“Sing Sing Prison has long been a disgrace to the State, but this fact was never so familiar to the people as it has been during the past few months. The Superintendent of Prisons appears, however, to think the present an auspicious moment for placing in charge of the prison a man whose only recommendation for the post, so far as known to the public, is that he has been successful in the plumbing business, and that he is one of the mainstays of the Westchester County Democratic machine. In the face of things like this, the men and women who are laboring to get our penal institutions properly conducted have need of all the faith and resolution they can command to keep on in their endeavor. But they _will_ keep on, and the time will come when the idea of appointing the warden of a great prison for any other reason than his special fitness to conduct it wisely and well will seem too monstrous for belief. We must not forget the encouragement there is in the fact that, bad as these things are now, we have got beyond the utter shamelessness which was so often shown in former times.” * * * * * _The New York Commission on Prison Reform_--The New York State Commission on Prison Reform which was appointed by Sulzer a year ago has just filed the preliminary report of its findings. The commission of which Thomas Mott Osborne is chairman was authorized to examine and investigate the management and affairs of the several State prisons and reformatories, the prison industries, employment of convict labor and all subjects relating to the proper maintenance and control of the State prisons of the State. The Commission has made careful study of these several matters and the report which has been released contains many interesting and valuable suggestions. The abolition of the ill-famed Sing Sing prison is recommended and the erection on its site of a receiving station for the observance and study of all persons sentenced to imprisonment in a State prison for medical examination and treatment of those afflicted with diseases and for weeding out those found to be mentally defective--the latter to be sent to separate institutions devoted solely to the care of the mentally defective. The indeterminate sentence is a further recommendation of the Commission, which urges that the penal law of the State be so amended as to make it incumbent on all judges sentencing prisoners to confinement in a State prison to impose sentences without either maximum or minimum limit; while for the purpose of investigating all applications for pardon and parole it is suggested that local advisory boards of pardon and parole be instituted in connection with each prison and reformatory of the State.