y. It
guarantees that a criminal once convicted shall cease to prey upon
society. He will either reform and return to society as a useful member
thereof and a contributor to its wealth, or else, refusing to reform, he
will never regain his liberty. This sentence lays it down that society
ought not to tolerate criminals in its midst. Imprisonment for a fixed
period under our present penal system serves but to exasperate the
criminal, and at the end of his sentence, when he is a more dangerous
criminal than ever, the law demands that he shall be released. It is
only by indeterminate sentences that society obtains the guarantee it
may justly demand. For its effect as a means of discipline a prisoner
will give his own experience. The following extract, was written by an
inmate of the Reformatory in 1898:--"From the view-point of a 'man up a
tree' I would say that the character of our sentence has everything to
do with furnishing a motive which induces and stimulates us to a degree
of activity we could never acquire under a fixed penalty. Where, under a
definite sentence, we would spend most of our time crossing off days
from the calendar and lay awake nights counting over and again the
amount of time yet necessary for us to serve before the dawn of freedom,
now every moment is utilised in taking advantage of all opportunities
for improvement that are offered, well knowing that only by advancement
in the trade-school and school of letters, together with strict
compliance with the rules of the disciplinary department, can liberty be
earned. And the word earn is used advisedly, for a man to get along in
this reformatory can be no sluggard but must be alert, ever ready to
advance and not drag behind."

The ideal sentence, so far as an incentive to reformation goes, would be
an ABSOLUTELY INDETERMINATE ONE, where a man must either reform
or remain in prison for life, for where would be the welfare of society
considered if a man be released prepared to prey upon it as he did
before imprisonment? In the case of the absolutely indeterminate
sentence there is a motive that will quicken every energy and arouse the
dullest to life and exercise, for he would be fighting for life and
liberty--liberty that could never be his until he had shown by his
conduct that ready compliance with all requirements here was intended,
and willingness to discard the old and detrimental habits, taking on new
and profitable ones. The fact that a man could