biased in judgment on their cases. Relatives and friends can . visit them and they can keep up a healthful correspondence with' the outside world. Instead of schools of vice we have re formatories which are nurseries of virtue. All this means that forces are at work social, moral and religious for the criminal's welfare. But after considering these mighty changes wrought within a century, comes the pertinent question : Have these improvements in prison systems and criminal law been followed by a proportionate decrease in crime and the number of criminals ?" It must be confessed they have not. Is it because of too great leniency or be cause our system is fundamentally wrong? Prisons arc established to protect the community and to reform the prisoner. Then have we adequate protection, and have we the most efficient means for the reformation of the prisoner ? When a hardened criminal comes to the courts of justice time after time it is not just that he should be turned periodically loose to corrupt morals, to reap the benefits of honest toil, and to bequeath the nation another genera tion of his own vile blood. The only course that commends itself to reason is a life sentence upon the second or third offense. Deterent measures should never be taken where reformation will be succesfull. But when a man has several times been remanded to prison he should be sent there forever. Thanks to the Ber tillon system of registration by, offenders may be recognized without the slightest doubt as to their identity. Society would furtherbe protected bythe adop tion of the indeterminate sentence in place of our present sentence, which has grown out of the ancient system of fixing a scale of payments in reparation for injury, and substituting in its place a sentence which says to the criminal; "When you have shown beyond a doubt that you are qualified and willing to exercise the privileges of an honest citizen, then, and not till then shall you be liberated, THE FREE LANCE. Obviously this necessitates more efficient means in preparing the convict for a return to honorable life, and better officials, qualified to say when he shall be liberated. This latter point has called forth much discussion, but here as elsewhere, un til we have a better system of civil service reform applied we can hope for nothing better. At the present day prison offices are among the party spoils, and officials are liable to be removed with each change in administration. The best results will never be attained by a system which throws a man out of office perhaps just when his services have become invaluable. A good stump speaker will not always mi.ke a good wart n. A wide range of knowledg , a keen insight into human nature, and an acquaintance with the criminal classes are essential. Let us do away with this method of running these offices. It means a loss of souls, as well as of dollars. Under an indeterminate sentence how shall we reform ? Labor and moral and religious educa tion are essential. No life is honorable except it be given to useful labor, and labor for the con vict will always be one of the great aids in his salvation. Statistics teach us that only a very small percentage of criminals have ever learned an honest trade. The knowledge of a trade means everything to the man who steps forth from the shadow of the prison wall, and to whom a satisfied law says, "you are free." •Not only is it of the greatest value as a means of support to the re leased convict when he comes to the crucial point in his reformation, and looking poverty boldly in the face says, "I will be honest" ; but in the pri• son itself a regular round of daily work system atized, givng occupation for mind and muscle is of immense value. "Habit makes the man," and so the very regularity of life has its benefical in fluence in moulding a new character for these children of irregularity, laziness and selfishness. Within the past few years labor organizations have applied to their legislatures to make laws prohibiting or restricting the manufacture of con vict-made goods upon the foolish supposition that
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