Factors for Predicting Parole Success

Inspired by the article by Professor Sam Warner2 on the results of parole from the Massachusetts Reformatory and by the critique by Hornell Hart,s the writer decided to essay the subject. With the assistance of R. M. Beechley, the writer has compiled a considerable weight of statistics on factors which might be considered as possible determinants of parole success. This was a study made with data at hand on two hundred and sixty-three consecutive paroles, ages seventeen to thirty-five, from a reformatory for young men. These boys were paroled between July 1, 1923, and June 30, 1924. This data was collected August 1925, from both the institution and from the parole folders of the boys. Needless to say, a very large percentage of the information in the folders could not be handled statistically, as it was in descriptive form. The amount of information in each individual case was considerable. No attempt was made to devise special instruments, as a part of the study was really aimed to find the value of the present statistics. The study was attempted not so much with the idea that a complete solution would be had as with the feeling that any tangible presentation was better than none at all.