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* No Rest For Probation Officers ★ When Robert McNeill, now Senior Chief Probation Officer for the Houston and Macon Judicial Circuits, first became a probation officer here in 1956 he was the only officer working in that capacity in Houston, Peach, Crawford and Bibb Counties. “They finally gave me an officer in Macon, and an office was established there,” McNeill said. “Then when the State Court was started in Houston County, an office was opened in Warner Robins. Two years later an office was started in Fort Valley. Now we have two officers in Warner Robins, two in Perry, two in Fort Valley, and 11 in Macon.” A year after McNeill started the Perry office, he was appointed by the judge as Chief Juvenile Officer for Houston, Peach, and Crawford Counties, a title he still holds. He doesn't do much in that capacity, though, except to aid Judge Paul Armitage or the Alien Morrow, Probation Supervisor and fairly new member of the staff, feels that helping just one person makes the job worth while. uni i Jfl "" obsess . Marvin Jernigan is Chief Probation Supervisor of the Houston District. He stresses the fact that probation officers are available for help to probationers any hour of the day or night. ********* a. ''TBsarr' 4ft /<. * *: W> - ~ l *. Senior Chief Probation Officer Robert J. McNeill recalls how far the office has come since the days when he bandied four circuits alone. He now heads the Houston and Macon Judicial Circuits. Superior Court judges in Crawford and Peach Counties which have no juvenile courts. For seven years he did all preparation, investigating and other work in the probation department. Now he supervises all officers in two circuits, and at times carries a case load for any vacancy when an officer leaves. “We have two main probation centers in Macon,” McNeill said. ‘‘There’s the Macon Probation Center with a supervisor and counselor where we keep young boys in a home. They are allowed to work or go to vocational school, reporting back to the center each night to eat and sleep. The boys pay S2O a week when they’re working. There are usually 10-15 boys there at all times. There is intense counseling, group therapy, rap sessions. One night each week a minister or businessman - insurance man, banker, school official, or otter - comes in to talk MAXINE THOMPSON about different subjects. ‘Then there’s the Diagnostic Evaluation Treatment Center -a pilot program and the only one in the United States like it. It’s only been in operation since March 1. Before a man is put on probation he is given tests, evaluated, and a pre sentence investigation run. A recommendation is worked out to present to the judge, to show where we can help a person. We have seven men supervising in this; over half have masters degrees in criminal psychology. Each man supervises 50 percent at present; we plan to break that down to 35 as we add additional personnel. A young man named Ronald Owens there is our psychologist. “An example of our fin dings there are that, for example, a man may need teeth or plastic surgery for a disfigurement. He feels that they hinder him from making a living. We arrange to have this done, and are later reimbursed undo* the terms of the program when he goes to work. Or perhaps a man is a good carpenter but has no tods. We provide the tools, and he pays us back later.” McNeill said that outside evaluators will be brought in every six months to compare the revocation of probation rate there with that in other sections of the state to see how effective the program is. Both Houston and Macon circuits use the facility. McNeill, who was born in Washington in Wilkes County, Georgia, has worked for the state 31 years. He joined the State Patrol in 1937 when it was first organized, and was a graduate of its first training class. He left the patrol in 1941, worked for Reynolds Metals as personnel manager in charge of safety and protection during World War 11, rejoined the state patrol in 1946, and stayed there until he came to the probation office in 1956. He attended two years of junior college at Emory University, and received a BS degree in pre-med in 1932, but changed his mind about becoming a doctor. Hunting and flower gar dening are McNeill’s hobbies these days. He used to play golf, but an old back injury put a stop to that. When he saw that he had to have some help in the office, McNeill called on his wife, Agnes, until someone else could be found. ‘‘That was in 1961, and I’m still here,” she laughed. ‘T started working here when Robert was still the only probation officer. The department has grown, but I grew up with it so I can keep up with all the details.” She handles all clerical work on case loads, in cluding forms (there are a 5- page pre-sentence report and 4 other forms on each case), all bookkeeping, collects and disburses fines to the district attorney and state court, and handles restitutions including juvenile restitutions. “I’m handling 175 child support cases,” Agnes said. “They have to be paid here, we deposit the money and write our checks for the payments. A lot of the work is time-consuming. For example, it takes 30 minutes to an hour on just case histories. And answering the telephone takes a lot of my time.” Agnes is the former Agnes Bragg of Pinehurst. She and Robert have two children, a daughter, Susan, who is Mrs. Max Crook of Macon and has two children; and son, R. John McNeill 111, a Lieutenant in the Marines at Camp LeJeune, N.C. Mr. and Mrs. McNeill live in Perry, Marvin Jernigan of Warner Robins is Chief Probation Supervisor of the Houston Judicial Circuit. Working with him in Warner Robins is Virgil Whittaker. Jernigan was formerly chief officer in the probation department of the Macon Judicial Circuit. He ex plained that when a person is placed on probation it means the court sentences the defendant to a specified term in a penitentiary, but allows him to serve the term on probation, outside prison, under the supervision of a probation officer. Probation terms are specified by the judge of the court, and no one else can change them. He is allowed to set them as he sees fit, so long as they are not cruel and inhuman, and most terms are standard. Among them are no drinking, no drugs, no attending places with rough reputations or keeping bad company, and not breaking any local, state or federal laws. “We have less than 7 percent revocations of probations in this circuit,” Jernigan said, indicating that this is a good record. “Our case load runs around 500 in the county, with around 150 in Perry and 350 in Warner Robins. Since the State Court was started around 1966, we have had 6,500 people on probation, and only 11 of the misdemeanor cases later committed a felony.” Among other duties, Jernigan and other officers collect fines, restitutions, costs, make presentence investigations for judges, make deliquency in vestigations on the report of delinquency of any probationer; attend all criminal courts in the county, Houston Superior or State Court; and when a revocation hearing is held they have to report to the court and attend the hearing. Jernigan is a native of Marion County. He has worked in Houston County since 1959, and moved from Macon to Warner Robins in 1968. He started working with the state of Georgia in 1948 with the Game and Fish Department, resigning in 1959. He was in private business until 1966 when he went back to state em ployment He attended Middle Georgia College and the University of Georgia, and is working on a degree in psychology at present He is a member of the American Rose Society and the American Camellia Society, and enjoys gardening at home He is married to the for mer Eva Ruth Smith of Vienna, Ga. 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Sales Tax Not Included Ml MOODY MOTOR CCM FORD CORNER PERRY, GA. ij —n PAGE 3-B Allen Morrow is a relative newcomer to the probation office, starting as a Probation Supervisor on December 16,1971. He was a policeman in Warner Robins from July until December. Born in Florida, he has lived in Houston County since 1965. He is a graduate of Hawkinsville High School, and graduated from Mercer University in 1969 with an AB degree in Economics with a minor in psychology. “I spent about one and one half of my service years working in the stockade, and felt I got good background experience for my present job,” he said. His work is primarily in the south end of Houston County. He supervises ap- fnp : '4'4‘lS * m -mm 111 mm r —-. Agnes McNeill came into the office to help her husband temporarily in 1961 and never left. Details stick when you grow up with the organization, she says. PERRY, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1*72 proximately 82 probationers plus child support cases, bringing the total to about 145. “Most of the cases I handle are DUI (driving under the influence of intoxicants),” Morrow said. ‘‘Overall, thefts are our largest category.” Denoting an interest in statistics.he said, “If you took all probationers in this county, figuring their work at minimum wage for 8 hours a day, and took them away, it would take ap proximately 1150,000 a month out of this county. And many make more than minimum wages.” Morrow said that he is mostly out of the office, calling on probationers at home or on their jobs. The county office is open one Saturday each month to give those working other times the opportunity to report to their officer. And anyone who has a specific problem and needs help will find a probation officer available at any hour of the night or day. Most probationers, he said, have trouble in their families, many of them have fusancial. Officers try to help in all areas, and do much referral work to other agencies. “If you can help one person who really needs it, that makes the job worth while,” Morrow summed up the work of the probation office.