he other hand, the members of the
really criminal class only anticipate liberty in order to use it for
fresh crime, for, in their opinion, the shame lies in detection, not in
sinning. What can be done with such but to deal stringently with them as
with enemies against society? This writer can fully bear out Mrs. Fry's
emphatic recommendations as to the imperative necessity that exists for
complete separation and classification of the prisoners, in all our
penal establishments. Association of the prisoners, one with another,
only carries on and completes their criminal and vicious education.

There is, however, a general _consensus_ of opinion as to the
desirability of reformatory, rather than punitive measures, being dealt
out to children and very young persons. This system has, in almost every
case, been found to work well. The authors of _The Jail Cradle, Who
Rocks It?_ and _In Prison and Out_, have dealt with the problem of
juvenile crime--and not in vain. From the latter work, the following
paragraph proves that in this matter, as in many others, Germany is
abreast of the age:--

In Germany, no child under twelve years of age can suffer a penal
sentence. Between twelve and eighteen years of age, youthful
criminals are free to declare whether, while committing the
offense, they were fully aware of their culpability against the
laws of their country. In every case, every term of imprisonment
above one month is carried out, not in a jail, but in an
institution specially set apart and adapted for old offenders.
These institutions serve not only for the purpose of punishment,
but also provide for the education of the prisoners, _the neglect
of education being recognized as one of the chief sources of
crime_.

Mrs. Fry dealt with women principally, and it was only in a very limited
degree that she could benefit the children of these fallen ones. Still
there can be no doubt that she did a large service to society in taking
possession of them and educating them while with their mothers. What
that work involved has been fully told in the preceding pages; its
results no pen can compute. Woman-like, she aimed at the improvement of
her own sex; but the reform which she inaugurated did not stop there.
Like a circle caused by the descent of a pebble into a lake, it widened
and extended and spread until she and her work became household words
among all classes of society, a