1 62 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY, 



may be capable of great physical efforts for spasmodic periods, but 

 he is not a well developed being either physically or mentally.f 

 Hence his reform must frequently begin with physical discipline and 

 this followed by mental training, or the two must be carried on to- 

 gether. In the Kansas penitentiary the law requires prisoners to 

 work ten hours at labor. Consequently they have left, for study and 

 general improvement, their evenings and Sundays. There is a school 

 on Sunday for all who wish to attend. This is a very meagre showing 

 for any systematic training with a view to permanent reform. It 

 would seem that eight hours of labor per day is sufficient for able- 

 bodied persons if any intellectual improvement is expected of them. 

 In many instances it would be more profitable to spend even less time 

 in routine labor and give better opportunity for mental discipline and 

 general physical culture. Mental discipline brings a reform of intel- 

 ligence, of knowledge and of judgment which are supremely necessary 

 in the care of persons criminally disposed and in the prevention 

 of crime. In this respect a careful classification of the inmates of 

 every prison should be had, whatever be the system adopted, and each 

 individual should have a treatment that best suits his case. Men are 

 not reformed in groups and companies but by special influences 

 brought to bear upon the individual. The Elmira reformatory has 

 been a living application of this theory. This institution has been 

 taken as a model not only for America but for the whole world, and at 

 present represents the most successful institution for the reform of 

 young criminals yet established. It makes no distinction between the 

 prisoners within and the people without any further than is necessary 

 on account of the difference in conditions. 



When prisoners enter the Elmira reformatory they are given grade 

 two with the possibility of their falling to grade three or rising to 

 grade one. Each grade is clothed differently from the others, and in 

 that respect a discrimination in clothing is shown between the differ- 

 ent groups or prisoners within the prison rather than between those 

 within and the people without. All attempts are here made possible 

 to make men dwell upon the better tjjings of life, to turn their whole 

 attention to the development of what manhood is still within them, 

 and thus transform the criminal into independent and self-asserting 

 manhood. 



But classification should not stop here. According to our princi- 

 ple each individual should be treated according to the character of 

 his crime and the condition of his criminality, indeed, according to 

 his own character. Sweeping laws which pass upon a great mass of 



+ Criminology, McDonald, pp. S646. 



