PRINCIPLES OF REFORM IN PENAL LAW 255 



merits. The fundamental principle of any reform must lie in 

 doing away entirely with the conception of a scale of desert 

 among offenses, and in sul)stituting for it harmonious and 

 consistent methods of dealing with each criminal, as the inter- 

 ests of society demand. Instead of undertaking the impossi- 

 ble task of inflicting just punishment for past acts, the law 

 must seek to insure the avoidance of unsocial acts in the future. 

 Thoughtful minds have been profoundly stirred in recent 

 years by the obvious failure of our penal laws to suppress or 

 diminish crime. Some of the causes of this failure are obvious, 

 and efforts have been made in many jurisdictions to remove 

 these by special laws or detailed amendments to existing codes. 

 But these efforts have been largely fitful and experimental, not 

 being founded upon any comprehensive principle inspiring the 

 entire policy of the state. Among the obvious abuses of penal 

 administration to which attention has been widely directed, 

 the most conspicuous is the prevalent system of county jails. 

 In the local prisons, for the detention of minor offenders and 

 persons awaiting trial, the amelioration of conditions durmg 

 the last century has been less marked than in any other public 

 institutions known to our civiHzation. In 1827 the Reverend 

 Sydney Smith \^Tote: "There are in every county in England 

 large public schools, maintained at the expense of the county, 

 for the encouragement of profligacy and vice and for providing 

 for a proper succession of house breakers, profligates and 

 thieves. They are schools, too, conducted without the slightest 

 degree of partiality and favor, there being no man (however 

 mean his birth or obscure his situation) who may not easily 

 procure admission to them. The moment any yoimg person 

 evidences the slightest propensity for these pursuits, he is pro- 

 vided with good clothing and lodging and put to his studies 

 under the most accomplished thieves and cut-throats the 

 county can supply." These conditions have been largely 

 changed in England, but they prevail to a surprising extent 

 to-day in a majority of our states. It is a very general practice 

 to pay the sheriffs or other officers in charge of the jails by a 

 daily allowance for each prisoner, nominally for his support, 

 but large enough to insure a substanial profit, so that the 

 absolute master of the unfortunate inmates for the time being 



