PRISON REFORM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9588, 7 September 1909, Page 3

PRISON REFORM.

The second greatest State in America —Pennsylvania, with 7,000,000 inhabitants—haa now joined the 18 others which had already declared for the "probation indeterminate sentence and parole of adults convicted of crimes." Of course, all American judges have always Had the power to suspend sentence, but for the obvious reason that judges are peculiarly sensitive to the unwritten law that power has been sparingly exercised. Now, almost as matter of right, the ordinary first offender will be liberated immediately after dentence "on probation," and only in case of misconduct will he be called upon to serve out his sentence. For a second conviction, the sentence is relatively heavier than at present, while a third conviction for an offence calling for more than a year's imprisonment brands him as a habitual criminal, and subjects him to not less than 30 years—and in so;v.e States, to life—imprisonment. In order 3till, However, to show that the object of punishment is correction, and not vengeance, even in these nominally irreclaimable cases, the man may be put upon probation whenever, after one-fourth of his term has expired, the Court believes that it is safe m give him another chance. This class of legislation is evidently open to great abuses, but in actual practice it seems to have elevated even the judges into a n«w sense ot extra-routine responsibility; and, beyond all doubt, by saving first offenders from the taint of the gaol, it has rescued very many useful men in society. But some of the newer States are, perhaps, not yet ready for it, for in them temptations to irregular courses are many, and the aids to orderly living are not plentiful. But ultimately probably all the States will adopt the same system.