THE NEW CRIMINOLOGY 859 



them is unnatural from every point of view, enfeebling and 

 demoralizing. The volume of crime in the community does not 

 diminish; there are even those who claim (but on inadequate 

 evidence) that it is increasing. 



Accordingly, the history of prison reform may almost be written in 

 terms of progressive disuse of the prison, either for punitive or reform- 

 atory ends. The supreme folly of the harshness of the earlier disci- 

 pline practiced by novices in the art of governing criminals soon 

 became apparent. The second generation of wardens learned that 

 the criminal is not a beast, but a man, who rebels against oppression, 

 but responds to kind treatment and encouragement, with whom more 

 can be done by privileges granted as a reward for good conduct than 

 by disciplinary punishment. 



The original germ of the prison system of the future was the 

 passage, by state after state, of " good time " laws, which authorized 

 a deduction from the term of imprisonment prescribed by the court, 

 proportionate to its length, as the highest reward for obedience to 

 prison rules. This was disuse, a reduction in the total number of the 

 imprisoned; and (which merits especial notice) it was the negation 

 of the principle that a sentence once formally pronounced by a court 

 must be executed in accordance with its original and literal form. 

 Either the original sentence was delivered, subject to modification in 

 accordance with the new legislation, or else the legislature claimed 

 and exercised the power to modify it, subsequent to its delivery. 

 The foundation was thus laid for a complete subversal of the historical 

 basis of all existing criminal codes. 



The second step in the progressive disuse of the prison was the 

 inclusion in some of these codes of the principle of conditional libera- 

 tion, and the third was the adoption in others of the principle of 

 suspended sentence or probation. Conditional liberation empties 

 the prison at one end, and probation at the other. 



We have now a third generation of wardens, trained under the 

 later legislation, who are far in advance of their predecessors in point 

 both of average intelligence and of average humanity, and the moral 

 tone of the institutions under their charge has been correspondingly 

 elevated and improved. 



The trend of progress in this general direction was greatly aided 

 by the influx of a stream of European influence, to which reference 

 must now be made. Captain Alexander Maconochie, R. N., Governor 

 of Norfolk Island, in Australia, was the inventor of the mark system. 

 He attached to the marks bestowed by him a pecuniary value, and 

 made the date of liberation of convicts depend upon the number of 

 marks earned by them. After his recall to England he was ap- 

 pointed governor of the Birmingham Gaol, where he experimented 

 further with it. Sir Walter Croft on, the Director of Irish Convict 



