Prisons

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Prisons

improvement in prisons took place in Eng-
land after the change, of law, in 1878, which
placed all prisoners under state control and
made prison administration uniform through-
out Great Britain. The State of New York
built a prison at Auburn in 1816, and the
following year Pennsylvania built one at
Philadelphia. These two prisons were destined
to give their names to the systems known
everywhere as the Auburn and Pennsylvania
systems. The Auburn system worked the
convicts in community by day and separated
them at night, silence being observed. The
Pennsylvania system gave to each man a

Albany County Penitentiary. Louis D. Pils-
bury, the son of Amos, was superintendent
of State prisons in New York for many
years. It is said of these three generations
of prison reformers that they were 'rated
as the best prison keepers in the world.'
Associated with these men at Wethersfield
and at Albany was Z. R. Brockway, who
afterward made a business success of the in-
dustries of short-term prisoners. The reform-
atory at Elmira, known throughout the
world for its excellent discipline, was estab-
lished in 1876, and Mr. Brockway for a
quarter of a century was at the head of it.

State Prison, A ufntrn, N. Y.

separate ceil, with his own exorcise yard and
work in his cell. Within recent years prisons
have been improved in construction as well
as in administration, and in the principles
on which they arc conducted, the result of
general advance in science and humanity.
The countries which lead in this respect are
Great Britain, France, and the United States.
In the United States the pioneer prison
reformer was Moses C. Pilsbury. He initi-
ated reform in discipline and made a finan-
cial success of prison industries. Later his
son Amos inaugurated a similar industrial
system for short-sentence prisoners in the

The law establishing the so-called indeter-
minate sentence was passed in New York in
1877, ami it lies at the foundation of the
Klmira system, the third American prison
system. Since the foundation of the Elmira
Reformatory numerous reformatory prisons
have been organized in the United States,
while the majority of States have adopted
an essential reformatory feature—release on
parole. The system of putting accused per-
sons on probation, instead of sending them
to prison, has been adopted in many places
with excellent results where there are wisely
selected probation officers to keep track of