me idea of the nature of this
method of punishment. We shall now proceed to describe another mode of
dealing with offenders against the fundamental order of society. In
addition to convict establishments there exists throughout the United
Kingdom a large number of places of confinement called Local Prisons.
In England and Wales there are about sixty Local Prisons; in Scotland
there are about twenty; in Ireland there are about eighteen. In
Scotland and Ireland persons sentenced to a few days' imprisonment are
often confined in police cells, in England all convicted offenders
serve their sentence, however short, in a regular Local Prison.

Before 1877 the Local Prisons of England and Scotland were under the
control and administration of the County Magistrates, and almost every
county had then its own prison. One of the chief defects of this
system was the multiplication of prisons; one of its chief virtues was
that local power kept alive local interest in a way which is
impossible with highly centralised machinery. Where prisons are small
and numerous, as was to some extent the case under the old system, it
is difficult to conduct them so economically; on the other hand, the
herding of great masses of criminals together in huge establishments
is not without corresponding evils. It is now being pointed out by
specialists on the Continent and in America that huge prisons destroy
the individuality of the prisoner; his own personality is lost amid
the hundreds who surround him; he sinks into the position of a mere
unit, and is obliged to be treated as such by the officials in charge
of him. Under such a system it becomes almost impossible to
individualise prisoners; there is no time for it; as a result, the
influence of reformative agencies descends to a minimum and only the
punitive side of justice comes home to the offender. At one time the
value of Reformatory Schools was seriously impaired by herding too
many lads together under one roof; it is now seen that the success of
these institutions is marred by making them too large; it is accepted
as an established maxim that the smaller the school the better the
results. The same principle holds true with respect to prisons.

When the County Magistrates were deprived of their powers by the last
government of Lord Beaconsfield, these powers were in England vested
in the Home Secretary; in Scotland they were latterly vested in the
Secretary for Scotland; in Ireland they are ves