Historical Background of Probation

Ancient Punishment:
1. Death by hanging
2. Stoning
3. Disemboweling – removing internal organs
4. Flaying alive or burning
5. Boiled alive
6. Drowning
7. Banishment
8. Beheading

Punishable Crimes:
1. Murder
2. Theft
3. Pick-pocket
4. Heresy
5. Blasphemy
6. Sorcery
7. Sacrilege – (violating any sacred objects)

Etymology of Probation
Latin Word
Probare – “to test or to prove” – John Augustus
Probatio – “testing period” – Frederick Rainier

History of Probation
England
19th century – English magistrates initiated experiments to save young and inexperienced offenders
from the stigma of prison
Assigning the young offender to the care and guardianship of his parents or his employer with an
occasional check on his progress by the police
Matthew Davenport Hill
- Father of probation in England
- British lawyer and penologist
- Reforms in the treatment of criminals were enacted into law in England
- He believed that crime could be prevented by reformation in prison, ending in the convict’s
release on a showing of good behavior throughout his prison term and by life imprisonment of
incorrigibles, without the possibility of parole.
 - Conducted his experiment in the Birmingham Court. Beginning in the early years of 1481, he
acted for and on behalf of juvenile offenders, when he believed:
1. The individual is not fully corrupt
2. There was a reasonable hope of reformation
3. When there could be found persons to act

Massachusetts
- The first practical demonstration of probation
- First use of the term court service
- And the enactment of the first probation law
- April 21, 1878 – Alexander H. Rice

Maryland
- Prisoners Aid Association of Maryland (1869)
- Volunteer services have occurred
- 1894 law – any court in the state might release on probation for “good conduct”
- Any offense not capital, if no previous conviction was proved against him

Missouri
-parole of convicted person’s law of 1897

Vermont
- second state to enact a general probation law
- Vermont act of 1898
- Probation only after suspension of the execution of sentence
- Vermont was the first to adopt a county plan

Rhode Island
- Third state to enact a real probation law
- The act of 1899
- Empowered the board of state charities and corrections to appoint a state probation officer and
additional probation officer, “one of whom at least shall be a woman”
- Permitting the use of probation before the imposition of sentence and even without a
conviction

United States Federal Probation Act

- March 4, 1925 – President Calvin Coolidge signed into law
 - Judicial reprieve- temporary suspension of sentence
- Courts to appoint one or more persons to serve as probation officers

John Augustus (father of probation in the USA)

- Owner of a successful boot-making business (shoemaker or boots maker)
- He was considered the first official probation officer
- First apply the term probation
- 1946 men and women bailed by John Augutus and only ten of them forfeited their bond
- Promote temperance and to reclaim drunkards – later he begun to take men and women
charged with other crimes, then eventually children

Methos of Augustus
1. Provide bail for temporary suspension of punishment of sentence
2. Then he sought counsel and assisted his charges in finding homes, securing employment and
adjusting to family difficulties
3. At the end of probation, he brought the offender back to court if no further charges were found
—the judge imposes a nominal fine with the cost if a man is poor, Augustus advanced the fine
as a loan
Augustus efforts were credited with the establishment of the Pre-Sentence Investigation

The Adult Probation Law of 1935

Act No. 4221 enacted by the Philippine legislature on August 07, 1935
which created a Probation Offices under the Department of Justice
provided probation for the first time offenders, eighteen years of age and over, convicted of a certain
crime.
Nov. 16, 1937 – declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in People vs. Vera

Case Analysis: PEOPLE VS. VERA

People vs Vera 37 O.G.164 – it challenged the constitutionality of Act 4221 on three grounds:
1. Encroaches the pardoning power of the chief Executive
2. It constitutes an undue delegation of legislative power; and
3. It denies the equal protection of the laws.

Probation Act did not, by the force of any of its provinces, fix and impose upon the provincial boards
any standard or guide in the exercise of their discretionary power.
Teodulo C. Natividad (father of Probation in the Philippines)
- The first administrator of the PPA
- Drafted the PD 968
- NAPOLCOM Commissioner
- Congressman, Bulacan
- First Filipino Vice President of the United Nations Congress, Geneva Switzerland
- In 1972, in collaboration with former Congressman Ramon D. Bagatsing, House Bill No. 393.
The bill was passed in the Lower House and was pending in the senate when Martial Law was
proclaimed in 1972.

Reading through the history of civilization, the punishment of the law breaker is almost as bloody as
the crime committed. Solutions of crimes during the ancient times have been slow and faltering . It’s
only within the 19th century that ways and means has been found to check the offemder at the
beginning of a career in crime redirecting him to be law abiding citizen. The beliefs and social
practices of the past still echo in the laws and customs of the present.
Forerunner of Probation:
1. Benefit of the Clergy
- A compromise between the church and the King, wherein any member of the clergy brought to
trial in the king’s court shall be claimed from that jurisdiction by the bishop or chaplain
representing him and placed under the authority of the ecclesiastical court.
2. Judicial reprieve
- This is the temporary suspension of the sentence imposed by the court
- This will provide the convicted offender ample time to petition the crown for either absolute
pardon or conditional pardon.
3. Recognizance (or binding over for good behaviour)
- This is considered as the direct ancestor of probation. This involves an obligation or promise
sworn to under court order by a person not yet convicted of a crime he would keep the peace
and be of good behaviour.
4. Transportation/banishment
- This was developed from an ancient practice of banishment and flourished for more than two
hundred years as a principal method of supplying labor to the colonies of England.
5. Bind over for good behaviour
6. Sureties/bail

Founders of Probation:
1. John Augustus

Forerunners of Probation Explanation:

1. So we have here 4 predecessors or ancestors ng probation natin. Ano ba yung mas nauna pa
bago tayo nagkaroon ng ideya or nagcom-up now to a probation law. First is the benefit of the
clergy, ito ay yung sa simbahan. So ang meron dito sa benefits of the clergy, ay isa sa paraan
paraan gumaan yung punishment dun sa isang member of the clergy na nakacommit ng
krimen. Ibig sabihin kung ang church ay may jurisdiction over the person or any member of the
clergy, so ang church ang nangangalaga dito, nagkakaroon ng agreement between the church
and the king na yung church na ang bahal dito sa taong ito na nakacommit ng crime. Meaning
to say, may rights ang simbahan na magkaroon ng jurisdiction over someone kapag ang
nakacommit lalo nila na violation ay pasok sa kanilang jurisdiction.
During that time, naging issue rin itong benefits of the clergy kasi nagamit ito for corruption kasi
kapag nakacommit ka n gkrimen para makalusot ka nalang kailangan mong magbayad sa kanila and
even those person na nakacommit that is outside their jurisdiction, ibig sabihin hindi nila hawak
mananagot sila sa Hari, kung ano ang parusa sa nasasakupan ng Haring ito yun yung magiging
parusa nila. So, para mapagaan yung kanilang punishment diba, kailangan nilang maging under ng
jurisdiction ng church. Ang nangyayari dito nakikipagnegotiate ngayon si church kay King na
kukuhanin ngayon yung jurisdiction ng tao sa kanila pero hindi alam ng King na kaya nila ginagawa o
kaya ginagawa ng church yun ay meron kapalit nap era. So yun yung nangyari noon gunang
panahon, corruption ng gantong bagay. Na kapag nakakapagcommit ka at hindi jurisdiction ng church
basta magbabayad ka, yung church na yung bahala. So that is the benefits of the clergy.
 2. And it is tented o nakalaan lang ito for that penalty or for those offender na mayroong penalty
lalo na sa Pilipinas. Pero dito sa Pilipinas wala na to, nakahang yung gbatas, so walang
judicial reprieve na napapatupad o naibibigay

This will provide…so same idea lang din masususpend or temporary suspension of sentence
na naimpose kay court and pwede siyang magpetition or mag-apela kay Hari para mabigyan o
maaral yung kanyang kaso para mabigyan siya ng pardon (it’s either absolute or conditional
pardon).

So usually naibibigay yan kapag hindi satisfied yung King dun sa verdict or final conviction dun
sa tao lalo na kapag nakitaan niya yung evidence is suspiscious as well as yung evidences na
nakalatag ay hindi naman sufficient. Kulang or hindi sapat para makapagbigay ng gaanong
conviction sa tao as guilty. So that is judicial reprieve, temporary suspension of sentence para
mabigyan pa ng time na magkaroon ng review ang kanyang kaso kung mabibigyan ba siya ng
pardon

3. So marerelease siya on recognizance pero dapat malpractice niya muna yung peace and
good behaviour outside the prison. Kasi kapag nangyari yun, automatically siya ay
mapapatapon ulit sa kulungan. So that is recognizance, marerelease yung tao again with his
obligation or promise na siya ay magtitino outside the prison.

4. Banishment, so ipapatapon ka sa ibang lugar. Flourished for more than….so itong

transportation lalo na itong napakinabangan sa England wherein nagiging slave yung mga
criminal, ginagawa silang mga utusan o ginagawa silang trabahador sa kanilang
pinagtapunang lugar. Sabi nga natin diba, dinidispose o tinatapon, tinatransport yung mga
ating convicted offender sa ibang lugar na kung saan doon sila magwowork, maglalabor.
Pinapakinabangan sila ng government na kung saan yung perang kinikita nila ay hindi naman
sakanila napupunta kundi sa gobyerno. So it is a substitute for brutal punishment sa
pinanggalingan nilang lugar. So halip na parusahan sila sa lugar kung saan sila nagkasala o
nakagawa ng krimen, pinapatapon na lang sila sa ibang lugar to give them opportunity to
rehabilitate themselves through other method wherein yun nan ga kailangan nilang
magtrabaho at the same time para madecongest din yung jail or prison dun sa lugar kung saan
sila nagkasala. Sa halip nga naman na ikulong , sa halip na bigyan sila ng brutal punishment,
pakinabangan nalang sila sa ibang lugar, i-dispose sa ibang at pakinabang through their leighs
work.

So yun po yung apat na forerunners ng ating probation.

Punishment among ancient people was prompt and pitiless. Criminals were feared, therefore hated
and consequently tortured, banished, or killed with no concern whatever. Later in the law of Babylon,
Greece, and Rome, while severe, sought to maintain balance of