Sir Walter Frederick Crofton (1815–1897)
was chair of the Board of Directors of Convict Prisons for Ireland between 1854 and 1862. He is sometimes cited as
Alexander Maconochie's ideological heir. Under Crofton's system of prison administration, known as the Irish system, prisoners progressed through three stages of confinement. During the first stage, the penal stage, prisoners were held in solitary cells for approximately nine months. The second stage involved communal labor in public works prisons. For the third stage, officials promoted prisoners in small numbers to "intermediate" prisons (essentially a
halfway house, where they could run errands and attend church in the community) as a final test of their readiness for Irish
tickets of leave. A prisoner who received a ticket was granted
conditional release
Conditional release is a method of release from detention that is contingent upon obeying conditions under threat of return to detention under reduced due process protections.
When applicable in the context of post-conviction detention, uncondi ...
into the community, in which he would be supervised by law enforcement or civilian personnel who were required to secure employment and to conduct home visits. These "supervisors" represented the forerunner to modern
parole officers.
References
19th-century Irish people
1815 births
1897 deaths
Walter
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
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