Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-08-12
A NEW YORK EXPERIMENT,

New York state is about to try the ex- pertinent of indeterminate sentences for prisons which has already been found successful in regard to reformatories. It is the first time trial has been made Of the system in strictly penal institutions, and the outcome will for that reason be
 watched with considerable interest.
 The law, which has just gone into effect, provides that hereafter, when the court sees fit, it may impose an indeter-
 minate sentence to the state prison
 instead of a fixed sentence. The pris- oner so sentenced may be held for the
 possible maximum time provided by
 law for his offense, but he may be re-
 leased by board of parole during good
 behavior when he has served out the
 minimum sentence provided by law for
 his otfense. The law is substantially the same in its provisions to that which governs sentences to the reformatory at Elmira, and somewhat similar to that which governs commitments to the Massachusetts reformatory at Concord. So far as known the law has worked well in reformatories where all prisoners had sentences of this kind and all had the same hope of parole and the
 same incentives to struggle for good record. The Boston Herald thinks the only danger to the success of the exper- iment lies in the fact that two systems
 are to be operated together. There will
 be at Sing Sing for instance, side by side,
 man serving an indeterminate sentence and one serving definite sentence. The first will have hope of securing re-
 lease by conforming to the system and doing his best; the second has no hope
 of release until his term expires. It
 seems hardly possible that the plan can
 be fairly tried under such circumstances,
 but it may work so we'll with those who are serving indeterminate sentences that 1t will in time be extended to all prison CTS. The Herald, though admitting the superiority of the system of indetermi- nate sentences, finds a fundamental weakness in the New York law in that its board of parole is not wisely consti- tuted. The law provides that the super
 intendent of state prisons, with the war;
 den, chaplain, principal keeper and phy- sician of the prison, shall constitute the board which is authorized to release pris- oners on parole. It would seem to be wise to have a board from outside, con- posed of persons who have nothing to do with tue control of the prisoner, to pass upon the question of his release.
 This is the plan at Concord and Elmira,
 and it is surprising that a change was
 made touching so vital feature of the system. Prison officers should hardly
 be the ones to pass upon the question of | releasing prisOner-a function which
 is mainly a judicial one.
 There is so much to commend in the system of indeterminate sentences, SC
 much to hope from its operation both as | regards the reformation of prisoners and ] the well being of society, that the result
 of the experiment now under way in the l empire state will be watched with inter
 est everywhere. Should it prove as suc-
 cessful as anticipated it is more than probable it will be taken up by other
 states and a serious attempt made to re- l form criminals as well as punish them.