114 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that year been declared unconstitutional by the supreme court, and by 

 adopting a constitutional amendment permitting *it, the people of the 

 State have signified their wish to have this obstacle removed. It has, 

 so far as I know, the unanimous approval of practical students of crim- 

 inology, though many think that it cannot be made effective except in 

 connection with radical changes in the methods of conducting our pris- 

 ons, changes which shall make them, for the younger convicts at least, 

 primarily educational and disciplinary. 



The principles underlying indeterminate sentence are chiefly two: 

 first, that the prison authorities have a better opportunity than the judge 

 for close acquaintance with the prisoner, and hence are better qualified 

 to determine how long he shall be confined. The judge sees the prisoner 

 for only a few days, and that under very peculiar circumstances, namely 

 while he is at the bar undergoing his trial. The length of the sentence 

 he decides to inflict is, and must be, based on arbitrary and dubious 

 grounds. The personal temperament of the judge and the way he hap- 

 pens to feel at the time of the trial are admitted to have a great deal to 

 do with it. In fact the present system is no system at all, but leaves 

 the sentence of criminals to the unconnected decisions of a dozen, inde- 

 pendent judges, each of whom is likely to have his own peculiar ideas and 

 practices. The consequence is that no one principle is followed, and 

 when two men meet at Jackson or Ionia, one of whom is sentenced for 

 two years and the other for ten, there may be no reason whatever for 

 the difference except the difi'erence in severity between the judges. 



A second reason for the indeterminate sentence is that the fixing of 

 the term of confinement beforehand makes reformatory methods impos- 

 sible. All plans of reforming young men in prison require that they 

 shall be stimulated to exertion by the hope of release. If the time is 

 fixed beforehand within pretty definite limits, the prison people have 

 small hold upon their man. He has little to fear and little to hope, 

 knowing that he will get out at a certain time in any case, and he is un- 

 likely to do much more than merely observe the rules. 



You may ask whether the parole system, under which the governor 

 may release promising prisoners before their sentence is out, does not 

 meet this need. The parole system is an excellent one so far as it goes, 

 but it does not go far. Its main deficiency is that it gives no hold upon 

 short-term prisoners. About two-thirds of the men sent to Ionia are 

 committed for terms of two years or less, and, knowing that they are apt 

 to get out so soon, have little hope from parole. Under indeterminate 

 sentence they might be held for at least five years, if their progress was 

 not satisfactory, and many of them for longer. 



But are these young men capable of reformation? I can only say that 

 it is the almost unanimous opinion of men of experience in prison 

 work, that most of them are. At Ionia, for instance, four-fifths of those 

 sentenced are under thirty. No very careful study of their previous his- 

 tory is made in this State; but where such a study is made it indicates 

 that bad training is the main cause of criminality. At Elmira, N. Y., 

 only fifteen per cent of those committed come from good homes, thirty- 

 seven per cent, from those that are fair only, and forty-eight per cent 

 from those that are bad. 



I will now speak briefly of some of the commoner objections to indeter- 

 minate sentence. 



It is said, first, that the worst prisoners are often the best behaved, 



