanent commissions except when no other course seems to have a possibility of securing the desired results. The State Board of Charities is a constitutional body, representative of all portions of the State, and experienced in dealing with many phases of charitable and reformatory work. The Commission is of the opinion that the general oversight of probation work throughout the State may properly be placed in its hands.

The Commission deems it essential that this work should not be merged with the other varied and extensive duties of the State Board of Charities, but should be organized as a separate bureau or department of that board, under the direction of a special committee thereof, and with its own executive staff under the direction of a competent chief executive officer, to be known as the "Superintendent of Probation."

SELECTION OF PROBATION OFFICERS.

(a) Volunteer and salaried probation officers.

The question as to whether probation officers should be volunteers, i. e., persons not receiving salaries either from public funds or charitable, civic or other organizations, or persons receiving salaries from such organizations, or persons who are public officials in every sense of the word, is fundamental and is one concerning which conflicting opinions are strongly held. shock caused by arrest, trial and conviction and the fear of imprisonment are important factors in probation, the most important factor is the influence of the probation officer. The other factors simply provide conditions under which that influence may hope to be effective. It is of the first importance, therefore, that probation officers should be persons who are likely to exer cise a strong and helpful influence upon offenders in other words, they should be persons of absolute integrity, of intelligence, of humane sentiments, of sound judgment, and of unquestioned devotion to their work.

To these qualities two others should be added to complete the ideal probation officer- a wide range of training in social work, including a thorough knowledge of the laws enacted for the protection of society and for promoting the welfare of its less fortunate members, and a thorough acquaintance with the agencies established for the administration of those laws; and secondly the wisdom gathered from extended experience in the work itself. Probation is in some respects unlike any other social work. While other lines of experience may be useful, it is from his or her own extended experience in probation work that the probation officer must gain wisdom and sound judgment as to methods and results if he gain them at all.

Some have held that only volunteers should be appointed as probation officers, believing that only from volunteers can all these desirable qualities be expected. This position, in .our opinion, is based upon two fallacies first, that it is unreasonable to expect to find such qualities among paid workers; and, second, that volunteers are likely to be able to give sufficient continuity to their probation work to achieve the best results. It is the opinion of this Commission that the element of salary has no necessary connection with the quality of a probation officer's work, and that all the desirable qualities above referred to are to be found both among volunteer workers and among paid workers.

The volunteer worker, endowed with the qualities above noted, if fortunately in a position to give a fair amount of time, with reasonable continuity, and if willing to prepare for such work by a thorough course of training, may easily become an ideal probation officer. Our investigations, however, lead us to believe that in all the larger centers of population, i. e., in this State in all cities of the first and second classes and in counties containing a city of more than 25,000 inhabitants, the amount of probation work to be done is so great that volunteer service alone is inadequate. For its proper performance in any one of these larger centers of population it involves a carefulness of organization and an absence from interruption which, in our opinion, cannot be realized from volunteer work alone. The largest experiment in this direction has been made in the city of Buffalo, in which probation work has hitherto been carried on wholly by volunteers. While much valuable work has been done, it seems to be the uniform opinion of all concerned, including the judge of the court and the volun