Crime and Justice Atlas

How Justice Is Served
Criminologists and Reformers

John Augustus

Penal Reformer

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American bootmaker and penal reformer in Boston who in 1841 began paying bail for minor offenders and personally supervising their rehabilitation instead of jail, becoming the first probation officer and coining the English term probation.

Facts
Birth Year
1785 1
Sourced to the subject's own accountSources give the birth year as circa 1785.
Death YearSourced to the subject's own account
1859 1
BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own account
Woburn, Massachusetts 1
NationalitySourced to the subject's own account
American 1
Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own account
Began the practice in 1841 of paying bail for minor offenders in Boston and supervising them personally instead of jail; of the 1,946 people he helped over eighteen years only ten forfeited bail, establishing probation as a viable alternative to incarceration. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Informed

Sources
1. Wikipedia: John Augustus
Life section
Quote, Life section
Of the 1,946 people he helped, only ten proved unworthy (for which he forfeited bail)
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