The Price of a Life

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] edward miles layton age 23 with a long record of delinquency truant at 14 assault on the school mate at 16 sentenced to 10 days ill for drunken and disorderly conduct sentenced to 15 days in jail for petty theft sentenced to 30 days in jail for assault and battery in a bar edward miles layton age 23 assault and robbery now once again society must decide how best to deal with eddie layton and exactly what price it will place on the life of this single human being [Music] the court has asked the probation service to provide the information upon which a constructive sentence can be based a sentence that will in the long run best protect society a pre-sentence report to be provided by a highly skilled well-trained probation officer you love it very much so well these are people for you to work with i stay close to and there just might be some other way handling the problem well that's up to you i don't care i really don't the search begins he talks with a mother a wife a previous employer and any others who can help him find the missing pieces in the puzzle of this one life [Music] and then he he he kind of got mixed up what did his father have to say about all that he didn't have nothing to say about nothing what are you really telling me well he was he wasn't around very much and i uh well let me ask you this have you uh known his wife and the baby no very little contact with that i i know i never uh he never brought him around well let me together we got married very young i married him when he was 19. we honey and uh well you know for a while that was great well at one time when i finally left him he got very uh hostile and uh how long was that about four months ago and you had asked him about not working of course well you see he would come home late drunk and so forth and i wouldn't know where he was well the first few days that you know first day i didn't ask him about it and then he didn't say much and i said what did you do last night as soon as i asked him he got very mm-hmm up you know so i i said well you gotta lay off the booze i was very honest with him he just very sullen he walked away and it's over he shows sometimes he shows the capability to do a lot of work he's a strong kid and then sometimes he's just looking for a fight [Music] it takes time and it takes patience and it costs money this search for eddie leighton but unless and until we know we cannot hope to break the endless cycle of crime and imprisonment that has become the hallmark of eddie's life but i'd like to point out that what i found in this investigation was that this young man was just about alone when it came to anyone reaching out present in this room a probation officer who has come to know something about eddie layton an assistant district attorney speaking for the people a defense attorney speaking for his client and a judge upon whom rests the burden of sentence and again the recurrence of those same learned responses of how to avoid this pressure we have a pattern here of misbehavior which has grown more serious but not a planned crime mind you uh the kind of an impulsive act uh if he is placed on probation this would be the first time that anybody has cared about this defendant if we send this man to an institution again i think we've missed a great chance accordingly your runner we cannot uh go along with the recommendation of the probation department we recommend the prison term for this defendant and perhaps under supervision i think there's a good chance that the future will be a happy one for this defendant as well for the court sentence the single most difficult task in the entire judicial role the question does this community offer the resources that make a real choice possible prison or probation [Music] plan that is sentenced to a term of three years in prison execution of the sentence will be suspended and he is placed on probation for the period of three years okay ed now on the subject of a job how do you feel about the idea of me setting up an appointment for you with the state employment service to get you know just some initial kind of work look i'm going to tell you something uh really you know quite honestly man you know sure i don't really care because i don't think you're doing me any favors i'm not gonna do you any and i just think we ought to be honest about it the key to any chance of success is the supervising officer in this instance steve morris the probation officer to whom eddie must now report on a regular basis uh you to some extent surrendered your uh your right to uh pick and choose exactly as you please when you were arrested for this offense when you were convicted well kids now what we're going to do we're going to try and help now i realize that initially this help may not be something that you want you may not even view it as help but it's what has to be done probation treatment of this particular offender outside of the prison within the community because it is hoped that through this process edward layton can be diverted from a life of crime they had mentioned that there was a somewhat of a drinking problem on your part though i don't think it was as bad as your father's oh god no yeah no he uh he was much worse but you figure you can control it yeah the pre-sentence report now becomes a valued tool in treatment to start from you have confidence and your ability to control your own actions then yeah i think so see i'm i don't know i uh i think that uh you know if i get a decent job i'll be all right to get eddie off the street to get him working earning a living a job and there is always resistance in view of the facts of eddie's life no problem at all well let's say in my case the boss comes up and tells him to correct a job he's done badly he'd uh know how to follow orders well he feels a sense of responsibility in other words he knows that you're paying him his wage and uh he's he's not afraid to earn this money well uh all right we'll give it a try uh eddie uh while we're uh alone here uh i just want to say that uh i know you're on probation and uh as far as i'm concerned uh that's strictly confidential i'm the only one who's gonna know it around here all right fine i'd appreciate that all right now you can trust me i'm mad okay now the next thing i want to ask you to know do you know anything about packing oh yeah sure i mean you've done it somewhere else yeah yeah where oh well i was in the garment district for a couple of months once and uh i know how to do it it's no problem very strong for my size time is the problem time to leave the office and move within the framework of eddie's life time to talk with those who are now involved with his present and his future we've been along pretty well we haven't had any real trouble of course when he first came here he was yeah a little quiet none of us fighting what to say to the guy but he does his job well we've had to correct him a couple of times joe got a little mad one day but how did he take it he took it well good i knew we were gonna have a little trouble that morning we had a rush order we had to get a phil by noon and he made a couple of mistakes but uh he corrected then he took it he took it well so good i thought things were going so well i thought i'd better check with you to see if maybe it was uh there's one thing i want to check with you but he has to show that uh he's willing to work well i tell you if that's one of the problems we've made a lot of progress there yeah he has he's gotten a job and he he seems motivated to work and you know really help himself out he does but what i think would be very important for him would be if the if the two of you could get back together because he cares for a great deal and you know the baby it's a big thing and it's like those are all uh very important to him well they're important to me too but you don't know what i've been through with him and particularly my baby i haven't seen how i haven't seen either one of them since i've been on i i can understand you're wanting to see your family but uh i understood there was a serious problem from the previous probation officer serious problem there i think you even uh beat up your wife a couple times yes it did but uh there was uh uh you know there's circumstances i guess you'd say that were different you know in a sense and uh see before that we had a lot of uh financial problems with the baby i understood that you know uh it's not there now so i uh the problems are not there so that i feel it uh yeah it would be much better for everyone now if i didn't try and get back with them well we can see but again i am i'm hesitant over this this previous background there where uh these assaults had taken place uh where did you plan to uh see her where did you plan to meet up well [Music] the process we call probation is a reasonable alternative to imprisonment it is not a soft approach to the problem of crime and punishment for example it would cost the state 300 a year to supervise eddie under adequate probation it would cost the taxpayers 10 times as much to keep him in prison the success rate of offenders placed on probation is often as high as 85 percent a prison considers itself successful if only 50 percent of those released return that is the fact of the matter however probation offers no easy formula for instant success the life of the probationer proceeds on an uneven course and the threat of failure is ever present that's hard to believe that um that's quite how to put this eddie because uh i've been a little worried about telling you this you know don't you that our business gets a little quiet at this time of the year yeah and uh we simply can't carry the uh the salary low we have to cut back a bit now your work's been good i want you to understand that i want you to remember it's been very good we like you too doesn't have you alone just one moment now it has not happened to you alone there are six other man that had to go as well i've got your check here there's an extra ten dollars inside today i told you when i met you there's a chance for advancement here based on seniority i told you about joe listen to me he started just like you he took a job every summer he came back to us he got his seniority and kept him on even during the quiet period now you can have the same sort of thing get yourself a summer job do your best and come back and see us if you do i promise you first consideration you mean i'm fired is that it well i guess that's the way you you could put it well only for a short time we'd like to see it come back to us and apply again we'll i told you we'll give you first consideration i'm fired right that's right eddie you are i want you to come back i wish you luck this summer i hope you find something else to do hey eddie come on hey come on don't take it like that hey [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Music] [Music] as far as i know he's not actually pressing charges he wants back the money for his broken mirror it's about 18 bucks 18 bucks can you raise that this always happens to me man time it takes time this process by which we seek to rebuild a life it takes time and the very best of men unfortunately most probation officers are overworked and underpaid have made an appointment with vocational foundation now they're going to set up for some guidance testing in other words to see what your vocational aptitudes are what kind of things you're good at all right but i'm just afraid the same thing is going to happen over again that's all as soon as they find out it never works out man well you have to give it a try it's worth the effort of course but uh electronics was uh you know i really liked it you know i didn't if i would have stayed uh in school you know longer if i graduate i would have been uh tops in that i know i wouldn't begin again the process of forward motion call upon the resources of the community the job counselor who opens a door through which eddie can journey increasing his skills his opportunity and his hope uh you know a real feeling for it at least i like it you know but i have to be retrained i mean there's a lot of new equipment that i haven't seen and stuff that i would not be at all uh you know familiar with it seems that what you really want to do is get a job or you can make some money right instead of sticking with stock delivery of something like this right so would you agree with this what we got to do is get you into a training program at night and then let's find your job in a daytime where and be able to support yourself it is no longer a matter of whether or not probation and parole already over 60 of all the convicted offenders are on probation or parole the question that remains is how to handle the offender in the community with the greatest safety and effectiveness we can no longer pretend that stone walls and iron bars alone can protect us in the future i see that you've got your your mind pretty well focused on where you want to go and what you want to do yes sir now i do yeah you don't know if uh you can keep up with that you can stay with that frame of mind steve morris has a current case load of 65. he's lucky in most of our courts the case load for each probation officer is over 100. for maximum effectiveness the president's commission on crime recommends a caseload of not more than 35. one thing i wanted to talk to you about was uh maybe there's a chance i could uh end my period of probation earlier than uh then i was sentenced you know is that likely well let's put it this way it's possible but uh i wouldn't say it's likely no no chance at all not right now this is something i mean uh you're just getting involved in this program and there's still a few other problems to be worked out true things are coming along but uh there's still a lot to get back together do because i gotta wait i gotta make sure i don't want to get i'm done you got somebody else eddie i'm just asking okay i don't have anybody else what do you think i just want to call it i got nobody i don't care if you do oh for christ's sake what do you mean you don't care if i do well i do care but i can't help but i have to wait a little longer no baby what give me a break will you look eddie let's just not talk about it because we're going to get excited to talk about i'm not going to get excited why am then what are you getting all uptight for what am i gonna have tied for i'm just asking you man why don't you look at me still living alone look i'm working this bucket why don't you go over this i got a job to do just like you know well you why don't you do it just keep your mouth shut i'm father and you oh don't mess with me you want to know how your wife i don't think it's any of your business just don't start with me [Music] get this guy off me well eddie you nearly blew it this time you came damn close you understand that i understand yeah well this is a fine time to start understanding it turn around in the chair and look at me when i'm talking to you sit frontwards this isn't a game we're playing here turn around in a turret of anger and frustration edward leighton has placed in danger all that he has gained or steve morris the bitter taste of defeat lingers with his supervisor he seeks out alternatives something like say somebody in his opinion picks on him that's one of his problems he feels everybody's against him stuff he's always projecting blame on to others yeah in fact that even goes back to well if you call a record with the with his family with his mother and father and stuff like that you know everything that happens to him is their fault stuff like that well do you think group counseling in this particular situation might be helpful to have others see what he's doing all the time it could be it might be very uh very positive well do you think this is something we might uh recommend to the judge instead of a revocation of probation and he has a lot of strong points that uh steve morris believes that eddie layton has made significant progress but he is not at this time a threat to society but uh i don't think that the commitment would uh would solve the problem now well the easiest thing for me to do is be to commit him but he has made some improvement and i think it would be a waste of uh time and not only of the time that the probation department has put in and trying to rehabilitate them but all the good that has been done would go down the drain but at the same time we must be sure that he will not revert back to the type of comic that he has exhibited recently you just can't handle a problem in that way just by striking out well that's the only way i know how i will try and help you find a different way all right that helped me that's what we'll do you go into the residence program and you receive some group counseling guidance you'll be able to work these problems out learn a different way of handling a problem other than slugging somebody all right i'll try it's the best way and you've got a lot to live for wife family a series of meetings with a psychiatrist will help determine a course of treatment unfortunately most of our courts offer little or nothing in the way of psychiatric services lost my job my wife and just about everything else i guess how long ago did you lose you had you been drinking yeah both of you yeah had you been drinking a lot yeah i always drink a lot when i drink do you usually get in fights when you drink yeah and you've been in fights before oh yeah how often many times i get drunk i generally fight a recommendation that eddie be allowed to continue in probation working during the day but living in a residential home a halfway house where supervision can be intensified where group counseling is available where problems can be shared cause it was a wise ass and he dropped a bottle of beer on me i used to have a tempo yeah but you guys may be more a few of the guys here i think can watch for that what did you do for yourself i thought about it i used self-control i wondered what i was doing and why i was doing it i couldn't come up with a logical explanation it's just that i had that anger in me at the time i didn't think i just lashed out it didn't give me anything but trouble oh i'd like to be like that now we have done and eddie has gone as far as he can by himself he's gone through group treatment he's gone through the job training and he's really working on this new job now he's got all these positives but for him to make it all the way he's got to have his family that's something that he needs this is a definite need ah he needs it i need a tune listen what do you what do you think we should do i mean i think you should get back together again you've got a home i mean should we do it gradually wow uh what do you mean gradually how do you do something like that gradually well i don't know i mean like meet in the park maybe twice twice a week or something no no i think i think that uh something like this i almost feel like i'm getting married all over again i want to thank you very much for everything you've done i really appreciate it and uh you're welcome i think you'll find it for steve morris this has been a rewarding experience one less human being will be sent on to our jails and prisons but at this very moment there are thousands of others who await sentence for a crime for most of them the probation services in their communities are either inadequate or unavailable you know when you think of the distance you've come when we look back a little bit at something i mean that one time there after that fight at the mill ed i gotta tell you the truth pal you're not doing bad on these sets he's doing pretty good how's the pride in the pride the wife i see her coming down to pick you up all the time she looks great she's what we call zoftic built for spade you know what i mean what's the matter head i mean she's a good looking chick right yeah she's great yeah yeah for edward miles leighton probation has provided an alternative to prison it has offered him a chance to rebuild his life and to hope that his future can be useful and productive it is not an end but a beginning [Music] [Applause] so [Music] you