3. "The progressive classification of prisoners based on character, and worked on some well adjusted mark system, should be established in all prisons above the common gaol."
4. "Since hope is a more potent agent than fear, it should be made an ever present force in the minds of the prisoners, by a well devised and skilfully applied system of rewards for good conduct, industry, attention to learning. Rewards, more than penalties, are essential to every good prison system."
5. "The prisoner's destiny should be placed, measurably, in his own hands; he must be put into circumstances where he will be able, through his own exertions, to continually better his own conditions. A regulated self-interest must be brought into play and made constantly operative."
6. "Peremptory sentences ought to be replaced by those of indeterminate length. Sentences limited only by a satisfactory proof of reformation should be substituted for those measured by mere lapse of time."
The old system of penology may be described as "so much suffering inflicted for so much wrong done and with the object of expiating that wrong."
The principles upon which the reformatory system is founded must be clearly grasped before the system itself can be understood. Criticism is frequently levelled against it on the ground that the prisoners are given "too good a time." This criticism is based upon some theory that vindictive retaliation is the attitude that should be assumed towards the criminal. When this theory is renounced, then the system stands or falls according as it accomplishes the objects for which it is designed. When it is asked why should a prisoner in captivity be better looked after than he would be if left in his old haunts of crime, the question must be answered from the prisoner's point of view, and he will candidly reply that the prison which deprives him of his freedom until 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 the task set before him he may make such progress in his grades as will secure his release after a comparatively short period of detention. If, on the other hand, he will not exert himself to embrace the opportunity, he is kept under detention until the maximum limit of his sentence is reached. The authorities urge for legislation making the sentence absolutely indeterminate, so that those who resist the reformatory measures may be kept in prison for a period co-terminous with that of their resistance. The principles upon which the system is founded are developed in a course of training described as a three M course, i.e. mental, moral and manual. The machinery consists of, the indeterminate sentence, the school of letters, the trade school, and the gymnasium.
The Indeterminate Sentence.—The ideal Indeterminate sentence provides that when once a criminal falls into the clutches of the law he shall be deprived of his liberty until he has given satisfactory evidence that he is able to conduct himself as an honest and industrious citizen. It makes no distinction between different crimes, such as to provide that the man who embezzles shall receive a longer sentence than the man who commits arson or vice versa, but makes the restoration of liberty depend entirely upon reformation. It refuses to tolerate the idea that any criminals should be at large to prey upon society, and it thus imposes upon society the obligation to undertake the reform of all criminals. This IDEAL sentence, however, does not exist. At Elmira, the authorities are obliged to recognise a maximum, so that if at the expiry of this maximum, the prisoner should have made no progress towards reform he must, nevertheless, be discharged. Since, however, a man may at Elmira reduce a sentence of ten years to something like 22 months, a great incentive is given to him to identify himself with the efforts being made on his behalf. From every point of view the indeterminate sentence in the case of those sent to reformatories appears 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 is a more dangerous criminal than ever, the law demands that he shall be released. It is only by indeterminate sentences that society obtains the guarantee it may justly demand. For its effect as a means of discipline a prisoner will give his own experience. The following extract, was written by an inmate of the Reformatory in 1898:—"From the view-point of a 'man up a tree' I would say that the character of our sentence has everything to do with furnishing a motive which induces and stimulates us to a degree of activity we could never acquire under a fixed penalty. Where, under a definite sentence, we would spend most of our time crossing off days from the calendar and lay awake nights counting over and again the amount of time yet necessary for us to serve before the dawn of freedom, now every moment is utilised in taking advantage of all opportunities for improvement that are offered, well knowing that only by advancement in the trade-school and school of letters, together with strict compliance with the rules of the disciplinary department, can liberty be earned. And the word earn is used advisedly, for a man to get along in this reformatory can be no sluggard but must be alert, ever ready to advance and not drag behind."
The ideal sentence, so far as an incentive to reformation goes, would be an ABSOLUTELY INDETERMINATE ONE, where a man must either reform or remain in prison for life, for where would be the welfare of society considered if a man be released prepared to prey upon it as he did before 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 that ready compliance with all requirements here was intended, and willingness to discard the old and detrimental habits, taking on new and profitable ones. The fact that a man could get along in here would indicate his ability to live in accord with society in the outside world.
Under such a system no one fit to be released would fail to gain it. Why? Because the motive is so strong as to force the most unwilling to willingness; because a man who would rather rot in prison than try 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 institution or other, and thus his life would be wasted, and public funds wasted in arresting, discharging and rearresting the useless drone, the balance of whose life would be passed in various prisons of the country.
That the indeterminate sentence furnishes a powerful motive for reformation is shown daily in this institution. You have only to watch the student over his books, or mechanic over his tools to see the effort that is being made to win that golden prize—a parole. How that motive is undermined or taken away entirely when the sentence is definite is readily perceived by taking a cursory glance over the records of men sentenced here for a definite period. The greatest percentage of them are careless, insolent, and furnish most of the class that goes to form the nucleus of the lower or convict grades. Why? Because there is nothing to work for. No parole can be gained by attention to duty. Time, 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 maximums, on an average, remain here longer than those with a five, ten or twenty years maximum hanging over them. The reason is obvious—the motive is strengthened or weakened according as the sentence is lengthened or shortened. The deterrent value of the absolutely indeterminate sentence would be enormous. Not a question of a few months or years would the criminal have to face; but a period which would not terminate until he either reformed or died. As we have seen it gives a tremendous stimulus to reform, and it would likewise give a powerful check to criminal tendencies. Thus it relieves the Judge of an impossible task, is most satisfactory to society, and most humane to the culprit.