Research

Scope and Content Note

The Protestant Chaplain, who also served as parole officer for Protestant inmates, used this volume for different purposes at various times.

Initially it was used as a directory of Protestant clergymen, judges, police officers, and others in various cities. These are probably persons with whom the parole officer had some contact in carrying out his duties toward parolees in each city. Each entry in the directory provides: name of city; name of person; address; name of church (if a clergymen); and position, e.g. justice, chief of police, superintendent of poor (if not a clergymen). The rough notes on parole visits are written on pages between sets of alphabetical directory entries and include two types of records: 1. Counts of the number of parolees visited at home each month during specified years (1893-1897) running from October to October: years; month; number of boys and girls visited; number of boys and girls returned to the institution for parole violations; number of boys and girls found employed; and number of boys and girls paroled (1895-1896 and 1896-1897 only). 2. Lists of paroled girls and boys, probably those visited by the parole officer (1901-1902): name; if visited at home (H) or at employer's (E); parole date; inmate number; and page in book B (Volume 2) of Parole Agents' Registers of Occupation and Conduct of Paroled Inmates, series A3144, on which further parole information on the inmate can be found.

Institution bylaws direct the Parole Agents to visit paroled inmates to ensure that the terms of parole are being adhered to and to keep records of the visits.