in the Penitentiary is done by steam, and the plant is installed
in a large building erected by the prisoners themselves.

Work in the Penitentiary is compulsory. On arrival, each convict
receives instruction in some handicraft, chosen by himself or one of the
foremen. Of course swindlers and forgers are not admitted to trades like
lithography, for reasons easy to understand.

The convicts receive regular wages which vary according to their
abilities and are about equal to the standard wages in each particular
trade. All earnings are put aside and handed to the convict on his
release when he is also provided with suitable employment.

Work is finished at five o'clock in the evening and after a substantial
supper the prisoners are divided into nine classes, six elementary and
three secondary, according to their culture and intelligence. If
illiterate, they are taught reading and writing and later, arithmetic,
geography, history, languages, and drawing,--this latter being adapted
to the particular trade of each individual. When school is finished,
prisoners are allowed to go to the library to return the books they have
read and take others for the night.

Instead of a weekly newspaper like that published at Elmira,
intellectual development is stimulated by means of lectures delivered
each week by the prisoners or their teachers and attended by the
Director, Vice-Director, and all the convicts.

In addition to the care lavished by the Director, Senor Ballve, on the
work and education of his charges, he spares no pains to encourage moral
progress by rewarding good conduct. As each convict enters the
Penitentiary, his name, trial, sentence, and antecedents are entered in
a book with his photograph and particulars of his physical and psychic
individuality, and these data are supplemented by remarks on his conduct
and good actions, if any, so that on his release a clear idea is
obtained of the moral progress he has made while in prison.

PENAL COLONIES

When after unsparing efforts for the redemption of a criminal, repeated
convictions prove him to be a hopeless recidivist, the community should
decline to allow him to perfect his anti-social abilities at their
expense in prisons or at large, and should segregate him permanently,
unless, indeed, there is any hope of reform, or circumstances render him
harmless. Perpetual confinement in a prison, even of an improved type
is, however, both cruel and expensive, but an ex