That the indeterminate sentence furnishes a powerful motive for reformation is shown daily in this institution. You have only to watch the student over his books, or mechanic over his tools to see the effort that is being made to win that golden prize--a parole. How that motive is undermined or taken away entirely when the sentence is definite is readily perceived by taking a cursory glance over the records of men sentenced here for a definite period. The greatest percentage of them are careless, insolent, and furnish most of the class that goes to form the nucleus of the lower or convict grades. Why? Because there is nothing to work for. No parole can be gained by attention to duty. Time, and time alone, counts for this class. Only to pass time and get to the end of the sentence, that is all. No one can make a study of, or even look about him and compare the records made by definite and indefinitely sentenced men, without becoming a warm advocate of the indeterminate sentence. The longer the maximum sentence of the man sent here, the greater is his effort to travel along the straight and narrow path, picking up such advantages as offer him through his stay in this institution. The longer the maximum the stronger the motive, the smaller the maximum, the smaller effort to earn a release. For example, men sent here with two or two and a half years as the limit of their maximums, on an average, remain here longer than those with a five, ten or twenty years maximum hanging over them. The reason is obvious--the motive is strengthened or weakened according as the sentence is lengthened or shortened. The deterrent value of the absolutely indeterminate sentence would be enormous. Not a question of a few months or years would the criminal have to face; but a period which would not terminate until he either reformed or died. As we have seen it gives a tremendous stimulus to reform, and it would likewise give a powerful check to criminal tendencies. Thus it relieves the Judge of an impossible task, is most satisfactory to society, and most humane to the culprit. It may be urged that since liberation would depend in a measure upon proficiency in the trade-school and school of letters, that some criminals whose criminality might be of a lesser degree, would be at a greater disadvantage than others. That is not so. The system is obviously a very complicated one, and only the bare outlines are being given here. In operation it is absolutely fair, neither is any inducement offered to commit crime for the benefits which the trade-school confers. The managers know no such defect in their system or otherwise they would report it. They have a free hand in the employment of their methods, they are continually experimenting, and they owe no devotion to "red tape."