THE PRISON AND THE PRISONER.
A Symposium, edited by Julia K. Jaffray, Secretary, National Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor. Boston. Little, Brown and Company. 1917. $2.50.
A volume of 216 pages, containing eleven chapters contributed by fourteen men of high repute. Judge Wadhams, of New York City, comments on the Indeterminate Sentence, favoring a liberal application of the principle. Doctor Glueck and Doctor Salmon describe the necessity for psychiatrical studies of the convict in order to determine the best treatment for his welfare and also for the interest of the community.
Thomas Mott Osborne briefly delineates the self-government plan as instituted by him at Auburn and Sing Sing, and E. Kent Hubbard describes a similar system adopted in the Connecticut State Reformatory. “The Honor System” is condemned and there is no word in its defense.
We commend the book to all those who wish in brief compass to know what progress has been made in humanitarian ideals for the reformation of prisoners and what the scientific analysis of modern conditions indicates as the best measures to attain the cure and prevention of crime. Like other compilations, however, the various themes are not treated with equally judicial tone or comprehensiveness.