Parole

Beginnings

In 1853 the British Parliament enacted the Penal Servitude Act, which allowed prison inmates to be released on a “ticket of leave,” an early British term for what later became known as parole. The following year, Sir Walter Crofton became director of the Irish prison system. Crofton felt that prison programs should be directed toward reformation, and that prisoners who had shown personal improvement while incarcerated should be rewarded. After an initial period of strict confinement, Crofton transferred prisoners to intermediate prisons where they were given credit for improvements in their performance, behavior, and education. The final stage of this system allowed ticket-of-leave prisoners to be conditionally released. In rural districts these prisoners were supervised by the police; those residing in Dublin, however, were supervised by a civilian employee, the inspector of released prisoners, who was the forerunner of the modern parole officer. Working in cooperation with the police, the inspector secured employment for the prisoners and thereafter monitored their activities, requiring them to report at stated intervals, visiting their homes every two weeks, and verifying their employment.

Crofton's work was widely publicized in the United States. American supporters of the Irish system, however, did not believe the ticket of leave would ever be accepted in the United States. Their attitude was based on an apparent belief that it would be “un-American” to place any person under police supervision, and that no other form of supervision would be effective. A letter written by Crofton in 1874, in reply to an inquiry by the secretary of the New York Prison Association, stressed that the Irish police were permitted to delegate competent persons in the community to act as custodians for ticket-of-leave prisoners, and suggested a similar system for the United States. These principles were first implemented in the Elmira Reformatory.