with the criminal. He should be entirely removed from criminal
surroundings and efforts made to eradicate the criminality which has
expressed itself. Society has not the right to degrade a man, much less
to school him in crime. If he prove absolutely incorrigible (a very
difficult matter to ascertain) he should be banished from society for
all time either by life-long imprisonment or by death. If not, the
carrying out of his punishment must be performed with a very sacred
sense of responsibility. All manner of means are taken to relieve and
cure the physically sick; much greater surely should be the means
employed to heal the morally and socially sick.

Another matter wherein our prison system might be justly criticised is
the scale of diet provided for the prisoners. No one asks that they
should be given luxuries, but it might at least be recognised even in
prison that one man's food is another man's poison, that one fattens
where another starves, and that variety is essential to good health. A
prisoner who was serving a very long sentence once said to the author,
"fancy having the same dinner every day of your life." Let one fancy it,
boiled beef every day except Sunday, when roast beef is provided. The
same meal every day, the same clothes to wear every day and all day, and
the same routine to go through. What wonder is it that in the confirmed
criminal many faculties appear to have atrophied. They have obeyed a law
of nature. The popular comment is no doubt--"what else do you expect?
They deserve it all, they have brought it upon themselves." We expect
that our criminals should at least be treated like the by-products of
our mills and factories, i.e. made the most of. Bitter prejudices must
give way to the dictates of reason and humanity.

Practically the "combined system" produces no good results. It satisfies
neither justice, humanity, nor economy. Neither is it efficient to
afford protection to society. It satisfies prejudice and vengeance
alone. The only system of imprisonment which is of any value and which
the State ought to consider is one which converts the gaol in every
essential into a "crime-hospital."

Concerning life imprisonment much apprehension exists in the public
mind. The prevailing idea is that this sentence implies incarceration
for a period of twenty years. This is due perhaps to the fact that in
England the sentences of "lifers" are reconsidered at the end of that
period, and in the majorit