When the New York State established a Reformatory at Elmira, Mr Brockway was placed in charge and given practically a free hand in the adoption of such methods as he deemed most likely to effect the permanent reform of the men committed to imprisonment there. A restriction was placed upon the age of the offenders who should be admitted, the law reading thus:--"A male between the ages of 16 and 30, convicted of felony, who has not heretofore been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment in a State prison, may, in the discretion of the trial court, be sentenced to imprisonment in the New York State Reformatory at Elmira, to be there confined under the provisions of the law relating to that reformatory" (vide section 700 Penal Code). This by no means implies that all the inmates are first offenders. Many of them have been in juvenile reformatories, penitentiaries, and houses of correction, so that in some cases a considerable advance in the career of crime has been made before they are handed over to the authorities at Elmira. Again, only felons are received, not minor offenders. The principles upon which the reformatory system is based are practically those set forth in the declaration of the National Prison Congress held in Cincinnati in 1870 as follows:-- 1. Punishment is defined to be "suffering inflicted upon the individual for the wrong done by him, with a special view of securing his reformation." 2. "The supreme aim of prison discipline is THE REFORMATION OF CRIMINALS, not the infliction of VINDICTIVE suffering." 3. "The progressive classification of prisoners based on character, and worked on some well adjusted mark system, should be established in all prisons above the common gaol." 4. "Since hope is a more potent agent than fear, it should be made an ever present force in the minds of the prisoners, by a well devised and skilfully applied system of rewards for good conduct, industry, attention to learning. Rewards, more than penalties, are essential to every good prison system." 5. "The prisoner's destiny should be placed, measurably, in his own hands; he must be put into circumstances where he will be able, through his own exertions, to continually better his own conditions. A regulated self-interest must be brought into play and made constantly operative." 6. "Peremptory sentences ought to be replaced by those of indeterminate length. Sentences limited only by a satisfactory proof of reformation should be substituted for those measured by mere lapse of time." The old system of penology may be described as "so much suffering inflicted for so much wrong done and with the object of expiating that wrong."