In the reformatory, we may endeavour to effect an improvement, and may hope that we have done so; but it is impossible to be certain that this end has been attained. While the child remains in the institution, no one can tell if it has acquired the power of overcoming the difficulties of the life of freedom. It is the period immediately following the discharge from the reformatory which is the most dangerous to the child. It is upon this period, above all, that it depends whether the child will be successful in gaining a proper place in society. For this reason, it is of fundamental importance to find work for all those who are discharged from a reformatory; indeed, they should only leave the reformatory to enter an assured position. Every care must be taken, in seeking employment for those about to be discharged, that we are not increasing the general difficulty in obtaining work by overstocking the labour market. In the reformatories of the United States, the difficulties of the transition period are met by releasing the inmates on probation only, for a time during which they are not only supported, but carefully supervised. In the criminal law of European countries, the period of punishment is at an end when the specified term of sentence has expired. No such determinate sentence exists in the case of American reformatories, for the maximum term of sentence usually extends far beyond the end of the period of probationary release. What is requisite is, that the definitive discharge from supervision and control should only take place when the conduct during the term of probationary release has been satisfactory, and when the duties imposed have been faithfully performed. The child released on probation must behave well, work diligently, and punctually and at regular intervals report itself at the reformatory. Until the end of the probationary period, it remains under the supervision and care of the institution; the conditional release may at any time be revoked; and the final discharge is not effected until the child has given satisfactory proof of its fitness for a free life. The child released on probation generally behaves very well, for it fully understands that any misconduct would entail serious consequences, that it would lose in a moment all that it has hitherto gained, that it would have to return to the institution, and begin once more at the beginning the struggle to secure its freedom.