Tabular view of State Prison Statistics for 1868-(Continued).

GENERAL REMARKS.

No person who has carefully read the foregoing paper, and critically scanned the statistics embodied in the table just given, can fail to have been struck with the evidences of progress now making in the United States in penitentiary science and prison discipline. The problem of crime and its treatment has been keenly studied within the past few years; the education of public opinion on this subject has been rapid beyond all former precedent; and the development of sound principles and their application in the management of prisons have been active and successful in a pre-eminent degree.

The principles of prison discipline, in which the thinkers and workers in this department of social science, as appears from the reports which have just passed under review, are substantially agreed, or rapidly approaching such agreement, are, in brief, such as these following:

1. The reformation and rehabilitation of criminals-not vindictive suffering should be made the supreme aim in prison management. On this point the unanimity is absolute, with no dissentient voice.

2. Progressive classification, based on character and merit, and not on any arbitrary principle, such as age, crime, etc., should be established in all prisons above the grade of the common jail. The advance of public sentiment, as shown by the reports, is wholly in this direction. No better method has yet been devised to this end than that offered in the Irish prison system, where there is, I. A penal stage, with separate imprisonment, longer or shorter, according to conduct. II. A reformatory stage, worked on the mark system, where the prisoners are advanced from class to class, as they earn such advance, giving at each step increased comfort and privilege. III. A probationary stage, into which are admitted only such as are judged to be reformed, and where the object is to test their moral soundness the reality of their reformation. So far the agreement is general, not to say universal; but there is, IV. A stage of conditional liberty (ticket of leave), in which the reformed convict enjoys full freedom, subject, however, to a revocation thereof for any misconduct. Grave doubt is widely felt whether this part of the system is applicable to our country. Two of our governors-Hayes of Ohio, and Haight of California-have, in their late annual messages, formally recommended the Irish system for adoption by their respective States, with such modifications as may seem necessary to adapt it to our circumstances.

3. A system of rewards for good conduct and industry should be instituted in all our prisons, whereby hope shall become an ever present and ever active force-more potent and controlling than

fear in the minds of prisoners. So far there appears to be absolute unanimity. Such rewards should consist of: a, a diminution of sentence; b, a share in their earnings; c, a gradual withdrawal of prison restraints, and a constant increase of privileges, as they shall be earned by good conduct. The principle of rewards is now universally held; as regards the modes or kinds of reward, a perfect unanimity, probably, has not yet been reached. On the policy of shortening sentences all are agreed; on that of allowing a participation in earnings, there is a general theoretical agreement, though the reports of none of the prisons record the actual adoption of this principle. Within a few days, however, the principle has been incorporated into the legislation of Ohio by the passage of an act permitting such participation by convicts, to the amount of onefourth of their earnings. The prediction may be safely ventured that it will not be many years before laws to this effect will be as common on the statute books of our States as commutation acts now are. The third mode-enlarged privilege and freedom-though probably at present not carrying all votes, will follow in due time, and become co-extensive with the others.

4. A probationary stage, in which the training shall be more natural, and the moral cure of the delinquent can be adequately tested, should be found in every prison system. This principle does not yet command universal concurrence, though the tendency of opinion sets strongly in that direction. It is singular, however, that while it has received a wide theoretical assent, the theory, so far as we are informed, has been reduced to practice nowhere except in the Irish convict prisons. The reason for such a chasm, and that so generally existing, between principle and act, must be sought, no doubt, in the difficulty of bringing the two practically together, and in the further fact that a successful application of the principle requires an adjustment thereto of other and antecedent stages of a prison system. The principle cannot possibly be incorporated, as an isolated element, into any prison system; but must, of necessity, come in as the complement of a system, all the parts of which are contrived and adjusted to reformation as the one great end in view. There is no prison system in our country, and probably not elsewhere, other than the one to which it originally belonged, on which this principle could be engrafted, without changes so radical as to constitute a new system. Yet it is a principle so essential to a true and effective prison discipline, that, sooner or later, the changes must be made, which will permit its introduction. There is a problem of the gravest importance, and as difficult as it is grave, on which the minds of prison reformers throughout the world are now bent