The bill providing for the payment of wages to convicts provides that the Board of Corrections may allow a prisoner not less than $.10 nor more than $.25 each day for work done, over and above the day’s task as assigned. This money is to be sent to the family of the prisoner, which is dependent upon him for their care and keep. If the prisoner have no family, the money can accumulate until the expiration of the prisoner’s term and is then given to him. He may draw at any time from such fund for his personal needs so long as he does not use it improperly. This law does not fulfill its purpose. Its weakness is that in the average prison, a convict is assigned about all the work he can do and has but little time for extra work, owing to his physical condition. A better plan proposed would be for the State to allow to the prisoner a specified sum for each day at work, or for the county from which the prisoner comes to pay the family a certain monthly sum, paying such sum as may be agreed upon by the county commissioners. By the old method, the Board allowed them $.033 per day. For certain offenses the prisoners are fined and the fine is paid from this fund. The payment of a wage or the providing of some plan of caring for the needy families is a growing question, and so far Kansas has found no satisfactory method, but this question will probably be taken up by the next Legislature. Another law passed was that permitting the county commissioners, in counties having over 35,000 population, to appoint a matron for the county jails. This has often been done, but was never legally authorized until the last Legislature. Taking the Kansas laws as a whole, they seem to be adequate to meet the present prison conditions. The State law places all these institutions under the Board who have exclusive control in their management and in adopting of rules and regulations necessary to their government. The only question is the proper method of dealing with the families of the convicts. There has been little complaint regarding the treatment of the prisoners and there will be but few changes in the laws until some demand is made. BOOK REVIEW _Manual for Probation Officers in New York State. State Probation Commission._ Albany 1913, J. B. Lyon Co. Free.