Three years later the principles of Prison treatment, as prescribed by law for all Prisons, Local and Convict, were made the subject of a fierce indictment in the public press. Criticism was directed, not only against the principles of administration, but even against the _personnel_ of the administering authority. An inquiry, which was ordered by the Secretary of State, had reference mainly to the administration of Local Prisons which had been taken over by the Government in 1877, and were administered by a Board of Commissioners, distinct from the body of Directors, but it also called in question the principle of a long period of separate confinement which had for many years been the preliminary stage of a sentence of Penal Servitude. It also considered the question of offences committed by Habitual Criminals, whether in Local or in Convict Prisons, and offered the opinion that a new form of sentence should be placed at the disposal of Judges, by which such offenders might be segregated for long periods of detention under conditions differing from those either of Imprisonment or Penal Servitude. The changes that have taken place in the Penal Servitude System since that date have been far-reaching and important. 1. The Progressive Stage System has been recast with the object of increasing the inducements to good conduct and industry in each Stage, and to bring the benefits of the System within the reach of the great majority of convicts who, by the shorter sentence of three years, under the operation of the Act of 1891, were excluded from them. At this time no convict whose sentence was less than six years, and who, after deducting one-fourth remission of sentence allowed to all convicts, _was not more than four years in Prison_, could fully profit by the System, and thus two-thirds of the convict population were not in Prison for a sufficiently long time to be really subject to the benefits which the Stage System offers. Only one-fourth just got beyond the Second Stage, while one-third did not reach the Fourth Stage, and none of these could reach the "Special" Class, which, with the privileges it entails, may be regarded as the principal reward which the Penal Servitude System affords. A convict in this Class earns a special remission of one week and extra gratuity, wears a special dress, and is eligible for special employment in positions of trust. The wisdom and value of the system consists in its adaptation to each period of sentence, so that it may be within the reach of each convict who works hard and behaves well to gain privileges.