helpless for other conditions of life, by the associations and conditions of prison life.

As the noble science of practical partisan politics was developed, the prisons gained a degree of unexpected usefulness in the multiplication of places for spoilsmen; and their showing of profits assumed importance out of all proportion to their intrinsic value, in the light of campaign documents.

In the mean time the criminal class increased, as was quite natural, since no effort was made to check it; and every prison became an academy of crime, and every band of prisoners a community of lawlessness. The keepers of prisons, as well they might, scorned the idea that men generally reformed under their care. "Once a criminal," - and if only once a criminal,"always a criminal," was the first and foremost article of belief in the average warden's creed. No larger than 18 per cent. of reformations was ever claimed in this State (New York) for any prison under the old system, and nobody who heard that claim believed it could be substantiated.

A quarter of a century ago, when scientific penology first began to make itself felt in this country, it was generally acknowledged that our prisons were a costly failure, in that they afforded little, if any, protection from the criminal class beyond a temporary isolation. Moreover, it was generally thought that the criminal class was a class apart, that it was a hopeless class; and it was known that most of those who managed prisons were bought into political slavery by the acceptance of office and salary. Prison officers believed that it was their duty to keep the prisoners safely, make them pay roundly, and that the discipline and training of the prisoners should in no wise be allowed to interfere with the necessities, or even the conveniences, of party managers.

In our State the Superintendent of Prisons has been regarded as a subordinate of the political boss, and I do not remember a time when the corps of prison officers could not be changed at the will of the man who held the caucus wires of the dominant party.

I have not exaggerated the condition of things that prevailed, and which made so eminent a penologist as the Rev. Mr. Wines, of Illinois, conclude an address at Chicago with the words: "It is doubtful if the prisons of the country are useful to a degree commensurate with their cost. Considering the measure of protection they afford, their cost, and the problems involved, I often have the feeling that it would be better if we should abolish them altogether."

I quite agree with Mr. Wines in this feeling; and, while the way is not quite clear to abolish them altogether, we may well spend a little time in the consideration of how far they may be abolished, while there still may be maintained a proper degree of protection against criminals. I forbear using the words "criminal class," since I do not admit class distinctions that ignominiously separate law-breakers from the rights of and conditions governing their fellow-men.

Of course, the prisons cannot be abolished in any degree until provision is made for those who now occupy them. This brings us to a study of our prison population, and we must ask ourselves: first, How many are now in our prisons who might be elsewhere with advantage to the public and to themselves? and, secondly, What are the provisions that can be made for those who are to be withdrawn from our prisons and placed elsewhere? In studying this matter, the first consideration must be the safety of the public. Then the economic conditions must have an important place, and, in a Christian community, the humanitarian and philanthropic relations of any plan for the care of its wards must be kept steadily in mind.

In the United States, according to the figures of the Eleventh Census, there were, in 1890, 82,329 prisoners; and, of this number, 11,468 were to be found in the State of New York. The latter fact is specially noted, because further on in this paper several calculations will be based upon the conditions existing in this State, with which the writer is, naturally, more familiar than with others.

Let us take this census of 82,329 persons, and see if the number cannot be somewhat reduced, and the prisoners placed under conditions that will be likely to result in a removal of more than 18 per cent. from what is called the criminal class, that being, as has been stated, the largest percentage of reclamations ever claimed under the old system, which still prevails in most of the States. There are in the prisons of the country 20 children under five years of age, 26 between five and nine years of age, 635 between the ages of ten and fourteen, and 8,984 between the ages of fifteen and nineteen years, or 9,665 under the age of twenty years, most of whom are plainly amenable to reformatory influences, and who should not be in prison at all. The country does not allow the privileges of citizenship to men under twenty-one years of age, nor even the privileges of womanhood to women under eighteen. It treats all below these ages as infants; and it has no

right to admit them to the infamous count of criminality, where it denies responsibility and withholds privileges.

When the laws creating reformatories for adults have been under discussion, it has been claimed, and the claim abundantly substantiated by subsequent results, that, to the age of thirty, offenders against the laws are susceptible to influences that would educate them out of crime. No person should have the final stigma of felony put upon him till that age has been reached. If this is allowed, our prison population could be reduced by 36,053 more, who ought to be in reformatories instead of prisons. The State Reformatory at Elmira reforms more than 80 per cent. of those who are sent there. The Massachusetts Reformatory reforms quite as large a percentage, though the prisoners are of a less vicious class. If this was done, and educational reformatory influences substituted for distinctively penal measures, we should reduce our prison population by 45,718 persons, leaving but 36,611 of the 82,329 prisoners to be treated in the prisons.

We should reduce the prison population even more than this by the shortening of sentences, since the average sentence in the reformatories under the indeterminate sentence system is much shorter than in prisons where time sentences are still in vogue. In the New York State Reformatory at Elmira the average length of sentence absolutely served in the institution is 22.8 months as against an average of 4.07 years that would be served under the application of statutory specifications in regard to time sen

tences.

If we reduce our census of prisoners one-half by substituting reformatory treatment, and if we make a still further reduction in the length of sentences, we shall by the latter compensate for the increased cost of reformatories over ordinary State prisons, and at the same time reclaim 80 per cent. as against 18 per cent. of those who become wards of the State through criminal practices.

But there still remain 36,611 prisoners in our prisons to be disposed of otherwise, if possible.

According to the tables of the census there are 56,054 who are more or less addicted to the use of ardent spirits. Of this number, 16,053 are set down as drunkards. By this we are to understand that by the use of ardent spirits they have gradually reached the condition of enervated will, whereby there is no resistance to temptation; and gross and repeated intoxication, with powerless

ness to resist temptation, shows as decided a mental and physical disease as exists in any insane patient. They are not sane. They are in no sense fit subjects for prison treatment, nor should they be made the victims of prison stigmata. They belong in special institutions, where they may be properly treated, and by the aid of medical science return to society as wage-earners. In several European countries a separate institution is provided for them. This large number of drunkards should not be classed with criminals; and their entire removal from penitentiaries, jails, and houses of correction, would reduce the census of criminals by some thousands. Public sentiment has already set its seal of approval on this view of the matter by the establishment of inebriate asylums in several States. These should be multiplied until our prisons of every kind are emptied of those who are there simply as drunkards. This would reduce the prison population by certainly another 3,000, who are not already included in the class of minors heretofore mentioned. The number is rather above 3,000, but that sum allows us to throw out all uncertain cases.

That there will be objections to the system of reductions I have proposed, I am well aware. The first one, already made, is that there is no reduction at all, that we simply change the name of prison or penitentiary to reformatory or asylum, that the figures I have quoted are merely a part of word jugglery, with which it is hoped that a transparent trick of statistics may not be noticed. I maintain that a reformatory is a totally different thing from a prison. It involves a radical change in substituting indefinite for time sentences, and makes the release of the prisoner dependent upon his conduct and character and his ability to support himself instead of upon the arbitrary dictum of the law as interpreted by the knowledge, the temperament, or even the mood of the judge. It makes fitness for liberation the way to release. The man is, to a great extent, the arbiter of his own term of imprisonment; and his actions determine its length instead of a single act, the heinousness of which might be variously affected by the laws of localities, the prejudices of courts and neighborhoods. There is not the same stigma attached to reformatories as to prisons.

We know this in the Relief Department of the Prison Association of New York, it being easier to place one hundred men from Elmira in employment than to place five from the State prisons or penitentiaries. The former are regarded as belonging rather to educational than to penal institutions. It is a sad fact, but never

theless true, that, in the minds of thoughtless people the prison, and not the criminal act, puts the stigma of shame upon the offender. A "prison-bird" seems quite a different thing from a "graduate of the State reformatory."

If the premises of this paper are accepted, we have shown a possible reduction in our prison population, whereby the census is brought down to 33,600. Can we still further reduce it with advantage to all concerned? In asking this question, we cannot do better than to look for an answer in the systems of conditional liberation, suspended sentences, probation for first offenders, release on parole or ticket of leave, and domiciliary imprisonment.

Let us take these up in the order that I have named them. In the matter of conditional liberation, it is interesting to study the prison population in relation to trades. We shall find that a very large percentage of those in prison have no trade in the practice of which they can earn a livelihood, and that the criminal act is often the result of inability to make a decent living at any of the ordinary occupations of life. In the Relief Department of our own and of other associations we are often struck with the fact that released prisoners do not know how to do anything well. Even the most intelligent and ambitious of them are rarely skilled laborers.

Whereas in the State of New York and in some other States the principle of the indeterminate sentence is found in the general laws, a judge might so sentence such men that on the completion of a trade a release might be granted on condition that a place had already been found for the prisoner to work, and that his freedom during the unexpired term be dependent upon the fact that he did work at his trade, and furnished to the authorities, at frequent intervals, evidence of his industry and frugality. This is precisely what is now done with Elmira men. It might equally well be done in the other prisons, but neither the judiciary of the State nor the Department of Prisons has ever looked upon indeterminate sentences with favor; and, for the ten years that such sentences were permissive, but 27 men have had the benefit of the law in that direction.

There is also in our law a discretion left with the judges whereby sentences may be suspended where the interests of society and the good of the criminal may be promoted by such suspension. The judges, however, have been timid in availing themselves of this provision, and have only exercised the right where there was a moral suretyship established by the promise of some individual or