their sentences. In this way
work becomes profitable and a spirit of comradeship and friendly
emulation develops among the prisoners.

INSTITUTES FOR HABITUAL CRIMINALS

To protect society against the repeated misdeeds of these offenders and
those of born criminals, segregation is essential. However, the
institutions set apart to receive these classes should still regard the
redemption of the inmates as their chief aim, and only when all attempts
have proved futile should they be replaced by almost perpetual isolation
in a penal colony.

The Penitenciario Nacional of Buenos Ayres is a splendid instance of an
institute founded for the redemption of adult offenders as well as for
the punishment of their offences. The inmates of this penitentiary
comprise offenders of all types--criminaloids, habitual and born
criminals--belonging to the Province of Buenos Ayres. It was established
a few years after the Reformatory at Elmira, the fundamental principles
of which it has imitated with certain wise modifications to suit diverse
circumstances.

Externally, it has nothing in common with the gloomy European prisons.
It is a large, white edifice with a broad flight of steps leading to the
street and is devoid of all signs of force, soldiers, sentry-boxes, etc.

After passing through a wide vestibule, I reached a large, shady
court-yard with low walls almost hidden beneath a wealth of flowers and
foliage. A corridor opening on to the court-yard was flanked on each
side by a row of open, white cells, each well lighted by a fair-sized
window during the day, and by electricity at night. Each cell is
furnished with book-shelves, a table with paper, pen and inkstand, and a
chair. All the corridors, which are gay with plants, converge towards a
central glass-room, whence the sub-inspector surveys all the radiating
corridors under his jurisdiction. Each corridor ends in a workshop,
where printing, lithography, shoemaking, metal and steel work are
carried on, and between the corridors are garden plots in which fruit,
vegetables, and flowers are cultivated. The workshops are reckoned among
the best the Republic contains. The printing-office turns out many
weekly papers, illustrated magazines, and scientific and literary
reviews. Footgear of the finest and most elegant quality is manufactured
in the shoe-factory, and the foundry and workshop produce lathes,
boilers, industrial and agricultural machines and implements. All the
cooking