responsibility rests upon the church to educate public
opinion with regard to social obligation. They declare that the people
need to be taught that certain social conditions are turning out
criminals as regularly as the factory machine turns out its particular
product, and then they need to be aroused in conscience until the will
to prevent the evil is fixed. The minister, priest, or rabbi is
summoned by the age to be both a prophet and a teacher of ways and
means to a people too often unheeding and careless.

265. =Theories of Punishment.=--The old theory of punishment was that
the state must punish the criminal in proportion to the seriousness of
his crime, and that the penalty must be sufficiently severe to deter
others from similar crime. This primitive theory has been giving way
to the new theory of reformation. This theory is that the object of
arrest and imprisonment is not merely the safety of the public during
the criminal's term of imprisonment, but even more the reformation of
the guilty man that he may be turned into a useful member of society.
The reformatory method has been introduced with conspicuous success
into a number of the American States, and is being extended until it
seems likely to supplant the old theory altogether.

266. =Three Elements in the Method of Reformation.=--The reformatory
system includes three elements that are comparatively new. The first
of these is the indeterminate sentence now generally in practice in
the United States. According to this principle, the sentence of a
prisoner is not for a fixed period, but maximum and minimum limits are
set, and the actual length of imprisonment is determined by the record
the prisoner makes for himself. The second element is reformatory
discipline. The whole treatment of the prisoner, his assignment to
labor, his participation in mental, moral, and religious class
exercises, are all designed to stimulate manhood and to work a
complete reformation of character. The third element is conditional
liberation, or the dismissal of the prisoner on parole. According to
this method, the prisoner is freed on probation, if his record has
been good, before his full term has expired, and is under obligation
to report to the probation officer at stated intervals until his final
discharge. If his conduct is not satisfactory he can be returned to
prison at any time. This probation principle has been extended in
application, so that most first offenders are