The prisons of the future will be vastly smaller than the larger ones of the present time. Not alone because of the fact that better results can be achieved by the penologist who is at the head of the institution where fewer men are confined, but also because of the added reason that various other institutions will be in vogue to care for many unfortunates (not criminals) who are now sent to our penitentiaries. The feeble-minded class in our prisons in the United States is said to number between 25,000 and 35,000 individuals, or about one-fourth of the prison population. These will be cared for in other institutions than prisons, confinement in which is a greater crime upon the part of society towards these poor unfortunates than were the offenses for commission of which these feebleminded individuals were sent to prison. According to the general statistics, the farm for epileptics in Michigan should care for about 200 persons now confined in the prisons of this state. The wider extension of the system of probation will save thousands of men from a prison experience, thereby protecting the taxpayer and reclaiming the individual himself, the latter occurring in between 75 and 85 per cent. of the cases. This saving to taxpayers is most evident to-day, for were the two recorders of Wayne county to bring to court and sentence those who now enjoy a probationary relation to their courts, there would not be empty cells enough in our State penal institutions to receive them. It is much better to build up homes than to erect more prisons. Undoubtedly the physician, the surgeon, the alienist and the psychologist will serve as greater factors to relieve our crime problem than in the past. It is well known that a nervous condition occasioned by affections of the eyes, nose and ears has played a large part in the delinquency of boys and girls, of young men and young women. The splendid results achieved in Chicago and in Rahway, N. J., as well as in other localities, have already warranted a great deal more of investigation and effort along the same lines. The prison of the future will be located miles away from the city, upon a tract of sufficient acreage to insure outdoor employment for a large number of men during the larger portion of the year. Work under such conditions will not only be more lucrative for the State, but, better still, the means of building up physically and mentally, as well as morally, these wards of the commonwealth. The warden of our prison at Jackson already is planning to divide some of the acreage into small tracts to be “gardened” by “trusties”; a record being kept of the cost of care and seeding of these little farms, as well as the value of the products thereof, thus encouraging a healthy rivalry among those responsible for these sections of the prison farm. How much this will accrue to the benefit of the men will be best understood by those who have worked among paroled or discharged prisoners.