"
It is very significant that the criminal class adapted itself readily to
the parole system with its sliding scale. It was natural that this
should be so, for it fits in perfectly well with their scheme of life.
This is to them a sort of business career, interrupted now and then only
by occasional limited periods of seclusion. Any device that shall
shorten those periods is welcome to them. As a matter of fact, we see in
the State prisons that the men most likely to shorten their time by good
behavior, and to get released on parole before the expiration of their
sentence, are the men who make crime their career. They accept this
discipline as a part of their lot in life, and it does not interfere with
their business any more than the occasional bankruptcy of a merchant
interferes with his pursuits.
No tribunal is able with justice to mete out punishment in any individual
case, for probably the same degree of guilt does not attach to two men in
the violation of the same statute.
It is purely an economic and educational problem, and must rest upon the
same principles that govern in any successful industry, or in education,
and that we recognize in the conduct of life. That little progress has
been made is due to public indifference to a vital question and to the
action of sentimentalists, who, in their philanthropic zeal; fancy that a
radical reform can come without radical discipline.
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