THE CRIMINAL HISTORY OF RELEASED PRISONERS.

The article presents a study on the criminal history of released prisoners. Here is an aspect of penal administration which requires development, because researchers have not yet acquired the knowledge of human behavior which permits adequate prognosis by other means. The identification departments of penal institutions are not quite as fortunate as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.). While the latter maintains a running inventory, so to speak, of the criminal history of all serious offenders at least, the penal institution does not. Its files contain for each prisoner, thanks to the cooperation of the F.B.I., the history of the prisoner up to his present commitment and provides therefore largely a retrospective view. The exploratory survey was designed merely to test the utility of the fingerprint file for further analysis. It is undeniable that even the limited information available in an institutional file is worth more detailed study, taking account of racial factors, type of offense, age groupings, geographic dispersion, residence and perhaps other factors recorded in the file or deducible from the record.