first probation statute, enacted in Massachusetts in 1878, provided that "the probation officer will investigate persons convicted of crimes and misdemeanors and make recommendations to the court regarding the advisability of probation" (Klein, 1997, p. 27). According to Carter (1978), "the development and formulation of presentence or probation reports utilized in the United States today can be traced to 1910" (p. 3). Nineteenth century liberals and early 20th century progressives emphasized the importance of rehabilitating the criminal offender, what Mitford (1975) called "a demonstrably just, humane, enlightened method of dealing with" him or her and the potential afforded by modern scientific and rational methods of treatment for reforming the convicted criminal (p. 81).
The primary features of the sentencing system which, according to Casper et al. (1983), accompanied the "wave of reform which swept the nation in the first decades of this century" were (1) "the rehabilitative or medical model of imprisonment, [and] its concomitant, indeterminate sentencing" and (2) reliance on probation as the primary means for dealing with convicted first-time offenders, especially non-violent ones and juvenile offenders (p. 405).
The philosophical basis for indeterminate sentencing was the belief that "through careful observation and measurement, sentencing and parole release could be individualized to foster rehabilitation of offenders" (Farmer, 1977, pp. 1-2). Trial judges would typically give adult felony offenders whom it decided to incarcerate sentences with broad ranges up to life imprisonment. The ultimate term served, which often turned out to be much shorter than the maximum, was left to federal and state parole boards or commissions, based on the rehabilitative progress or lack thereof made by the offender while he or she was incarcerated.
Byrne says that "historically, our prisons have been used for repeat offenders; pro...