The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-06-08

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becomes more tolcralle. His oppor
tunitics Of writing letters and receiving
visits increase, his food improves, and h,
gains some little power Of choice in diet
through CUSTOM too his work, at first irk,
some, becomes light, and the regulation,
easy TO obey or to evade, while through the
same influence of long habit his whole sur
roundings grow less hateful and their con
trast to ordinary life less poignant Final
IT, if the convict has been well behaved and
industrious, or, in the prison idiom, Ia,
earned his marks, One-fOurth of his sen.
tcncc is Icmittcd, and he is liberated under
''liccnsc," or ticket of leave, which oblipcS
him to report himself to the police for the
uncypircd period. This practice of remis-
sion under surveillance is indiscriminatcly
applied to the professional burglar or pick
pocket, and to the causual offender who is
unlikely to commit second crime.
Now it is Obvious that convict prisons
which, among other Objectionable features.
harbor the miSchictS of ndiscriminatc
treatment and association--notwithstanding
the cleanliness, order, and discipline which
may distinguish thcm-are very far from
answering the rctomatory ends of a penal
system. It was stated, indeed, by some of
the speakers at the International Prison
Congress of 1872, that no classification
OF prisoners based on char
actcr is possible. As a matter Of
fact, however, sufficient material fora tolcr.
ably correct estimate Of character is fur
nishcd every day in the criminal courts
during Il trial, and these data, il is claimed,
might be turned to practical account in
grading conyicts. Some standard Of class
iiiCation at all events, other than length
OF service, will doubtless be adopted by
the commission, since main ground of it.
was the growing conviction
that criminals importance us dangerous
member Of the community must be kept in
tlut ~, tl., l. "a,
is not, and probably never will be injurious
to any important interest, is not to be made
the subject of "a costly and cumbrous
scheme of punishment. There is at pres
cnt Il strong movement in favor of dividing
convicts in English prisons into durable
and incorrigiblc, the purpose being to min
imizc, as far AS possible, the evils Of asso-
citation in the punishment OF the former
category. 1t is believed that nearly all the
indoor work now done in gangs would
he quite possible in separate cells, and
~ III llic 'dNc vi turdblts IhtIc would
be no relaxation toward the end of the
sentence beyond what might be nccdtul
on sanitary grounds, the culpnt would issue
from prison with keen and wholesome
sense of the tcrrors of punishment. On the
other hand, the cXpcdicncy of complctclyrc-
moving the hardened criminal has been very
distinctly urged by the official head of the
'onvict prison department. Col. Du Cane. in |
IN address before the Social Science Assoc |
'iaton. 1t is Obvious that an immense u,v.
NJ would be effected in the expenditure ON
police and judicial machinery by the final
from society Of the professional
'riminaI, to say nothing Of the pcrccptib'c
decrease in the volume of dcprcdations, now
'stimatcd at no less Il sum than E19O,OOO
for England and Wales. II is added
hat, owing to the proycrbially short lives
If habitual criminals no such gut of con.
'ict prisons for inconiaibcs would
axe place as the tables Of an ac-
uary adopted to norma. live,
would indicate. In the addros,
ut mentioned, however. the chairman Of
he rpuNip, nri.,p ,j'r,.,,r- ,,l,,;,. ,l,,.