A Plea for the Criminal

BATION

MIRA S

an attempt has been made to devise a substitute for impris

st to take the lead by initiating a s

is an attempt to ref

the broad-arrow. Secondly, there is the loss of self-respect which, together with the contaminating influences existing in a prison, often convert the minor offender i

ent, the judge confides him to the care of the probation officer for a period co-terminous with that which he would other

r the age of 18 years the probation officer is usua

the reach of these temptations or to strengthen them against their power. Some officers provide for meetings to be held for those committed to their charge. Especially is this the case with those who have the charge over youthful offenders. At such meetings games, edifying entertainment and instruction are provided. It is also quite competent for an officer to receive the wages of a probationer. In these cases, he will give the man's wife a sufficient sum to meet the ordinary household expenditure, allow him enough for his personal expenses, and retain a small sum to

delible nor nearly so great as that which the prison leaves behind it. To make this disadvantage as small as possi

give good advice and able to gain the affections and confidences of those amongst whom they work, is the type of person required.

ers, you have a number of independent, well-paid probation officers, cho

adjustment of treatmen

are is taken that the prisoner shall be strictly controlled and

s still come in, and if the prisoner is a mother and a wife, it is, of

he is a skilled workman. "I was told that six months in prison will materi

that a brother man can. And this friend has the unique opportunities for s

ty for rightly using freedom is cons

isoner keeps himself and his family, and one of

is the official designation of this institution. It was establishe

acity among prisoners, and his religious beliefs led him to acknowledge that t

orfolk Island attracted his attention, and from Maconochie's

ment there. A restriction was placed upon the age of the offenders who should be admitted, the law reading thus:-"A male between the ages of 16 and 30, convicted of felony, who has not heretofore been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment

penitentiaries, and houses of correction, so that in some cases a considerable advance in the career of crime has bee

e practically those set forth in the declaration of the Nati

ed upon the individual for the wrong done by him,

e is The Reformation of Criminals, not

haracter, and worked on some well adjusted mark system, sh

s of the prisoners, by a well devised and skilfully applied system of rewards for good conduct, indu

circumstances where he will be able, through his own exertions, to continually better his own

ate length. Sentences limited only by a satisfactory proof of reform

so much suffering inflicted for so much wrong do

il his reformation has been effected is not the place which has any attractions for him. The life of discipline and industry does not at all agree with his idea of blissful surroundings. Upon admission at the reformatory, the prisoner is placed in the middle of three grades of classification. From this grade he can, by industry and good behaviour, advance to the highest grade. If he should prove refractory, he sinks to the lowest or convict grade. Each grade has its own particular privileges, these being of course at their maximum in the highest grade. They consist chiefly in a better diet, better bed and freer access to the library. His fate is practically placed in his own hands. If he shall show himself industrious and shall apply himself diligently to t

ppears the most reasonable. The business of the trial court is concluded as soon as the question of guilt is determined. The judge has not imposed on him the impossible task of measuring out a punishment which in its severity shall exactly accord with the degree of crime committed. The question of the prisoner's sanity is not left to the jury to decide but to qualified alienists. Neither does this question determine his GUILT but only his RESPONSIBILITY. No account has to be made of the provocation from which the prisoner suffered at the committal of his crime. If but a small degree of criminality exist, the safest adjustment of punishment is to be found in the indeterminate sentence. From the social point of view, it gives the best safeguard to the society. It guarantees that a criminal once convicted shall cease to prey upon society. He will either reform and return to society as a useful member thereof and a contributor to its wealth, or else, refusing to reform, he will never regain his liberty. This sentence lays it down that society ought not to tolerate criminals in its midst. Imprisonment for a fixed period under our present penal system serves but to exasperate the criminal, and at the end of his sentence, when he

fore imprisonment? In the case of the absolutely indeterminate sentence there is a motive that will quicken every energy and arouse the dullest to life and exercise, for he would be fighting for life and liberty-liberty that could never be his until he had shown by his conduct

to regain his freedom by legitimate means is better off where he is. He would only be a stumbling block to society in general if he were set free, and would sooner or later land again in some penal instituti

e, and time alone, counts for this class. Only to pass time and get to the end of the sentence, that is all. No one can make a study of, or even look about him and compare the records made by definite and indefinitely sentenced men, without becoming a warm advocate of the indeterminate sentence. The longer the maximum sentence of the man sent here, the greater is his effort to travel along the straight and narrow path, picking up such advantages as offer him through his stay in this institution. The longer the maximum the stronger the motive, the smaller the maximum, the smaller effort to earn a release. For example, men sent here with two or two and a half years as the limit of their m

ers. That is not so. The system is obviously a very complicated one, and only the bare outlines are being given here. In operation it is absolutely fair, neither is any inducement offered to commit crime for the benefits which the tra

when in confinement have to be accommodated to new conditions, and if unassisted the task is often too great. The consequence is that he falls away and rejoins his old companions and soon becomes a recidivist. The indeterminate sentence allows for his freedom being regained gradually. Having given evidence of reform and of abilities to support himself, employment is found for him, and he is granted a p

he is rearrested and may be called upon t

mental, moral and manual. There is no sharp distinction between all three, inasmuch as no mental or manual

that habits of correct thinking and useful industry may be established. Every prisoner upon entering the institution is assigned to the school of letters, c

be as few as twenty pupils in the lower classes and as many as two hundred in the upper ones. The school is under the management of a director who is assisted by a competent staff of civilian teachers, as well as by a number of the inmates themselves. Some of the prisoners, being illiterate, have to commence their educat

the Reformatory is so arranged that throughout the wh

nts. No useless studies are undertaken. Every study must be of value from a reformative point of view and also from an educational one. That is, it must serve to correct bad and wandering habits of thinking and to cultivate good and consecutive habits. It must assist to broaden the outlook of life and to bring the individuals into living touch with the life and traditions of the country to which he belongs. It must serve to inspire hope, confidence and zeal. It must cultivate a taste for the beautiful, a love for the natural, and an adoration for the Divine. When released, the student must find himself equipped with such a knowledge as will enable him to steadily advance in his station of life. And yet there is on an average, only two years in which to impart such

tions are conducted with great strictness. In order to pass 75 per cent. of the maximum number of marks must be obtained, and marks are given for exact knowledge only. For instance, if in a sum in arithmetic a right method is employed but a wrong answer given no marks are rewarded. The student has shown an inability to use his knowledge. In other subjects the men in answering their questions must g

gentle treatment was necessary to overcome the general bewilderment. The first examination passed off measurably well. Soon a change took place and English literature rose rapidly to be

ew has attended this study, and the men enthu

sive steps of a real reformation, and every step puts the man at a greater and safer distance from past shiftlessness and viciousness. "The virtues," says Felix Adler, "depend in no small degree on the power of serial and complex thinking," but, continues that practical philosopher, "the ordinary studies of the school exercise and develop this faculty of serial and complex thinking. Any sum in multiplication gives a training of this kind." It is hardly possible to exaggerate the benefit that true education will confer on one

eful investigation of moral principles, and become thereby merely a more dangerous cheat. No man who has opened his eyes to see the revelations of eternal wisdom and goodness written in letters of light on all the handiwork of Nature, can be made thereby merely a more d

Reformatory falls into three divisions-th

ust endeavour to keep before us the end which the authorities are aiming at, viz., the restoration to society of their criminals in a not only har

dvantages offered. To criminals they are not realised as advantages. They understand them only as the rough road leading to their release, and it is about the last thing for men of shiftless, lazy, inconsequent habits of mind and body, to suppose that they are having a good time when sent to a gy

eraging about five weeks, in the "awkward squad," half of whose morning time is spent in the gymnasium. They come in a very ungainly looking set of men. Many are undersized, underweight, rickety and diseased in body and generally

o exercise all their latent muscular power. Special attention is pai

t in their treatment and help to bring the dregs of disease, the res

the carriage is erect, the cutaneous, circulatory, muscular and nervous systems are in a health

uad and engage in the work of other departments. Some, however, for v

ese are classified

ntrol. II. Stupids. These groups are described by

scribed necessitate the direct employment of their mathematical faculties. The following schedule was adopted, though subject to constant change as occasion for change presented itself. The exercises of their group as with others are confined to one hour's practical work five days per week. The men receive a daily rain bath and rubbing down immediately after their exercises. With this group the hour is divided into sessions of half-an-hour each, subdivided into periods of fifteen min

of hurdles at intervals, in harmony with established athletic field rules. The closing 15 minutes em

s. In the general performance of their work they have shown more interest than either Group I or III, and in some instances have acquired skill in some of their athletic branches. The tendency of the athletics selected for this group by the Gymnasium Director was of a nature conducive to the cultivation and encouragement of self-control and self-reliance among its members as shown by the spirit of good-fellowsh

to excel in one branch. Another observable feature was the attempt to shirk the exercises which required any exertion on their part. These defects have been remedied, not entirely, bu

sical defects (some of which have been remedied wholly or in part) come under my observation: general weakness, weak chest (respiratory organs), bent carriage of the body, stiffness of wrist, joints, and clumsy movements of fingers, spinal curvature, extreme (comparative) development of right arm. To overcome these defects systematic exercise was necessary, including free-hand exercises, club-swinging, dumb-bell ex

agement conceived the idea of forming a military regiment. Most beneficial results immediately followed. The men began to walk with more erect carriage and to respond to quick words of command. Besides this, the open-air exercise developed their lung-power and stimulated their circulatory system. A pride in their performance was also inspired by the opp

jutant, and sergeant-major, and national and state colour-bearers. The uniforms are blue, black, and red, corresponding to the grades. White belts, with nickel buckles, are w

drilled on exactly the same lines as t

ady described as mathematical dullards, deficient in self-control, and stupids. The habits of vice seem to have wrought such a destructive work upon the will-power of these men that in order to repair it some potent influence would have to be brought into operation. The conception was to entirely disengage the mind of its connection with the past and to concentrate it upon healthy,

in education now. It needed the greatest skill on the part of the managers to adopt the various Sloyd exercises to the requirements of the different defectives, but each year has given additional proof of their success, a

oyd the following course w

nto three terms, there being 17 weeks i

athematical

st

etics, and calisthenics, clay-m

nd T

tion takes the plac

rd

tead of card-boa

eficient in

st

involving the intersection of solids, etc., wood-tu

nd T

ood-carving, clay-modelling,

rd

hipping and filing, moulding,

II.-(St

st

solids and familiar objects, elementary Sloyd, clay

nd T

wood-carving, mental ari

rd

, wood-turning, athletic

titution should be taught a useful trade so that he would be able to provide an honest and sufficient livelihood for himself and for those who would be dependent upon him. For this purpose the t

a lazy ambitionless life and regard work as an evil to be avoided; the reformatory system, however, captures his interest o

, which is in the nature of an exhaustive examination, generally discloses the species of criminality to which his crime belongs

e kept rigidly to it and no release from imprisonment granted until his progress has satisfied the authorities. Changes from one trade to another are rarely granted, and then only when the learner has given unmistakable signs that he cannot succeed at his first task. Within the trades school, his identity is not lost sight of. Day by day, a record of his conduct and also of his progress is

is work. The end of the apprentice is served by constantly advancing to new work, even though this should mean the loss of time and the waste of material; his master's object is attained by keeping him at that work which he learns quickest and giving the difficult work to more experienced men, consequently he passes through his time and learns but very little. Now, the pupil of the Elmira trades' school is not considered to

aking release depend upon success, interest is thereby combined with industry. This combination is bound to react upon t

of all the trades taug

ouse-painti

Iron-forging

achine-wood-work

Machinist's

ng Moulding

y Music

ing Paint-mix

hoto-engravin

Plastering

nishing Plu

Printing Mech

phy & ty

were 1986 pupils inst

ed of late years and the results investigated instead of being imagined. The most careful investigation has made it impossible to deny that the Reformatory achieves all that it claims to, viz.:-that it contribut

practical application of the resu

t would need to be so translated that it would acc

TNO

d upon the prisoners, in such institutions, to raise themselves by mental as well as by industrial labour, into higher grades as a necessary condition for liberation, is felt by many of them, to involve

Reformatory, the number known definitely to have returned