Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 73 
We have therefore to deduct from the increased cost per 
capita each year, the shorter sentence served and the 
lessened probability of a second term. Upon this point 
Mr. Brockway writes in the annual report of the Prison 
Association of New York for 1902: ‘“Hconomy is further 
shown by the operation of the indeterminate sentence 
with parole plan at Elmira during twenty years. A 
comparison of the saving of time in prison for 5,120 pris- 
oners paroled, compared with what must have been, had 
the prisoners been under a determinate sentence, taking 
the minimum of sentences to the state prison for the 
similar offence as the basis of comparison, shows 10,112 
years of inprisonment saved, and a saving of mainte- 
nance cost of $1,395,456. If there should be computed 
and added the earnings of the paroled prisoners while on 
parole, a total economical benefit is shown of $2,362,683. 
Again, the average age of prisoners at time of con- 
‘ viction in the State is given as 28 years, 10 months and 
11 days. They are at an age at which they are especially 
amenable to reformatory influence. The conditions in 
Iowa in this respect simply correspond with those in 
other states. Of the prisoners received in the penal 
institutions of the state during the years from 1891 to 
1901 upwards of fifty per cent. have been unskilled. They 
are thus most likely to be benefited by the industrial 
training that a reformatory would give to them. 
The chief arguments, then, that I have brought for- 
ward in favor of a reformatory in Iowa are, (1) the sys- 
tem has been successfully tried in a number of other 
states, (2) even from the point of expense it is not clear 
but that gains in the shortening of terms and the preven- 
tion of return for additional terms may balance the 
increased immediate cost, (3) the age of the prisoners and 
their industrial condition make the outcome of reform- 
atory treatment particularly promising. 
In conclusion, I wish to quote a few words from 
Superintendent Scott of the Massachusetts Reformatory 
for Men. He says: “You are bound to make the prison 
for your neighbor’s son what you would reasonably want 
it to be if you could imagine that your own son was 
sentenced there. You would demand for your own son, 
under such conditions, that his health should be guarded; 
