Our present methods have not prevented the growth of the habitual offender, and they have not been designed to help those who have gone wrong to reform. The great defect in all our systems is that they are not based on a recognition of social conditions as they exist. Most men can and do behave under supervision, and that supervision in many cases could be made as effective outside an institution as inside one. Men prefer a greater to a lesser degree of liberty. At present they have more than one choice. They may conform to our laws and go free; or they may break our laws in the knowledge that if they are caught, on payment of a penalty either in money or in time, they may resume their wrongdoing once more. The habitual offender continues to offend because he prefers to risk imprisonment and live in his own way rather than accept the humdrum, peaceful life of his law-abiding neighbour. When he finds that there is no question of pay in the matter, but that he is simply offered the choice of good behaviour outside of prison, or incarceration within a prison, he will begin to review his position. There is only one principle in penology that is worth any consideration; it is to find out why a man does wrong, and make it not worth his while. There is nothing to be gained by assuming that individual peculiarities may be disregarded, and there is everything to be lost thereby. If we would make the best of him we should restrict the liberty of the offender as little as possible consistent with the well-being of the community, and enlarge it gradually as reason is shown for doing so. We cannot injure him without injuring ourselves, and we ought to set about to make the best rather than the worst of him. THE END INDEX INDEX A Adolescence, 131 Adoption, 304 Agents for the poor, 204 Alien, criminal, 100 -- immigrant, 98 Ancestors, difficulty of tracing, 19 Apprenticeship in institutions, 297-300 Assistance to parents, 120, 125, 307 Averages, 15 B Blind alley occupations, 130 Boarding out of children, 334 Boarding out or boarding in, 336 Boys' amusements, 121-30 Boys and adventure, 126 Boys and theft, 124 Boy labour, 130 Boy, rebellious, 118 Boy recreation, 128 Boy Scouts, 128 Boy trader, 133 Boy, truant, 119 C Cases, illustrative, 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 42, 54, 59, 71, 74, 77, 80, 81, 92, 104, 118, 119, 143, 144, 145, 146, 151, 152, 155, 201, 254 Cells, police, 195 Cells, prison, 222 Cells, punishment, 233 Centralisation of prison management, 210 Chaplains, prison, 218, 233 Charity, 268 Chastity and general conduct, 158 Children's courts, 122, 125 Children, cruelty to, 56 Churches and the immigrant, 97 Civil prisoners, 254 Civil servants, ability of, 214 Compulsory feeding in prison, 245 Concealment of pregnancy, 155-7 Conduct, loose, in some districts, 157 Confinement, solitary, 229-31, 337