Yet under such conditions as these we detain hundreds of thousands of persons:--The vagrant, the drunkard, the witness, the runaway boy, the first offender, the hardened criminal, the man awaiting trial, the convicted law-breaker. What can we expect but that they will degenerate in body, mind and morals? Even where work is provided, as is done in some larger jails and workhouses, it is under the old contract system, which we should like to see abolished. In some States misdemeanants are employed on the public highways. However successful this may be in some parts of the country, it would probably not be in conformity with the public sense in the more thickly settled communities, or practicable to any great extent in the more northern latitudes. The whole question of the apprehension, treatment and release of the misdemeanant is of tremendous importance. While prison reforms are coming with surprising rapidity, they have been confined largely to the felon. The misdemeanant has been neglected. In the first place, what are the qualifications of the average policeman? Ordinarily he is without training or experience. His politics have usually had more to do with his appointment than any other consideration. What part can such a policeman play in an enlightened system of penology? In a number of States the constitution proclaims that the penal code shall be founded on principles of reformation and not of vindictive justice. How far has that been interpreted in the statute laws? The provision of most of our State constitutions that justice shall be administered “speedily and without delay” is wholly forgotten. We generally think that the day of imprisonment for debt is past. Yet many jail prisoners are held for debt--the fine assessed against them. The man of means pays his fine and goes free; the man without money suffers imprisonment under conditions which menace health and morals. It frequently becomes necessary for his family to ask for help; sometimes he loses his job. If he becomes embittered, or vindictive, need we wonder at it? The picture is not all dark. Here and there light is breaking through. We are coming to understand that the policeman can be a social agent, a next friend, an instructor in obedience to the law. We are beginning to regard as the best officer the one who makes the fewest, not the most arrests. In some cities women are being added to the police force, and there are police matrons, and jail matrons, and even women judges.