get along in here would
indicate his ability to live in accord with society in the outside
world.

Under such a system no one fit to be released would fail to gain it.
Why? Because the motive is so strong as to force the most unwilling to
willingness; because a man who would rather rot in prison than try to
regain his freedom by legitimate means is better off where he is. He
would only be a stumbling block to society in general if he were set
free, and would sooner or later land again in some penal institution or
other, and thus his life would be wasted, and public funds wasted in
arresting, discharging and rearresting the useless drone, the balance of
whose life would be passed in various prisons of the country.

That the indeterminate sentence furnishes a powerful motive for
reformation is shown daily in this institution. You have only to watch
the student over his books, or mechanic over his tools to see the effort
that is being made to win that golden prize--a parole. How that motive
is undermined or taken away entirely when the sentence is definite is
readily perceived by taking a cursory glance over the records of men
sentenced here for a definite period. The greatest percentage of them
are careless, insolent, and furnish most of the class that goes to form
the nucleus of the lower or convict grades. Why? Because there is
nothing to work for. No parole can be gained by attention to duty. Time,
and time alone, counts for this class. Only to pass time and get to the
end of the sentence, that is all. No one can make a study of, or even
look about him and compare the records made by definite and indefinitely
sentenced men, without becoming a warm advocate of the indeterminate
sentence. The longer the maximum sentence of the man sent here, the
greater is his effort to travel along the straight and narrow path,
picking up such advantages as offer him through his stay in this
institution. The longer the maximum the stronger the motive, the smaller
the maximum, the smaller effort to earn a release. For example, men sent
here with two or two and a half years as the limit of their maximums, on
an average, remain here longer than those with a five, ten or twenty
years maximum hanging over them. The reason is obvious--the motive is
strengthened or weakened according as the sentence is lengthened or
shortened. The deterrent value of the absolutely indeterminate sentence
would be enormous. Not a question of a few months or ye