8 



ment of seven probation officers at a yearly expense to 

 the county of sixty-four hundred dollars. While in Suftblk 

 county it may be necessary to appoint a number of these 

 officers, in my judgment in the County of Essex, no such 

 necessity exists, and the amount of money devoted to 

 their compensation is so much money thrown away. I do 

 not wish to be understood as opposing a thorough exami- 

 nation into all criminal cases before sentence. One of the 

 most important duties of those who have in charge the 

 prosecution of offences is to know when not to punish. 

 But the work now performed by the probation officers 

 could be, and to a large extent was, before the passage of 

 the law, performed by the city marshals and chiefs of police 

 without any extra compensation whatever. It never has 

 been, according to my experience, the practice of any 

 judge to impose a penalty upon an offender without as 

 extensive a knowledge of his history and surroundings of 

 any kind as was possible. Public opinion needs but to be 

 informed to demand and secure the repeal of this law, in 

 the interest of economy. 



A reference to the figures which I have given you in 

 regard to the expenses and income of our penal institutions, 

 shows that the cost of keeping a convict in confinement 

 far exceeds the^value of his labor. It is not likely that 

 the gross cost of maintaining the houses of correction 

 will be lessened, and in the present condition of public 

 sentiment, the returns from convict labor are more likely 

 to be decreased than increased. Public sentiment has 

 condemned the employment of convict labor in any way 

 which will bring it in competition with free labor, or which 

 will tend to diminish the returns of the free laborer from 

 his work. Whatever we may think of it, this is a senti- 



