:206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN" INSTITUTE. 



PRISON EEFORM. 



By a. M. Rosebrugh, M. D, 



[Abstract of a paper read before the Canadian Institute, 1889]. 



The claim that ])rison reform had its origin in the bosom of the 

 church is not an idle claim. Poi^e Clement XI., in 1703, wrote 

 over the door of the Roman prison of St..Michele : Parum est impro- 

 hos coercere pcend, nisi probos efficias disciplind* But prison reform 

 has been a plant of slow growth, and it was not until long after the 

 death of John Howard, the prison philanthropist, that prison reform 

 took practical shape. Howard was the means of inaugurating a more 

 humane treatment of prisoners, but the principle enunciated by 

 Clement XI., is not even yet fully recognized. Penologists believe 

 that while incorrigible criminals should be permanently incarcerated, 

 the corrigible ones should be reformed by discipline, by labour, secular 

 and religious instruction, etc., and that short of this our penal insti- 

 tutions are a failui-e — crime is not diminished, and society is not 

 protected. 



Among the means that have been found to be of most service in 

 effecting the reformation of pi-isoners, the following are considered 

 the most important, namely — Classification, Industrial Employment, 

 Indeterminate Sentences, Conditional Liberation, Secular and Reli- 

 gious Education, and Prisoners' Aid Societies. 



1. Classification. — The most important requirement in the refor- 

 mation of prisoners is classification. Very little can be accomplished 

 in the reformation of prisoners while old offenders are allowed to 

 associate with other prisoners. There is but one remedy and that is 

 the absolute separation of the prisoners, so that no prisoner shall 

 come in contact with any other prisoner. No half measures will 

 suffice ; no gi'ouping into classes is of any avail ; the choice must be 

 laetween separation and contamination. 



As about I of all prisoners, on an average, are kept in county jails, 



^ It is useless to imprison criminals unless you reform them by disci]iline. 



