PAROLE IN NORTH 
 
 CAROLINA 
 
 McAlister 
 
THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 THE COLLECTION OF 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 Cp365 
 
 Klip 
 
Parole in North 
 Carolina 
 
 A. w. McAlister 
 
 
 Reprinted from The Journal of Social Forces 
 
 January, 1923 
 
PAROLE IN NORTH CAROLINA* 
 
 W ITHIN a few steps of this place of our 
 assemblage, just across the street in the 
 next block, is the place of the birth and 
 the boyhood of the greatest short story writer 
 who ever lived. Maupassant is not even his close 
 second, the critics to the contrary notwithstand¬ 
 ing. Let us think for a moment what it would 
 have meant to William Sydney Porter or O. 
 Henry, if as he faced the penalty of the law for 
 the offense which he probably never committed, 
 the law had held out to him anything to 
 hearten or encourage. Think of the degradation 
 that he suffered to no purpose, and think of the 
 years of creative fruitfulness that were lost to 
 the world while he was ground down in prison, 
 all because the law lacked the intelligence to see 
 that he was entitled to a chance. An intelligent 
 and humane parole might have saved to O. Henry 
 the man those desolating days, and might have 
 given to O. Henry the writer added years for 
 
 * Address delivered at the last annual convention of the North 
 Caroling Conference for Social Service in Greensboro. 
 
 [ 1 ] 
 
the exercise of his amazing alchemy. It is alto¬ 
 gether fitting that here almost within the shadow 
 of the birthplace of this victim of the law’s unin¬ 
 telligence, the North Carolina Conference for 
 Social Service should enter upon its first study 
 of this subject of parole. 
 
 It may be interesting also to mention by way 
 of preface that this subject of parole was brought 
 to the attention of the Conference by the Men’s 
 Club of a church. This is especially interesting 
 because it is a new thing in the experience of the 
 Conference to have any subject of any kind 
 brought to it by a church. Let us hope that this 
 may be the beginning of an era of closer relations 
 between the churches and the Conference, for 
 surely it is neither illogical nor unscriptural for 
 an organization like this, committed to the service 
 of humanity, to have the warmest, most whole 
 hearted support and cooperation from an insti¬ 
 tution founded upon the teachings of Him who 
 said “if any would be chief among you, let him be 
 your servant,” and who both by precept and ex¬ 
 ample placed the supreme emphasis upon service 
 to your fellow man. The suggestion from the 
 Men’s Club of the church referred to grew out 
 of their experience in an effort to secure the 
 parole of a man sentenced to the county convict 
 
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camp upon evidence that was not conclusive, and 
 whose family, which included several small chil¬ 
 dren, was left in a state of extreme destitution. 
 
 J'p crown this man’s misfortune, immediately follow¬ 
 ing his imprisonment, his seventeen year old 
 daughter, the only support of the family after 
 he was taken away, went down with a serious 
 sickness of two months’ duration. If there ever 
 was a case for the exercise by the law of an in¬ 
 telligent and humane initiative this was one. 
 
 The results in this case justified all the effort 
 and thought and interest that were put into it. 
 It saved a man and a man’s family. That man 
 since his release from the chain gang has a record 
 of good citizenship. He has conducted himself 
 as a self respecting man, he has supported his 
 family, he has won the respect of his neighbors, 
 he has built a house for his family, and he and 
 his wife have joined the church. What would 
 have been the probable fate of that man and his 
 family if after his imprisonment and disgrace 
 they had been left to look out for themselves ? 
 
 May I cite another case? Some time ago two 
 seventeen year old boys were convicted on their 
 own submission in the superior court of Guilford 
 county of holding-up and robbing a man of six 
 dollars and a pocket knife. They were first 
 
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offenders and proved a previous record of good 
 conduct. It is not known whether they were 
 playing Robin Hood, or imitating some similar 
 episode which they had witnessed in a moving 
 picture theatre, or reenacting some story that they 
 had found in our current literature. It is not 
 known what influenced these boys of previous 
 good character to break loose as highway rob¬ 
 bers, but they were sentenced to one year on the 
 county roads, the lightest sentence the judge 
 could pronounce under the law. The kindly 
 judge told them that five years was the usual 
 penalty for such an offense but that he would do 
 the best he could for them and make it one. Now 
 what will that minimum penalty, minimum pen¬ 
 alty alone, do for those boys? One year on the 
 roads, in the county convict camp, in association 
 with hardened criminals, under the tutelage of 
 the average convict guard. What sort of a chance 
 is that for any boy? What sort of a chance 
 would it be for your boy or mine ? What escape 
 from moral ruin is there for those boys? They 
 have been sentenced to a career of rebellion 
 ^against society because that is just what their pun¬ 
 ishment is designed to accomplish. The osten¬ 
 sible purpose of that one year’s sentence on the 
 roads is to bring those boys to their sober senses 
 
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and to save them; but we know that nothing 
 could be more skillfully designed for their eternal 
 damnation. Now let us suppose that it had been 
 the duty and privilege of our superintendent of 
 public welfare, as the county parole officer, to go 
 to see these boys at the beginning of the serving 
 of their sentence and show them her interest and 
 friendship and give them encouragement. And 
 let us suppose that as the representative of the 
 law she could say to them, ‘‘you haven’t come to 
 the end of things, you have played the wild and 
 the fool, but there is another chance for you if 
 you have got it in you to take that chance. If 
 you will behave yourself while you are here, I 
 will take you out and find a job for you and be 
 your friend, and you can stay out as long as you 
 behave yourself, and will report to me once a 
 week and satisfy me that you are doing your 
 duty; but if you have not the sand to do that, 
 you will have to come back here and serve the 
 rest of your sentence. Here is your chance for^ 
 freedom, for manhood, and for happiness. Will 
 you take it ?” That would give those boys some-^ 
 thing to work for and live for. What actually 
 happened was that an organization of boys in a 
 local church and the county superintendent of 
 public welfare took an interest in these boys, 
 
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regularly “visited them in prison/’ got a job ready 
 for them, and secured their parole. These boys 
 went to work, behaved themselves, and made 
 good. 
 
 This is an example brought near home of what 
 this thing of parole would do, if this sort of 
 humane and intelligent application of it could be 
 made promptly and systematically by county au¬ 
 thorities to prisoners in county institutions. 
 
 This case, so splendidly illustrative of the 
 principle, brings us squarely up before the propo¬ 
 sition of a county system of parole. The only 
 real solution of the prison problem is a unified 
 state system under which all prisoners would be 
 confined in state institutions, in which the follow- 
 ing facilities would be furnished for the training 
 of convicts in good citizenship: 
 
 1. Mental and physical examination with spe- 
 ^ cial treatment when required. 
 
 2. Work which teaches each man a trade. 
 
 3. Resident chaplains who keep in touch with 
 every prisoner. 
 
 4. An efficient state parole system. 
 
 5. Compulsory education for illiterates and 
 educational opportunity for all. 
 
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6. Just enough recreation to give zest to the 
 work required, and such as will contribute to 
 mental, physical and moral well-being. 
 
 This is the ideal system which we should never 
 lose sight of and which North Carolina must have 
 in due time. However, we are going to have to 
 wait until taxpayers are willing to see their 
 money literally poured into the equipment that is 
 necessary for the reclaiming care of those in con¬ 
 finement for violation of law. We are going to 
 have to wait until legislatures have caught a vision 
 of service in prison administration, and until they 
 have attained to such an estimate of the oppor¬ 
 tunity for good in the sane and humane applica¬ 
 tion of penalties, that they will be unwilling to 
 see prison efficiency hampered by political en¬ 
 tanglements. We are going to have to wait until 
 counties are unwilling any longer to exploit their 
 prisoners for profit. In the meantime, it would 
 seem to be the part of wisdom, as long as counties 
 insist upon handling their prisoners, to evolve a 
 county system that will go as far as practicable 
 in securing to the prisoners the benefits such as 
 we have described as appertaining to the ideal 
 state system. Something, but not a great deal, 
 can be done in the direction of mental and phy¬ 
 sical examination of county prisoners with spe- 
 
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dal treatment; something perhaps, but very little, 
 can be done by way of providing vocational work 
 for county prisoners; something, but not much, 
 can be done towards providing the individual ser¬ 
 vice of chaplains; something, but in a very lim¬ 
 ited way, can be done towards furnishing any 
 educational opportunity to those Confined in jails 
 or on chain gangs; little if any recreation can be 
 provided. But a county system of parole can be 
 worked out whose benefits will be boundless in 
 the reclamation of men. 
 
 / It so happens that we have already to our hand 
 in our county departments of public welfare the 
 very machinery needed for a county system of 
 parole. If our county departments of public wel¬ 
 fare had been designed for the deliberate purpose 
 of administering satisfactorily the parole of 
 county prisoners, they would have been planned 
 pretty nearly as now constituted. Add to the 
 county board of public welfare, the juvenile court 
 judge and possibly the sheriff -on account of his 
 knowledge of the prisoners dealt with, and you 
 will have an ideal county board of parole. The 
 law already designates the county superintendent 
 as parole officer, and such assistant parole officers 
 as may be needed can be provided for by legis- 
 
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lation. There you already have the machinery 
 set up, and all you have to do it to set it in 
 motion. 
 
 No county board of parole should be allowed 
 to function until adequate parole-officer provision 
 has been made nor until the consent of the com¬ 
 missioner of public welfare has been obtained. 
 
 I will not undertake to outline in detail, but 
 only in general terms, the legislation that will be 
 required. The courts of some states have held 
 that the power of parole is part of the pardoning 
 power, The courts of other states have held that 
 it is not. If our supreme court should hold that 
 the power of parole is part of the pardoning 
 power, there would be a constitutional obstacle 
 to the exercise of parole power by county boards 
 of parole; but in that case, the power of recom¬ 
 mendation of parole could be given to county 
 boards of parole, with the final granting of it in 
 the hands of the governor as at present. This 
 check upon hasty and ill-advised parole, involved 
 in the governor’s approval, would probably be a 
 wholesome thing in the working of a parole sys¬ 
 tem. At any rate it would not be fatal to the 
 proposed plan. All such recommendations to the 
 governor should first be approved or disapproved 
 by the solicitor of the district, as this would be 
 
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an additional check against the reckless granting 
 of parole by irresponsible county boards. The 
 approval of the superior court judge should not 
 be required as under the present law the judicial 
 itinerary frequently renders the judge difficult of 
 access. Some legislation will be needed: 
 
 1. A maximum sentence law under which the 
 term of the sentence could be reduced at any 
 time that the parole board should judge it to be 
 desirable. Probation, in some instances, for 
 adults also seems desirable. 
 
 2. A law creating county boards of parole and 
 defining their powers. 
 
 3. A law requiring notice of commitments to 
 be given to the county parole officer, and pre¬ 
 scribing his duties, such as immediate interview 
 with the prispner, investigation of his physical 
 condition, history and previous environment, 
 training, companions, habits, education, vocation 
 and social attitude; supervision during the period 
 of parole, employment during and at expiration 
 of parole, provision at time of parole for suitable 
 clothing and other necessities. No prisoner - 
 should be released on parole until satisfactory 
 arrangements have been made for his or her hon¬ 
 orable and useful employment in some suitable 
 
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occupation and also for a proper and suitable 
 home, free from criminal influences. 
 
 4. A law or rules providing for the selection 
 and investigation of a sponsor or first friend for 
 each paroled prisoner, this sponsor or first friend 
 to keep the parole officer informed as to the con¬ 
 duct, occupation, home surroundings and employ¬ 
 ment of his charge. 
 
 5. A law making it the duty of prison authori¬ 
 ties whenever a prisoner is paroled to notify the 
 superintendent of public welfare of the county to 
 which the prisoner is returned, accompanying said 
 notice with a copy of his prison record and any 
 information upon which his parole was based. 
 The law should prescribe a penalty for non-per¬ 
 formance of this duty. The county superintend¬ 
 ent or parole officer should make at least monthly 
 reports to some central state authority as to con¬ 
 duct, habits, health, employment and associations 
 of such paroled state prisoner. Provision should 
 be made for such state parole officers as may be 
 necessary to supplement the county parole officers. 
 
 6. A law placing the appointment of county 
 superintendents or parole officers in the hands of 
 county boards of public welfare, so as to remove 
 this responsible office from the control or 
 manipulation of politics. 
 
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7. Provision for such adequate compensation 
 for parole officers as to command a high type of 
 service. In other words the position of parole 
 officer is one of great responsibility. His job is 
 the fine one of making the man committed to his 
 charge want to be a good citizen. High qualifi¬ 
 cations will be required for that task. There 
 will be required for the responsibilities of that 
 position the same type of men and women as 
 those now serving most successfully as superin¬ 
 tendents of public welfare, and as secretaries of 
 our Y. M. C. A.’s, Y. W. C. A.’s and Chambers 
 of Commerce. 
 
 Most of the foregoing provisions can probably 
 be incorporated in one piece of legislation. 
 
 In order that definite progress may be made by 
 this Conference towards the extension of the 
 benefits of parole to prisoners sentenced to county 
 institutions, I suggest: 
 
 / 1. That the Conference go on record as favor¬ 
 
 ing a county parole system, until such time as it 
 becomes practical for the state to handle and care 
 for county prisoners. 
 
 2. That a committee of the Conference be re¬ 
 quested to draft a bill or bills providing for such 
 a county system of parole. 
 
3. That a special committee be appointed by 
 this Conference to secure the enactment of such 
 legislation by the next legislature. 
 
 Let us not leave this discussion without catch- 
 ing up a few loose threads. An efficient parole 
 system does not wait for the intercession of^ 
 relatives and friends but takes the initiative and \ 
 makes intelligent application of parole to those \ 
 who can profit by it. Only those can profit by^^ 
 parole in whom can be aroused the desire to 
 make good as industrious law-abiding citizens. 
 To such ones parole is an unmixed blessing. 
 Where this desire is lacking parole is no benefit 
 to anybody and should not be resorted to. Prob¬ 
 ably the best evidence of this favorable state ot ? 
 mind is furnished by a period of good behavipi 
 under restraint. Parole can be and should be ex¬ 
 tended with a degree of cautious freedom in the 
 case of first offenders, but with extreme caution 
 to repeaters, if at all. The services of com¬ 
 munity organizations, as well as that of individ¬ 
 uals, such as Y. M. C. A.’s, Y. W. C. A.’s, the 
 Salvation Army, Bible classes, churches. Rotary, 
 Kiwanis and Civitan clubs can be commandeered 
 in the administration of parole and should be 
 used freely. The granting of parole is such a 
 serious responsibility that a first essential to any 
 
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satisfactory system is properly qualified men and 
 women as members of parole boards and as parole 
 ’ officers. 
 
 In passing let me set at rest the current charge 
 that the unwise exercise of parole is responsible 
 for the prevailing increase in lawlessness. This 
 is one of those plausible explanations of con¬ 
 ditions which become current without any facts 
 to support them. There is no evidence whatever 
 that parole intelligently and humanely adminis¬ 
 tered is not a highly useful agency in the reclama¬ 
 tion of men. 
 
 In conclusion, let me epitomize very briefly. 
 The ultimate goal should be a state system equip¬ 
 ped for handling all prisoners including those now 
 committed to county institutions; but until the 
 state is able and willing to develop some efficient 
 and humane system, and as long as prisoners are 
 committed to county institutions, a county sys¬ 
 tem of parole, with our present county welfare 
 system as an inexpensive and practical basis for 
 its development, seems to give promise of great 
 usefulness in the reclamation of men. 
 
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