History 1961 to 1964CHAPTER IV
1961-1964: COMPLETING TEN YEARS OF PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT
It is difficult to point to any one achievement ... during a given term ... Many programs and projects were initiated during one term and carried on to completion during succeeding terms of office.
- Marshall K. McKinney
Marshall McKinney ended his term of office as president of the Association in December 1960. Assuming the presidency in 1961 was William C. Nau of Greenville, South Carolina. For the previous four years Nau was the editor of the FPOA newsletter. Editorship would now pass to Hayward Hudson, also of Greenville, who had been the assistant editor since 1958.
The year 1961 witnessed a number of Congressional letter-writing campaigns by Association members which included requests for the promulgation of mandatory minimum qualifications for federal probation officers; passage of the proposed Judicial Employees Training Act; passage of a bill to absolve federal employees from civil liabilities in accident cases while driving on official business; proposal of another bill to include federal probation officers within the Protection Statute; an increase in per diem from $12 to $15; and an increase from 2% to 2-1/2% as the multiplication factor in determining annuities for hazardous duty.
Other Association objectives during this time included completion of a personnel and classification study of Dr. Dawson Hales; establishment of committees formed of federal probation officers and Bureau of Prisons' institutional parole officers; initiation of research in the Federal Probation System; and the commencement of a program of paid stipends for student-trainees in probation.
As a follow-up to the Chief of the Probation Division's challenge in September 1960 that the Association take on a workload measurement study, the Board sponsored, in April 1961, a study by Dr. Daniel Glasser. During this same period, the Professional Standards and Economic Committees were invited to Washington, D. C. to discuss the proposed classification plan as it related to probation personnel. They were also asked to consult with Louis Sharp, Chief of the Probation Division, on a curriculum and program for the training school. (In October 1963 Al Wahl would be named chairman of a new Advisory Committee on Training in order to assist the Chicago Training School and to advise on the development of a Research and Development Center).
There were a number of other significant developments which occurred in the four years (1961-1965) which covered the administrations of William Nau and William T. Woodard. Not the least of these developments was the Pilot Institute for Probation Officers and Institutional Classification and Parole Officers. The first Institute was held at the Federal Correctional facility at Terre Haute, Indiana on January 25 and 26, 1962. The first committee consisted of Bureau members: Lee Jett (Terre Haute), Alonzo Dempsey (Leavenworth), Matthew Walsh (Ashland), George Murphy (Chillicothe) and Calvin Jensen (Milan) and Probation Officers: Marshall McKinney (IL/E), George P. Adams (MI/E), Ralph H. French (OH/N), Edward D. Reed (OH/S) and Richard J. Anderson (MI/W). The institute, long sought by the Association, brought together members of two branches of corrections for the purpose of discussing mutual problems and sharing common concerns. Following the first institute nine others were held and a series of recommendations made to the Administrative Office of the U.S Courts, the Bureau of Prisons and the U. S. Board of Parole.
A time and motion study was authorized by the Executive Board of the Association in September 1961. It was undertaken by Al Wahl and the Professional Standards Committee, together with Dr. Daniel Glasser of the University of Illinois. It was completed during the following year and published for the field in April 1963.
Another ambitious undertaking by the Association, again through the Professional Standards Committee, was Charles Hosner's proposal for a compilation of an improved directory of Probation Officers. Although the Division published one in the past, the Association felt that it could be enhanced by adding to the listings of each office the counties that they served, the required routing of correspondence and any special instructions.
During March 1963, based upon the earlier recommendation of the Director of the Administrative Office, Warren Olney, the Judicial Conference of the United States accepted a report from Judge Luther W. Youngdahl (US District Court, DC) supporting Olney's recommendation for the creation of a committee of the conference specifically for probation matters. The Conference then voted to establish a standing Committee on the Administration of the Probation System. The formation of such a committee had been favored by the Association, and in April 1963, the Committee Chairman, Judge Youngdahl, assured the Association that his committee would listen to the opinions of the Association. In the following year, during the Association's March Executive Board meeting in Washington, D. C., Judge Youngdahl held a reception for the Board and expressed his support of the FPOA. Four months later, at the request of Judge Youngdahl and Warren Olney, FPOA members William Woodard, Al Wahl and Ben Meeker attended a workshop in Bethesda, Maryland, for the purpose of examining research and training in the Probation system. Chief Justice Earl Warren visited the members during an evening session as did Judges Albert C. Wollenberg (US District Court, CA/N) and Frank M. Johnson (US District Court, AL/M).
During the Nau-Woodard administration the FPOA was involved in a number of projects. For example, in July 1963, the Chicago Training Center sent out questionnaires to survey the various supervision practices in numerous probation offices. The topics of the survey instrument were prepared by the Executive Board and the Professional Standards Committee. A contract was entered into with Professor David H. Gronewald of the School of Social Work, University of Washington (Seattle) and his study was completed at the end of the year.
It was also in 1963 that the concept of the Richard F. Doyle award was developed and Executive Vice-President John Carbo was asked to head a special committee to create it. (The history of the award’s development can be found in Appendix C. Its recipients are listed in the addenda).
Other efforts at this time included the development of a survey questionnaire in 1964 which was mailed to 150 probation officers at random in order to determine training needs. In addition, the FPOA participated in the 1964 National Conference On Correctional Manpower, better known at the time as the Arden House Conference in Harriman, New York. This important conference was co-sponsored by five major organizations in corrections and education and included representatives from fifty-eight national and federal organizations. The Administrative Office representatives were Louis Sharp and Vic Evjen. The FPOA designated George Howard (DC) and Al Wahl (CA/N).
The Legislative Committee under George Gilpin was also active at this time promoting support, through area subcommittee officers, for the current salary bill in Congress. Numerous contacts were made both in the Congress and the Civil Service Commission for this essential legislation.
An Ad Hoc Committee of the Executive Board was set up in late 1964 to compile an index to the “Looking At The Law Section” of Federal Probation journal. The committee was chaired by Charles Hengstebeck (MI/E) and had as its members Leslie Reed (CO) and Harry Schloetter (IL/N).
During the years between 1961 and 1964 the Executive Board had made a number of recommendations to the Probation Division and the Judicial Conference Committee on Probation. As with many efforts of the FPOA, many took longer to be put into practice. Some of the recommendations included a wider use of the "Brooklyn Plan," later referred to as Deferred Prosecution and Adult Diversion, revision of Richard Chappell's monograph on legal decisions affecting federal probation, an increase in the frequency of area training conferences to every other year, the issuance of certificates and lapel buttons to recognize years of service for all Court support staff, more personnel and better supervision standards, more field contacts by the Probation Division and closer communication between the field and the Division, more equitable travel reimbursement for metropolitan areas and a formula of specific criteria for releasing youth offenders and setting aside their convictions.
As the year 1964 ended, the FPOA could look back with satisfaction, on its membership of 98%, on its selection of Ben S. Meeker as the first recipient of the Richard F. Doyle Award, and on the completion of ten years of service in behalf of all federal probation officers. Albert Wahl had been elected the new president for 1965-1966. Great things were still expected - and yet no one knew that 1965 would bring one of the gravest challenges to the Federal Probation System, one that the Federal Probation Officers Association would face and address in a major struggle to retain the identity of Federal Probation itself.
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